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At the end of March, I had a long weekend in Wales. On the first day of the visit, I had booked Sugarloaf Winery for lunch and a wine tasting. The weather was beautiful with full sun. Sugarloaf Winery is located near to Sugarloaf mountain outside Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales.

I had the wine tasting, and this included the following: Chapel Down Flint Dry white, Y Fenni dry white, Sugarloaf Blush, and Deri Coch red. Three of the wines are from the winery, but Chapel Down is a replacement as they had run out of some of their wines.

I enjoyed the Y Fenni the most and had a separate glass of it. 

I ordered a cheese board, and this came with a lot more than I expected - different types of Welsh cheeses, breads, crisps, chutney, salad, and olives.

Afterwards, I had a quick look at the vines. As it was the end of March, the vines were still in hibernation from the winter months. 

I enjoyed the wines, and this was a nice little venue to enjoy some lunch and drink.

Hello and welcome to my post covering my unblogged events from the winter this year; it's a little bit late in being published as the past couple of weeks have been busy, and then I was in Wales at the end of March. Winter was busy this year, and I had a lot of different things to cover from holidays to birthday days out with friends. I also caught the illness that everyone else seemed to have in early March, and it took most of a month to finally recover from it fully.) Winter seems like a long way away now with the nice weather we have had (at the time when I wrote this post, but now it seems cold and wet again). 

First up is Chinese New Year, and one of the events that I did not write about previously was getting a Chinese takeaway on the day and enjoying a Xi Home Dumplings dumpling shaped like a dragon. It was vegetarian, and they do different shapes for different seasons. It was very good. 

I also received some pastries inspired by Chinese New Year at a work bake sale.

Next up, I had a few trips to Sloane Square's Saturday market. On one visit, I bought some delicious choocolates.

I also brought back Dubai chocolate from Vienna when I visited at the end of February.

The blossoms started to make their appearance, which was welcomed as the winter has been particularly cold and miserable.

I had several days of just relaxing at home with the Maine Coons, Merlin and Sir Lancelot.

Humble Crumble has been one favourite of mine since I discovered them at Canary Wharf before they were popular, and they brought back their creme brulee crumble topping for January, which I tried.

Next up is Valentine's Day, and I received an afternoon tea box with scones and rose Prosecco, chocolate, and fudge. It came with candles and rose petals too.

My friend and I went to enjoy breakfast at The Ivy, and we went to the branch in Kennsington High Street. She wanted to do something different each month this year of items on her "bucket list", and visiting the Ivy was on the list. I had not been there for breakfast myself. 

I also enjoyed a Saturday lunch with a lot of two-for-one cocktails at Ego at Pomeroy, which is based in Little Chalfont near Amersham. The meal included a starter of corn fritters, and I got the chicken as a main and a dessert with small portions of their popular desserts - crumble, creme brulee, lemon tart, Eton mess, and brownie.

Toward the end of winter, Holi was celebrated. I invited friends over for dinner (they won't eat Indian food as they do not like the spice, so I made pasta as we were planning to have a pasty dinner party anyway), and we threw coloured powder at each other. 

The beautiful spring flowers started to become available in shops toward the end of winter, and I had to buy some to enjoy the colour.

Goodbye to winter, and hello to the much-awaited spring and hopefully nice weather ahead. I hope this year has a proper spring and summer and is not a wash out.

Skenfrith castle, located in Monmouthshire in Wales, is one of three castles (the others being White Castle and Grosmont Castle) in the region that was built to protect lands against the Welsh. The castle originated during the Norman rule shortly after 1066, but the stone structure dates to the 12th century. The castle was not used as a fortress for too long, and it became a ruin in the 16th century. The castle contains a large wall with a circular keep in the middle.

I visited the castle on a warm and sunny day at the start of my visit to Wales. There is parking near it, and visitors can enter via the "back" of the castle where the wall has collapsed, but this was also the main castle entrance and would have had a moat on this side into the river beyond and a drawbridge. But, the moat has gone. The castle itself was built on a flood plain and due to this and flooding in winter time, it is likely the castle was abandoned.

The site is free to visit and maintained by National Trust and Cadw.

Once inside the complex, it is a large grassy area with some former building foundations on the right and the circular keep in the middle. On the left is also a set of stairs that go down and outside the castle walls. The circular keep is an empty structure open to the elements with nothing to see inside.

On the right side of the keep were a set of foundations of buildings that were multiple floors.

And on the left is a set of stairs that lead down and outside the wall.

The stairs lead down to the River Monnow. The location of the castle was placed to protect shipments from river transport. At the time the castle was occupied, the stairs would have gone right down to the river. Today, it is a secluded walk with river views.

To read about the other two castles that make up the three, see:

White Castle
Grosmont Castle

White Castle, located in Monmouthshire in Wales, is a Norman castle built to defend against the Welsh. The castle, along with Skenfrith and Grosmont, make up a trio of castles close together. The castles existed as wooden structures with moats, and White Castle was built in the 11th century, and it is further from the English border. The area where the castle is was controlled by Welsh lords, and White Castle was the first one where the building work was started.

I visited it at the end of March on a sunny day. Upon entering the location of the castle, it is easy to see that the ruins were once an imposing structure with high walls and a deep moat, and there would have been a drawbridge over it.

White Castle was known as Llantilio Castle originally.

The structure really does look imposing, even in a ruinous state.

Grosmont is one of three Norman castles (including White Castle and Skenfrith Castle) that make a trio in this part of Wales. The castles were built to control Wales after an invasion in the 11th century, and Grosmont looks out over England. The castle at Grosmont was altered to create a retreat, but it was taken over in 1405 and became a ruin afterward.

