It's New Year's Eve and it's hot

so I thought I'd escape to St Davids for a while.

We'll start at The City - the least attractive of the pubs unless you live in Nodffa Dewi where my grandparents lived - it is the closest pub and my grandfather loved the view from the bay window.  We'll walk down to Nun Street.

Cuppla my favourite houses.  I love this plant growing on the gate-post above.

We have passed Mathias Hardware - it always amuses me when I think of Bunnings...

Past the Indian Restaurant where Georgia and I went for a glass of red and garlic nahn on her first night in St Davids.  I think it's called Saffron.  Definitely the most exotic place in St Davids.

The restaurant is on the corner of Mum's favourite laneway.

Now to my favourite fruit & veg shop which is / was undergoing a face-lift.

Nearly back to the Cross at the centre of St Davids.

It must be Thursday cos the market is on!!

That's better.  Ready for a feed of spring rolls from the Wentworth Central Motel now.

Sometimes tomorrow never comes...

words of wisdom from Emma - and, of course, she was right.  But it's here now - though the rain is long gone.  On our last day in England I went with Cynthia and John to St Albans.  Mum stayed at home to gather her strength for the journey home and to avoid the rain.  I had travelled through St Albans on the day I caught the 321 bus back from the airport after renegotiating our trip to Spain.  It's a wonderful town.

It's been a Roman town.

Very gracious.

With low life and high life.

As we approached the cathedral, the wind flurried the sycamores around us.  Everyone scattered for the cathedral but it felt like a magic moment to me.

I found it a bit difficult to take photos inside.

 Then it was off to the market.

which was a little rain affected.  I managed to spend my last sterling on plump green olives stuffed with almonds

and sheltered in this archway which made me think of our fabulous porch here at home and my plan to one day sell small plants and flowers from it.  So, back full circle...

Doing this last holiday post has reminded of my intention to bring some special moments from the holiday to this blog, so standby for intermittent Magic Moments.

Posting my last day in England tomorrow.

Rain is the link...

Getting towards the end now

Just before we left England we had a special night out with Cynthia and John and their son and daughter, Alan and Catherine.  Catherine had come to St Davids to visit her nan (my Aunty Eirwen) while we were there. This time we congregated at the Essex, the local pub.  It was lovely because both Catherine and Alan had travelled from London to be with us, and had to return by train that night.

Here we are, gathering beneath umbrellas.

Ladies to the left of me,

gentlemen to the right.  It made me realise that I do miss having family around me.  I loved it in St Davids when I'd meet one of the aunts out shopping - I have never done that before.

But wait, there's more family

In the last week of our holiday, my cousin Cynthia invited her brother, David, and his family to dinner.

Mum,David and me.

David's daughter, Rhiannon, her husband and little girl.

Two of David's sons, Gareth and Emrys.

a glimpse of Jackie, David's wife, plus Rhiannon, Mum and Cynthia.

Happy 21st Birthday Simpsons!!!

A tangent from the trip.  Steve and I love The Simpsons and used to watch it religiously when we lived in Griffith.  I read in The Big Issue last week that the show has turned 21 so thought this was a good opportunity to share a cuppla encounters from my trip.

Here's Bart at Whitesands carpark - where all the dudes hangout at the weekend.

The owner and his girlfriend returned while I was taking the photos so I asked if it was OK.  The girlfriend said it happens everywhere they go.

Later in St Albans, in England, I saw this at the market.

I have to say it had never occurred to me to get a Simpsons stained glass window.  I do have this rather tasteful plate in my kitchen, though.

...green and magic land.

Back in England, Mum and I went our separate ways for a day

Cynthia, John and Mum went to this grand house and garden, Osterley? I think.

and did what they do best.

I boldly caught trains into London

If I'd only waited 30 seconds I could have shown you the incredible colour and diversity of the passengers who disembarked from that bus - I started to feel how exciting it could be to live here...  I was sitting outside a Starbucks waiting for my friend and former Wu Tao teacher, Shanah.

We drove to Avebury - like Stonehenge but more accessible.  The carpark guys told us that the carpark was full but an obliging tree allowed us to lift its branches and park under - that's the sort of thing that happens with Shanah.

 We entered the stone ring and had a picnic

and watched a pagan ceremony.

Then we walked to the village

for a little shopping.
Here's a photo of the area taken from a postcard:

We walked across country to the mound you can see at the top of the photo.  This is Silbury Hill and is man-made.  We crossed the road to West Kennet Long Barrow

and danced Wu Tao overlooking Silbury Hill.

This was sublime.
When we had finished dancing we went to have a look at the Barrow.  And guess who was there?

The Green Man and the Keeper of the Stones.
Some of you know I'm a bit of a fan of the concept of The Green Man.  It was however The Keeper who was the important one on the day - apparently this group use a ceremony based on a Welsh tradition and the Keeper is always a woman.

We wended our way back to the car, then along the M4, over Hammersmith, through Chelsea and back to the Underground Station.  We said our sad goodbyes and I caught 2 trains home to Watford feeling I was dancing all the way.  It was a day made on the Good and Bountiful Earth.