#welsh borders

[themascarasnakeuniverse]

A mission to Borderlands

There are two ways to get to where my father grew up in Wales. It is often said that it is easy to ascertain where the Romans did not want to go. Everywhere that they deemed important is nowadays accessible by pretty direct roads. My fathers former hometown was obviously of no interest to these invaders. There is no motorway. The two routes we commonly took where through Oswestry and Welshpool or via Bala. 

The latter is where we would meet his parents when they took us to their house for extended stays in the school holidays. I never wanted to go without my parents for reasons I will go into in a future post. It was with a heavy heart that I got out of the car in the lay-by just a short way past the town centre and transferred our belongings to their car.

My grandmother was never keen on us coming to her house the other way, via Welshpool. Now we visit that part of the world once, sometimes twice a year this route is my preferred journey. Maybe it is defiance. A pathetic rebellious stand against an old lady who died a number of years ago. Regardless it is the way I often take for the two hour plus journey.

Most times when I have driven this way I stop at The Old Station. However, I am always disappointed with the cafe. The choice of food is limited, the coffee is average and the toilets are quite a walk from every table in the place. It seems more like a place set up to sell clothes than to serve food. With this in mind I decided one day to take a journey to Welshpool and see what was on offer in the actual town, after all I was only really familiar with the bypass.

I managed to wake up in good time and eat a healthy breakfast. Despite my initial choice of podcast being “unavailable” I queued up some listening choices and began the journey after a short stop to refuel.

I reached Welshpool at 11.30 and parked my car behind a chapel type building that looked like it served as a market. I paid for two hours and walked around the town a little. The town centre seemed to be stretched along a main road which contained a few independent and the usual chain stores. Whilst I did find a pretty cool “witchy” store run by two middle aged pagan women there did not seem to be an awful lot here.

As it neared lunchtime and my belly started to rumble I went into what the outside signage told me was an “independent coffee shop and cafe.” When I went inside I saw the menu was limited and the interior looked like a glorified greasy spoon cafe. When my lunch arrived it struck me as overpriced and distinctly average. Although the coffee was nice I was beginning to realise why Welshpool was not better known. There was noting special about it. Despite this I went for another walk and saw a road sign for “The Cockpit.” When I followed it the building itself was closed and it was unclear what its use was in the present day. I decided not to stick around as two drunk women where sitting on the edge of the car park rather loudly telling each other to “fuck off.”

When I got back to my car I realised I had time before the parking I paid for expired. I randomly walked along the road and found another cafe, this one looked nicer than the one I had just visited and I decided to make a note of it for my next trip. I had sussed out the parking after all.

A little further down the road I discovered a pretty eccentric bar consisting of different themed rooms. I ordered a cup of tea and the waitress kindly told me how to connect to the Wi-Fi. I took this time to reflect. Welshpool might be situated in some pretty countryside but had I grown up here I would have felt isolated. I would have wanted to get out like I was eager to get away from my home village. I finished my tea and thanked the waitress. It was barely 2pm and I felt I had seen all that I needed to see. Then I had a thought. When I felt stuck in my home village I used to value getting on the bus top the nearest city. A city where I went to school, where I went on nights out as a teen. A city that provided some respite until I got sick of it and moved to my current location.

I took out my phone and looked for directions to Shrewsbury. I was only twenty miles away.

This part of the mission was unplanned. I decided to embrace the chaos and set the map app on my phone to get me there as quickly as possible. I found a place to park my car near a shopping mall and decided to wonder wherever. Shrewsbury might not be a city technically but it is certainly of an equivalent size. And there where things here like good coffee shops, vegan cafes, other signs of life that where not ordinarily present in a small town. After all there was a university here.

Whilst randomly wandering I decided to come here for a more planned mission at a later date. Perhaps an overnight stay and a show at the Theatre Severn.

I ate my evening meal in a Pizza Express that used to be a cinema. They had just opened and I was their fist customer. On the way I passed day drinkers taking advantage of the good weather and popping out for a quick one after work. I watched from my usual neurodiverse position on the periphery. Not included but watching. A position I am used to. 

When I got back to my car I found that the podcast I could not access on the way here was now available. That would be all the company I needed for the drive home. 

