by Graham Muschialli
Wales is such a beautiful and varied country that it’s worth taking time to explore as many places as possible. Don’t just stick to the ‘honey-pot’ places that are widely known though; you’ll miss many of Wales’ wonderful little towns and villages if you do that. One such place is right in the north of Wales, surrounded by wooded hills. It is the delightful market town of Abergele, once a Roman trading post. It is situated by the banks of the river Gele (as its name suggests), which here flows parallel with the coast before joining the River Clwyd just as it approaches the Irish Sea. Abergele boasts a population of over 18,000 and is sadly often ignored in favour of its larger, better known neighbours of Rhyl, Prestatyn, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Conwy, but from the beachfront in Abergele’s northern suburb of Pensarn you can see the entire sweep of that dramatic bay that stretches along North Wales’ holiday coast. 

by Chris Havard
Funny things walls; they just stand around doing nothing much. We stare at them, we knock them down and then we often decorate them; but my goodness, how we decorate them. Early history has left us the wondrous legacy of wall paintings from ancient civilisations all over the world. We are all familiar with the paintings on the walls deep inside the pyramids, the cave drawings in France, and last year a piece of art was found in northern Syria that was dated to over 11,000 years old - but even that is not so old when you consider that the earliest cave drawings of lions, rhinos, bears and panthers have been dated at over 30,000 years. One can therefore safely assume that even early man wanted to decorate his walls. Today, not many of us take to painting our own walls. That is, apart from the toddler armed with a felt tip pen.

by Richard Cain
The Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans is probably best known as an open air museum showcasing over forty buildings relocated from their original sites to show Wales' rich cultural heritage. The site, to the west of Cardiff, is Wales' most popular tourist attraction, welcoming around 600,000 visitors a year and St Fagans has achieved a wealth of accolades since its opening in 1948. Less well known, however, are the gardens and grounds surrounding St Fagans Castle, the sixteenth century manor house which was generously donated to the people of Wales by the Earl of Plymouth in 1946. Once the sanctuary of the Earl and his family, who used the house as their summer home, the gardens are approached from the village via a pleached lime avenue and include a Rosery, Italian Garden and an elegant parterre with castle terraces overlooking the mediaeval fishponds.

by Geoff Brookes
When I asked about the tomb in the Cathedral no one seemed to know anything about it. Never really taken much notice of it I suppose; just one amongst many. In the graveyard the great and the good of Brecon were surrounded by the falling leaves of autumn. The children from the school, laughing their way along the path close by, were not much troubled by him at all. But there is something very affecting about the life and death of Charles Lumley, I think - something that troubles me. For he tumbled into darkness. Charles Lumley, VC - an early victim of post traumatic stress disorder. There are life-changing moments for all of us. The trick is recognising them, and many of us don't know they've happened until it is too late. Perhaps Charles did realise that nothing would ever be the same again. For Charles, life changed in a moment of bravado.