Wednesday 23rd May – Caernarfon

As we were leaving the campsite we were introduced to the latest arrival – one of the miniature horses gave birth at 5am. Our hosts then chased mother and foal around the field in order to catch the foal and establish its sex. It was a girl!

Travelling north we stopped off at the Indigo Jones Slate Works. This was fascinating but, although neat outside the entrance, the workshops and the land around them were a mess. We heard on the MP3 player commentary that every piece of waste slate was kept as it was sure to be the correct size for a future job. And this was the case as every available space was piled with pieces of slate of all shapes an sizes. Care had to be taken both in and out of the workshops to avoid tripping over stones. How they got away with Health & Safety inspections I don't know.

The slate works specialises in engraving slate for plaques, gravestones etc. as well as producing gifts in their well stocked shop. At the end of the tour there is an engraving workshop where there is a lot of information on how to engrave and it is possible to have a go yourself with a small piece of slate that you are given at the beginning of the visit. We both tried our hand but decided that we needed more practice. I bought a large piece of 'crazy paving slate' that looked good enough to split with the idea of trying to engrave a small sign. Another project or perhaps just another stone for my collection?

We drove on to Caernarfon, stopping at Tesco for more supplies before booking in again at the excellent Cwm Cadnant campsite. We had returned to Caernarfon today for a specific reason. Adele, the very helpful lady from CADW whom we met at Segontium Roman Fort last week, told us about a Roman cookery demonstration at the fort this afternoon and it sounded very interesting. We arrived just after 4 pm and preparations for the half past four start were well under way. We met Adele and some other people from CADW and also a National Trust archaeologist (the site is jointly owned) and had interesting chats with all of them. The demonstration itself was put on by a commercial organisation (www.bubblingstove.co.uk) that consisted of a husband and wife team. The husband provided the muscle power whilst the wife, dressed in a thin white Roman dress despite the fact that it was decidedly cold, did al of the cooking. She actually does demonstrations of cooking over many ages from the Iron Age to more modern times with Medieval cooking being her favourite. She cooked and we ate Must Bread Rolls (with wheat and Spelt flour); burgers (mutton, stale bread, wine and fish paste); vegi burgers (figs, feta cheese, stale bread, wine, almonds, honey); Pickled cheese (feta, red wine vinegar, honey, thyme, almonds and figs) and fried cheese (feta, bread, honey). Unfortunately, there were few genuine visitors there but this meant that we had a very personalised instruction and lots of samples! It was a really good afternoon and I came away inspired to do some Roman cooking of my own and to check out the Bubbling Stove website.

Photos: Erasing an incorrect inscription by planing the slate plaque; A slate plaque ready for painting or gilding with gold leaf; Our Roman tutor; Pickled cheese.