I had a look around the castle on a sunny day at the end of March. It is located in the centre of the village just behind some houses.

A wooden structure (motte and bailey design) was located at Grosmont before it was constructed in stone in the 1200s.

There is a quick climb up one of the towers to a small section of wall where visitors can look down at the ruins.

The daffodils were out in bloom, and the castle now has a modern gate over the woodn drawbridge with the name of the castle spelled out in the iron gate.

St. Michael's Church in Vienna is one of the oldest in the city, and it dates from the mid-1200. It is built in the Romanesque style and next to the imperial court buildings. The church has death masks of Mozart on the entrance, and this is where his unfinished music was played upon his death. The funeral service was held here. There are some old wall paintings here that look medieval in style. The church is free to visit.

A new restaurant opened in Ruislip in th autumn of last year. Cafe Chennai is a vegetarian restaurant that serves up south Indian cuisine from Tamil Nadu and the surrounding area. The restaurant opened in place of Italian restaurant Zaza, and this restaurant's tasty traditional south Indian cuisine has become a firm local favourite of mine. 

The kadai paneer and paratha is excellent, and the paneer is not chewy/overcooked but tender and tasty. The paratha is always a favourite of mine as it is flaky and delicious.

Another firm favourite is the uttapam, which is similar to scrambled egg or pizza, though I cannot describe it any better. They sell different varieties or a selection of three - the pizza one with cheese, a vegetable one, and one with chili. This is served with various chutneys and sambar, which is similar to soup.

The restaurant also sometimes serve cocktails, but these are not available all of the time.

They also do special offers for different events and holidays. There was a set menu that I tried for Diwali with different options, and you could also for additional items. The paneer rolls were delicious. This also included different dessert options.

The restaurant is also known for its dosa. I enjoyed a chocolate dosa for dessert.

There are also a lot of starters, and I love the peanut mixture. This is an excellent item to enjoy as a snack.

Another quick and healthy treat is their selection of idli and medu vada. This is also a traditional breakfast food, and it is served with chutneys and sambar.

I enjoy the food here and recommend it. It offers traditional Indian cuisine, and the food is tasty and prepared well.

When I was in Vienna at the end of last month, I wanted to visit a concert and an opera as Vienna is noted for its musical heritage. I went along to "Orpheus in the Underworld" at the Volksoper in Vienna. The opera was performed in the Austrian language, but there were translations in English, and the singing voices were also translated. The play is about the Greek mythology Orpheus and wife Eurydice, and she is bored with her husband and falls in love with the god of the underworld with the other gods and Orpheus going to claim her back. Comedy and entertainment take place with some amazing sets.

Although there were subtitles in English (as I cannot speak Austrian), these were located in the top right of the stage and obscured with the overhang. I had to bend down in order to read the translations. 

The story and music and the good production in Vienna's Volksoper helped me to enjoy a few hours of entertainment.

It has been awhile since I have visited a zoo, but when I went to Vienna at the end of February, Schönbrunn palace was doing a special winter ticket that included a visit to the palace, the gardens, and the zoo on site. I took advantage of this and had my visit to the zoo in Vienna at the end of February, and I was impressed at the animal selection.

I saw sleepy koala bears.

I saw sleeping lions (male and female) and cheetah big cats.

The tigers had been fed and were sat down.

There were plenty of different habitats for the animals, though I could not see all of the animals as some were hidden away to keep warm or preferred to sleep during my visit.

I saw a couple of rhino and also a hippopatamus.

I also saw reindeer, and they perked up when my camera made a noise.

The pelicans were also on show.

As were the wombats and anteaters. There was also a section of farm animals for those who wanted to see those.

I like the red pandas as they are so pretty, though I did not get a good view, but this one was up and walking about. Normally they can be a little bit docile.

Part of the zoo was located on a hillside, and I walked up it to get some good views.

Part of the trail led through a suspended walkway where viewers could look down and admire views.

At the top was a farmhouse and restaurant and a few cattle and barn area so visitors could read about the life keeping animals on a farm.

Below this was a large area with a pack of white wolves. I heard them howling collectively later.

There was also an area of sea life and penguins.

I also saw some seals playing around.

Meerkats are always fun to watch.

There were a lot of different types of monkeys and a monkey house near the cafe, and these were all fun to watch.

The elephants were also impressive to see.

This monkey or primate was very vocal and jumped all the way to a large tree and started to make a lot of noises, which set off the howling wolves. Th primate kept swinging around to the top of the tree and looking in every direction whilst making a sound.

The lemurs are also always nice to watch and are active. 

The primate enclosure is also worth seeing near the cafe, and there were a group of them playing with a blanket and enjoying wandering around.

I also spotted a couple of giraffes and a young one.

The flamingos are normally associated with a warmer climate, but they looked content enough.

And lastly, I spotted a zebra.

The zoo is quite compact in size and has so many animals that people will recognise and enjoy visiting. The lack of foliage meant that it was easier to see many of the animals at this time of the year. 

In January, I visited London Chocolate, a bespoke hand-crafted small batch chocolatier located in the Connaught Village area of London. The cafe sells a range of different chocolates, chocolate bars, and hot chocolates to have in or to take away. Chocolate beans are imported for use in this specialised chocolate cafe. I bought a range of chocolates, a couple of chocolate bars (flavours change often), and hot chocolates over a couple of visits.

I tried the milk hot chocolate and a dark hot chocolate. The milk is the more popular and my favourite of the two that I tried. It is creamy and had the right level of sweetness. It isn't as thick as the traditional Italian style, but it was a very good hot chocolate and one of the best ones that I have enjoyed in London.

I also bought a couple of chocolate bars, including the popular Dubai Chocolate chocolate bar.

The chocolate bars are delicious and recommended.