Visiting my daughter in Cardiff in The View from the Terrace

I am staying with my daughter in Cardiff. Her partner is away visiting his family in Spain. It couldn’t be more different here from my cottage in the country. She lives in a flat over a pharmacy in a busy district of Cardiff.

When I am at home I wake to the sound of birds singing. We are near a main road, so there is traffic noise but it is a little distance away on the other side of the railway at the bottom of the garden. Here it is right below the window. The police station and hospital are just up the road so patrol cars and ambulances frequently go tearing by.
But I am enjoying it, it is different but exciting. There is a restaurant opposite and you can watch the people having breakfast or coffee on the pavement in the sunshine. All kinds of people go by: young women with pushchairs and toddlers; Asian ladies looking cool and pretty in their flowing gowns; a young black man with dreadlocks. If I lived here I think I would have a chair in the window and sit watching them all, in fact there is a bit of flat roof space in front of the side window and I think I might sit out there, the folk over the road have a chair and table on their roof.

There is a little paved area at the back which belongs to the flat as the business downstairs doesn’t need it. The people next door have made a lawn and sit out there. My daughter has plans to make a flower bed.

Yesterday we took the dog to Roath Park, an amazing place a short distance away. It is huge. As well as an area of walks through flower gardens there are tennis and netball courts, a big children’s play area and a big lake with swans and geese which stretches up to a wild area of woodland. The dog loves it, she swims in the river and fetches her ball. We have to put her on her lead near the lake, though, as she tries to chase the birds, she is half Springer Spaniel after all.

The weather has suddenly turned really hot and I think I am going to have to scour the local charity shops and bargain stores for some cooler clothes. I only brought one skirt and that is denim. I wish I had a summer dress or one of my long flowing skirts, but it was quite mild when I came.

I wish we could go to the beach as it isn’t that far but we don’t have a car. I think I am going to look into public transport, can’t waste this beautiful weather.

Last updated August 09, 2015