A huge first day – thankfully I had no jet lag as I had two major adventures and 3 hours of driving.(this was a very ambitious thing for me to do!)

BTW the second spread which includes the photo was done today in Volume 5 – my extra volume is for doing the pages that I didn’t have time for at the time. So ‘only’ 3 double page spread for my first real day! (sarcasm in this sentence!)

Straight off the plane after a 24 hour flight and pick up a car and drive for 2 hours for my first VERY EXCITING adventure. Meeting up with Gill from Journal Craft at the TOP tea place in the UK for 2009! Can you believe it? And amazingly neither of us went out of our way much to do this. To read about it happened check here.

A totally amazing way to start my big trip – it was all a bit overwhelming (in a good way) and although I wasn’t jet lagged I didn’t feel quite myself – so I struggled to talk non stop to an amazing flickr friend, eat a sensational scone, drink a delicate cup of tea AND sketch at the same time. This is what I managed.

Apart from the text and the green square I have refrained from touching the sketches. We could have talked for hours and hours but I still had a drive to Cardiff and wanted to do it before lunch in case I got really sleepy.

A page I did today of the front of the Bridge Tearoom and a quote from the Tea Guild website and description from the online menu! Plus I have stuck a photo in my book.

After arriving in Cardiff, chatting to my friends we then headed out to my first Welsh castle. Amazingly I was able to do this sketch standing up and half talking half listening to my friend! I wanted to do a sketch of the plan of this amazing castle… so just done one thanks to google maps and photos of signboards I took at the time.

Another extra page – I am hoping that I will be able to keep up with the few extra pages I want to do as I upload each day. I am stealing my own thunder a bit but I did realise on this trip that I can so quickly and easily sketch the plans of building from sign boards on location and it adds SO MUCH to my appreciation of the building / garden / place.