Wood You Believe it’s Been 5 Years?!

These are the words carved into one side of the hammer I bought my husband to celebrate our wedding anniversary, a gift he opened in the location I’d managed to keep as a surprise for both our anniversary and also his 70th birthday.

I’m delighted to say he had absolutely no idea where we were headed even after we’d turned left towards Wales after we’d driven north from our home for a couple of hours. We were heading towards Portmeirion or, as Chris and millions of other fans of the cult 1960s series, The Prisoner know it, ‘The Village’. 

He has always been a fan of the TV series starring Patrick McGoohan as number 6 and was more than a little miffed when I got to film at Portmeirion on location in the late summer of 1980 – I’ll tell you more about that later. I’d been wracking my brain trying to come up with something memorable for him to mark such a BIG birthday, but that would also allow us to get back in the afternoon to celebrate with our family. All boxes ticked apart from decent weather, over which I had no control!

We arrived at Portmeirion around tea-time on the day before our 5^th wedding anniversary and the weather was quite bright, although they’d clearly had some rain earlier in the day. This was the view from our room located right in the heart of The Village. 

Our anniversary weather was somewhat different from our wedding on the beach in Mauritius, although I think we had a rain shower on that day too.

For those that aren’t au fait with the different wedding anniversaries, the fifth one is represented by wood – hence the hammer engraved with the title of this blog.

It had this different message on the other side of the handle, and I thought it was perfect for Chris as he’s always doing a bit of DIY. His gift was thoughtful too – long matches in a box decorated with hearts for me to light all my scented candles.

Our son and daughter bought us this Jenga set with some of the bricks embossed with special messages, including our initials and the date of our wedding… so thoughtful, particularly as we love a bit of Jenga.

Anyway, back to the weather. The forecast was rain, so we decided to get in the car and explore. Neither of us have ever been to Anglesey, so we headed there first. From what I could see of Red Wharf Bay through the rain sheeting against our windscreen it looked beautiful, but it was far too wet for a walk on the beach. We decided instead to explore Caernarfon and the castle which we had seen signs for on our journey. It was still pouring with rain and very blustery, but we were determined not to let the weather defeat us. 

We’d only walked a couple of hundred yards when we were stopped by an elderly lady who asked us if we were locals. She was on a coach tour and had become separated from the rest of her party and couldn’t remember where the coach would be waiting. She had no mobile phone and no contact number for the tour operator.

Well, we couldn’t just leave her in the pouring rain particularly as the coach was due to leave in ten minutes and she was understandably quite anxious. Chris and I went in search of the coach, circling the castle but to no avail. We then asked her where she was staying and it transpired she was in a hotel in Criccieth, about a ten minute drive from Portmeirion. She was ninety-one and cold and wet, so we offered to drive her back to her hotel which she readily accepted as long as we would let her pay for petrol… that was never going to happen! With the benefit of hindsight, she was very trusting getting into a car with two complete strangers.

We set off and as we were trying to find our way out of Caernarfon, I spotted a coach parked up with the driver clearly looking for someone – what a slice of luck. I pulled the car in front of the coach and Chris hopped on board and announced to a round of applause, ‘We’ve found Joan!’ I don’t know who was more relieved, us or the coach driver, but all’s well that ends well.

We had a lovely table with a view over the estuary for our anniversary dinner and of course we raised a glass to ‘us’. We’re five years married, but forty-six and a half years together.

The next morning was still a bit dodgy weather-wise, but the sheep grazing on The Village lawns put a smile on our faces as we walked to breakfast in the main hotel.

Then we drove to Barmouth where it stayed dry long enough for us to have a walk on the beach and a pub lunch before heading back to explore The Village in more detail and indulge in a bit of retail therapy. 

It really is a fascinating place where building first began almost a hundred years ago. 

There is a shop dedicated to The Prisoner located in the building that they used for the exterior shots of Number 6’s cottage. 

I bought Chris a Prisoner T shirt and a book about  the history of Portmeirion and we also treated ourselves to a salad bowl and servers from the Sophie Conran for Portmeirion range and a more traditional viola design storage jar.

Our last full day there was beautifully sunny, so we walked to the beach where I had filmed in 1980 for the last ever episode of Citizen Smith. My credit in the Radio Times magazine was, Girl on the Beach – Julia Gaye. Gaye is my middle name, but I originally used it as my surname when I first started in ‘show business’ because I thought it sounded more theatrical – tell that to the Hollywood actress!! 

I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I think these are the actual steps leading down to the beach where Wolfie played by Robert Lindsay carried the ice creams before ‘accidentally’ dropping one on my back.

It was a good twenty-minute walk from the hotel to that part of the beach which was just as well really as we indulged in this cream tea as a late lunch. 

We walked back to our virtually deserted stretch of beach not only to enjoy another couple of hours in the sun but also to work off some calories.

The Friday was actually Chris’s birthday, so it was breakfast followed by a five-hour drive to get back to our house to celebrate with the family and our friends, Denise and Steve.

I’d bought all the 70 balloons, banners, table confetti, serviettes and candles, but it was left in the hands of our son and daughter and their respective families to ‘decorate’. They did a great job even putting a banner and bunting on the front door which Chris wasn’t best pleased about.

He did however love the cake I’d had made for him by the lady who makes my book launch cakes. How gorgeous is this photo of my husband aged around five?

Weirdly, you can definitely see it is him even sixty-five years later. The cake was a triumph as usual, and it was lovely to spend his ‘special’ day with people we love.

So, a fairly eventful and busy end of August and September has continued in a similar vein. September 4^thmarked thirty-one years since my first day at QVC and Chris bought me these beautiful sunflowers as he knows I love them.

And if you’re wondering about the framed artwork in front of the flowers, that was done by our fifteen-month-old granddaughter who we will now be caring for every other Monday while both her parents are working. Maybe she is destined to be the next Van Gogh… if you get the connection!

Amongst all these celebrations and my day job at QVC I’m now thousands of words into the first draft of my next novel AND we got the blue bedroom finished – I think the colour is gorgeous.

I really must finish this and get back to my manuscript but not before I set the next competition, this time to be in with a chance of winning a bar of ‘The Prisoner’ chocolate and a signed copy of ‘The Woman on the Beach’ (a loose tie-in with my Citizen Smith role).

The question is:

In which country of the UK is Portmeirion located?

a)        England

b)        Northern Ireland

c)        Wales

d)        Scotland

Leave your answer in a comment below before midnight on September 30^th and the winner will be notified via email on October 1^st – why does that date ring a bell with me, I wonder?

Congratulations to Rosie who was the winner of the August competition and also to Norma who was the re-drawn winner of the ruby red sea glass pendant from the July blog (re-drawn as per the Ts & Cs).

One final thing to mention. We have now enjoyed lots of ripe tomatoes and as you can see the runner beans are still going strong.

More news on the imminent release of the audiobooks of my Liberty Sands trilogy on my next blog but I promise it isn’t long to wait now.

Until next time,

Much love 

Julia xx