Another Year – Another Birthday

Well, at least it’s good to have another birthday! What’s the alternative?? After our blow out meal at the Shed, we planned a quieter, DIY tapas meal for Sunday . . .Viv had made a gorgeous fruit cake and was set to coat it in marzipan and then ice it!!

Steven does like his marzipan!
OK, it was shop bought fondant icing but it did have to rolled out properly . . .
And the big surprise – artistic bits glued on . . .
Shooting stars and planets . . .
And candles!!
Still in his jimjams, bless, the ol geezer gets his whisky, pants, after-shave, DVDs and lots of chilli sauces . . .
this simple idea kind of grew a bit . . .patatas riojana, roast chicken in garlic & chilli, migas (Spanish breadcrumbs with chorizo), langoustines in garlic, pigs in blankets, devils on horseback, olives, cheese and a token salad!
And Viv’s magnificent cake . . .which we had to eat quite a bit later after that lot – Thanks Viv

One Year On

Well, hasn’t time flown by. A whole year gone and quite a year too . . . if only we’d known . . . probably, if we had known, we may of bought a small place in the north of Tenerife . . .warmth, friendly and less affected by the virus. Still, Trefin is on the way . . .not quite as warm but not as cold as most of the UK and it is certainly a better place to be, if isolation is your aim.

Back to The Shed, Porthgain – last year it was for Steve’s birthday so this year it’s a celebration of One Year On plus the birthday.

All properly distanced and masked up . . .those lovely monkfish in batter plus decent chips and BIG gherkins
Viv looking rather splendid and displaying the Senior menu – another time for that, we’re having the full three courses with wine!!
A bright and dry day but still gale force winds . . .I don’t think we’ll ever get used to them. Here we are doing an inland walk from St Justinian, across fields and down to Porth Lysgi beach, our favourite.
A stunning location and today we have a very low tide and great skies . . . Toby loves it too
Candidate for my photo of the year? The dog alone.
Well not quite alone – my Seek App told me this was a Trigger fish, a bit rare but they do get washed up.
As does this – lots and lots of plastic. Most derived from fishing. An ugly site on this lovely beach.
On the way back – lichen on the trees – quite beautiful and fractal in nature
A whole row of trees covered with the stuff.
The beach . . . . plus wind!
Evolution . . . . . . ?

Coetan Arthur

The wind is back but it is a sunny day and we both fancy a stroll and it kind of isn’t raining, honest. So we went back to Whitesands – this time not up Carn Llidi but on to Coetan Arthur, a Neolithic burial chamber and no, nothing to do with King Arthur, this is 3000 BC.

Looking back towards Carn Llidi – last week’s heroic mountain climb (!) and in the foreground the burial chamber.
A bit underwhelming but it has lasted well. And so have these two – Toby was especially lively today, great a finding the path ahead and running all over the place and a squirmy or two.
Trying hard to make it look more impressive – I say that to all the girls!!
Epic
Very windy but dry . . . . I think I spotted a Unicorn . . . . .

Portals

Weather bad, again, so Toby just gets a short walk at Abereiddy beach . . . Steve’s feeling a bit down and is still searching for that portal back to our home planet . . .

he’ll get over it . . .

Carn Llidi – St David’s

A fairly local walk, travelling towards St David’s and on to Whitesands beach. From here we trekked up the coastal path towards the big rocks (Carn Llydi). A very unusual day NO WIND and sunshine. Such a rare event we made the most of it and went up to the top. Here we were surprised to see a concrete path and roadway – obviously WW2 construction and learnt later that it had a gun emplacement plus a radar station – previously a hydrophone station in WW1 – well worth looking up! The views were stunning and you could see why it was an important look out point.

the start of the coastal path . . .not too much up and hardly anyone about
looking back to Whitesands beach, with Ramsey island in the distance
At the top – the views just get better
And signs of the radar station

Panoramic view from . . .
Meanwhile, the local butcher was advertising boned & rolled turkey breast . . .seems a good deal….guess what we’re eating for the next fortnight.
What to do in lockdown? All a bit sad. Missing the community gatherings of pubs, clubs, theatres etc.
Luckily, there’s a lot of streaming media…lots….here we subscribed to the National Ballet’s new production Back on Stage – first time in 6 months. Not a great ballet fan but this was a collection of pieces – some trad (Swan Lake) and some very mod (Golden Hour?) plus they ended up (after 2.5 hrs!!) with Scott Joplin’s Elite syncopations (above) brilliant!

Newgale Beach

A visit to Newgale beach and an inland walk.

Inland from Newgale. . .
Leaving the beach behind
A surprisingly quite and lovely walk
These seem to be popular
Back down the road to the beach
One of the most dramatic beaches we have – at low tide, such a huge expanse of beach . . .
Back home – those Pembrokeshire gales take out one of the greenhouse panels!
Time to anchor the whole thing down

Weather – there’s a lot of it about

Yes, we knew the Pembrokeshire weather was mild but also very windy. Today, out on a walk we saw a marvellous rainbow. And the significance of a rainbow? Apart from total internal reflection, refraction and dispersion . . . .yes, it’s raining!

Looks like the pot of gold is in Trefin . . . but not our house . . .
Short walk from Abereiddy to the coastal path above Traeth Llyfn – a popular beach
However, we did notice an unusual marking on the cliff opposite . . . .strange geometric outline with a door? Could this be the entrance to the alien portal? Our way off this planet (ever hopeful)?
Once you’ve seen it . . . .
Short video – showing the Pembrokeshire weather and that cave…

More info on rainbows https://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/

And here’s something completely different – MUSE fan or not, this is an amazing transcription of Uprising . . . .time to chill.

And here’s the lyrics . . .strangely in tune with current times, eh?


The paranoia is in bloom, the P-R Transmissions will resume They’ll try to push drugs That keep us all dumbed down and hope that We will never see the truth around (So come on) Another promise, another scene, Another package lie to keep us trapped in greed With all the green belts wrapped around our minds And endless red tape to keep the truth confined (So come on) They will not force us They will stop degrading us They will not control us We will be victorious (So come on) Interchanging mind control Come let the revolution take its toll if you could Flick a switch and open your third eye, you’d see that We should never be afraid to die (So come on) Rise up and take the power back, it’s time that The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that Their time is coming to an end We have to unify and watch our flag ascend (So come on) They will not force us They will stop degrading us They will not control us We will be victorious (So come on) Hey, hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey, hey They will not force us They will stop degrading us They will not control us We will be victorious (So come on) Hey, hey, hey, hey

And the original – eleven years ago!

Here We Go Again

Yes, back to Lockdown from next Friday – 16 days. A short fire-break as our First Minister calls it. No pubs, cafes, restaurants and no Halloween or Guy Fawkes – so some upside!

Well, we gave this planet a chance – time go go home . . .