[vesperosy]

falin passant guardant

[starstruckfoxxy]

🐶💕

[irrevocablecondition]

oh my god what a horrid day rverything is so awful and i do not want to wake up tomor- woah. how did my choices epub just randomly open? so weird! welp. now that it's open,,,

[canidcrazy]

Merle patterning and its associated health issues

alright, let's start with a quick definition

“also know as dapple, merle is characterized by irregular blotches of fur set on a lighter background of the same pigment, such as solid black on gray (called blue merle) or solid brown on tan (red merle).” -American Kennel Club

Merle is a dominant color gene meaning it (almost) always presents itself phenotypically when apart of the dogs genotype even when it is a heterozygous gene. merle is a very popular and desirable color and because of this is often sold by breeders for a higher price, though an ethical breeder shouldn't be charging more for a certain color.

if a merle (Mm) and a non merle (mm) are bred together there is a 50% chance each pup will be merle. if you breed two merle's (Mm) together that chance raises to 75% but, you run the risk of producing a double merle (MM) which have a heightened chance of health issues

The most common health risk with merle dogs is deafness, even single merles (Mm) have an increased likelihood of these issues. Double merles (MM) are at a even higher risk for deafness, one study finding 85% of MM dogs were bilaterally deaf.

On top of the deafness MM dogs often have very small and often non-functional eyes (microphthalmia).

double merle's can occur for a few different reasons

1. in feral/stray populations dogs will be breeding and obviously they don't understand that how genetics works so two merle's can mate producing a double merle. though it's unlikely and deaf and blind dog will survive long without human intervention

2. similar to option one is ignorance on the owners part! it may be an uneducated breeder or an oops-litter but an owner who doesn't understand or know about the dangers of double merle's make accidentally create one.

3. greed! though many double merle's are born infertile if you were to get a double merle bitch (MM) who is able to produce pups and bred her to a regular sire (mm) you would have a litter of all single merle puppies (Mm) which as previously mentioned can be sold for more.

over all, merle dogs are very pretty but you should be aware of the risks this coloring can have especially in double merle's.

thank you for coming to my autism rant, have a good day

[call-me-casual]

Quick concept sketch before bed

Before Becca had Peregrine to watch out for her, there was Ffrind…

[yonderghostshistories]

Ngl I think Graham would’ve banged Jonesy if it wasn’t for the fact that Graham already had a Welsh boyfriend

(oh yeah uhh btw Graham’s partner, David Sherlock, was born in the Welsh Border (I found that out when I read “A Liar’s Autobiography” a while ago). Yes, I know that technically doesn’t count that David is Welsh, but for the purposes of the joke it makes sense…so…g….gh…shuddup)

[mostlyuk]

Shropshire Hills by Brad Carr

[boneheads-pet-idiot]

Working on a chapter where Chise and Mariah force Elias to dress as Mari lwyd and take them out to the Christmas fair and now I'm chewing my own arm off imagining Elias wearing a flower crown and rhinestones around his eyes

[emmster]

Doggust days 10-16

[sparrowsrandomthoughts]

“All these bilingual signs are so annoying, like why are they in welsh too it’s so stupid”

“We’re in Wales”

- a conversation I overheard between two (english) teenagers

[biokenneth]

They're staring at me. Always. With their big brown eyes. They look like 👁w👁 at me

[whitegoldtower]

Finally finished the buggering thing 😩😭😭😭

[dog-breeds-in-posts]

Border Collie/Labrador Retriever

Pug

Shih Tzu

Chihuahua/Pembroke Welsh Corgi

German Spitz

Chihuahua/Rat Terrier

Some doggo doodles I made

IG, twitter, ko-fi: @doggobloc

[brynfelan]

HOLY CANOLI YOUR FROM WALES?!?!?

Im sorry its just a huge jumpscare to hear that other people live in the same country as me [especially when theyr cool]

yes! also mood i get real excited whenever i see anything vaguely cymraeg online because it feels rare but americans know about us now because of that one football docuseries on disney+ so it's becoming SLIGHTLY more common

[blackhyena]

guys this one was really hard everywhere in wales sounds so charming. please clap & reblog for reach!!!!