The National Tourism Awards for Wales are held every few years to showcase the very best the principality has to offer and to applaud the dedication and professionalism of those of us who, 12 months a year, offer you a warm welcome to Wales.

This year (the first time the awards have been held since we opened 3 years ago) Ffynnon has been selected as one of only four finalists in the ‘Best Place to Stay (serviced – small)’ category. Needless to say, we are absolutely over the moon, particularly as over 400 businesses entered the awards, representing the creme de la creme of tourism businesses across Wales

A panel of independent judges whittled down the entries for the final round, where experts in each category visited us and scored all those shortlisted to reach a final decision. We were fortunate to get through to this stage and are now looking forward to attending the awards’ ceremony on Thursday 21 October in Cardiff.

From a personal perspective, the awards will be doubly exciting as Debbie’s brother Gavin and his partner Christopher are up against us in the same category for their fabulous restaurant with rooms, the manorhaus in Ruthin. There will no doubt be some sibling rivalry on the night but at least there’s a 50% chance of the award being carried off by a Harris!

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Up until last week the weather in Wales has been fantastic…virtually nothing but sun for nearly 3 months! Of course, this meant that the grass was turning brown and all the plants were withering….but not any more. Whilst it has rained a lot in the past week or so which has meant no painting for me, it has brought Wales back to life. Yesterday we went to Arthog waterfalls about 7 miles from Dolgellau. This is a fantastic walk and within 3 or 4 minutes of the start there are beautiful cascades and waterfalls which, after the rain, have burst forth with gusto. It’s well worth an hour of anyone’s time at the moment!

Walking up past the waterfalls

The source of the falls

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Well, we’ve taken the plunge – we are now baking our own bread!

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Yesterday was another fantastically sunny day in Snowdonia. We had a few hours off before arrival time so we headed to Creggenan lakes for a walk. It’s such a beautiful place that we didn’t actually walk that far and instead sat on a hill looking at the view. And, of course, Jack went for a swim!

The view over the Mawddach Estuary to Barmouth bridge

Jack! Swimming as usual.

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Boiling the water for tea in a volcano kettle

Isaac helping to make the bread

Dinner on the go

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Well, what a fabulous day. Breakfast was over and the sun was shining. After a quick family conflab Isaac decided it would be a good day for geocaching up at Coed y Brenin.

The waterfalls at Coed-y-Brenin

Now, for those who have never heard of it, it is basically a high-tech treasure hunt but with no prize. There are thousands of caches located throughout the UK (4 of which are at Coed y Brenin) which are usually plastic, weatherproof boxes containing a record book of “explorers” and anything else others wish to leave behind for you to find. You are encouraged to take something from the cache but leave something different in it’s place. All you need for geocaching is a GPS unit and the co-ordinates of the caches. The units are widely available from any outdoor shop and a database of caches is available at www.geocaching.com.

Isaac & Debbie on the trail of one of the caches

We had a great afternoon exploring the forest and the best bit? – kids love it and don’t realise they are walking for miles! And after a great afternoon Geocaching we spent the evening Wild Food Foraging (but that’s another post)!

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Individual table

The new breakfast room

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The Pony Path on the way up Cader Idris

Llyn y Gader - still frozen

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