The road (or train) to Shrewsbury

I'm starting to really enjoy this. I have to confess that after a couple of days, I really wasn't sure I was up to it. It felt an age since I'd been at home and I'd hardly made a dent in the distance I'd planned to travel. But now, after an unplanned visit to Shrewsbury and the mountain train journey it's taken me to get here, all I'm doing is looking ahead.

There aren't many things the the world more beautiful than the English countryside in summer (Natalie Portman being one of those things) and Wales in the sun is no different. The British countryside is a patchwork colourchart of green, and on those days mixed with sun and cloud, it's at its picturesque best. Where the sun highlights, the clouds shadow, and any painter capturing the essence of its infinite colours would be considered a genius; any photograph, a masterpiece. Sadly, my phone can't capture the extreme contrasts of the sky and land together, so most of my pictures show a gloom that is an utter disservice to how gorgeous a day it is.

Not that anyone I know would need to travel between Swansea and Shrewsbury, but it is a train journey I wholeheartedly recommend. It travels through the hills and valleys, through tunnels and over Brunel-era viaducts, and, unless you're in a hurry, it is a 3 and a half hours well worth it. I've always been fascinated by the countryside in Wales; less farmed and mosaic-like than the English countryside, but with dark, almost black hills inconceivably living right next to green, luscious ones, and together they create a strikingly distinct landscape of contrasting peaks and valleys. Add the winding streams and tributaries that flow all throughout, grey and cold under shadow, then suddenly blinding in the glistening sun, and it's a miracle of nature that the human eye can process all of this at once. My fucking phone can't.

The rail line itself is one of reminiscence, but of a time I don't recall ever experiencing. Yes, the train is made up of just a single carriage, which is almost quaint if it wasn't for the fact that I'm so used to the woefully and inadequately short last train from Paddington on a Saturday night, but the stops all along the line haven't been developed and modernised like the stations I'm so used to. It's heartwarming to see old signal boxes and station houses still in constant use and proudly-kept, all welcome signs and hanging baskets, where most throughout the country have fallen into ruin or gone altogether.

I was sat on the wrong side of the train to get the best pics from the valley, but here are some more anyway:

Stupidly wore a white t-shirt

New celeb spot - Larry David on the train