David and I haven’t had a “proper” holiday for a couple of years. We escaped for three days last year on our mini-honeymoon but prior to that we’d not been away at all since we went to Scotland in 2008. This wasn’t because we’d not wanted to go away, it was because of Archie. He was so poorly that he couldn’t get in and out of the car and he wouldn’t accept help so that hampered our plans to the point where we had no plans!

Anyway, when we were being grilled about holiday intentions when we got JD (Q: what will you do with your dogs while you go on holiday? A: Take them with us of course – a holiday’s not a holiday without your family there!) we realised that Archie’s loss meant we were now able to go away for a holiday.

I think I’ve said before that we have difficulty choosing where to go now we live in a place that we used to holiday in so this time we chose Snowdonia. Here is a shot of JD and Rosie on a hillside in a forest in Snowdonia with a mountain in the background.

This is the first day of our holiday and the sun is shining. It’s hot.

Behind the lens is me, David is a short way behind me and a bit further back are my folks – when they realised where we were going and that we had a cottage that would easily house all six of us (dogs, us and them) they asked us if they could sub-let a room so we’re all here in Snowdonia together.

Holidays in this part of the world don’t hold happy memories – I can clearly remember as a ten-year-old being bundled into the back of a car in the middle of the night in a sleeping bag while my parents, in total despair, packed away out tent that had been rained on so much that its ability to keep out water had given up long since and the river running under the tent had soaked everything we owned (or so it seemed). How much I hate camping because of episodes like this has been documented in these pages before.

That’s not to say I don’t love the Snowdonia National Park because I do. My family lived here when I was ten and we’d spend many of our weekends exploring these mountains and loving the drama of the place.

Getting here has been rocky – poor Archie had to come to the end of his road before we could set off on this journey. I don’t think either of us is quite over his loss yet. However, I’m glad to be in Wales and I’m glad to be here looking at this fantastic view.