Mr. Bloom's Birthday

Last Saturday was Mr. Bloom's birthday, so I took him out for the day - we went to Monmouth. This is a lovely historic town in the Wye Valley. An early start meant we had plenty of time to explore and relax.

We started with a fine breakfast here:

The town has two rivers running through it - this a view of the river Monmow (after which the town was named) which runs along one side of the town.

I thought I could see something in the river behind the trees so we walked down to the little bridge to investigate. I thought we had stumbled into the Wild West when I saw this herd of cows taking a communal bath in the river!



It was quite a warm day so I expect they were cooling themselves.

There's plenty of interest for those who don't care to shop - this is the military museum.

And the remains of Monmouth Castle.

For those who do like to shop, the town has a good selection of shops, this is Agincourt House which is a great junky style antique shops, packed from floor to ceiling, great for rummaging, plus there are several good independent gift/home shops.

This is Monmow Bridge -the only complete Medieval bridge of it's kind in Britain.

In the afternoon we drove along the Wye Valley and stopped at the Boat Inn for refreshments.

This is accessed on foot from the village of Redwood along this quaint iron bridge.

Lovely views from our spot in the garden.

A final stop on our way home at Tintern and the magnificent ruins of Tintern Abbey.

Now of course, no day out would be complete without a bit of thrifting (for me :-) and even though it was his birthday, Mr. Bloom was happy to allow me a bit of shopping time - there just happened to be a market that day plus several charity shops to investigate!

Cute bunny girl figurine

Rosebud china and ceramic knobs

Gorgeous and HUGE crocheted bedspread, someone must have spent months making this!

For more information about Monmouth you can visit their website here.