Castles

When I was a child on holiday in Wales I loved the castles.  When I returned as an adult I saw them as symbols of oppression and wasn't interested.  But I've mellowed.
Above is Roch Castle recently renovated by a local made good and available as very upmarket accommodation. Below is Castell Coch - Pink Castle - actually a folly.  My cousin Norman took Momery and me there on the day we visited The Rhondda.

 

Frances, David and Cairo took me to Llansteffan.  Fortified by fish and chips from Florries,we walked the wild, long and wide beach.  It is actually an estuary and the tide comes in quickly.  The sort of place where cocklers get swept out to sea.

We made it safely around the headland and to the castle.

 

 

Then back to the car via the village

where they were building a giant bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night.
I'd forgotten about that.

more for Shanah and Archie

More of the Pilgrimage Walk - back in the tunnel.

 

Playing on the bridge over the River Alun between the cathedral and the Bishops Palace.

 

Sunday dinner at The City.  Not on the St Davids tourist trail, this pub used to be my family's local when Grandma and Grandpa were alive.  My grandfather always sat at the table in the bay window.

Shanah and Archie's last day.  Our last meal at Oriel Parc, the cafe at the Visitor Information Centre which is always a joy to be in.

Last minute drama when the bus to Haverfordwest couldn't proceed down the one-way street because of a parked car.

The car had been deliberately parked as a protest by a local resident.
Shanah, Archie and the boy with curly hair led the attempt to get the protester to move his car so that they could get to the station on time.

They won.

Present for Shanah and Archie

Here are the photos I took while Shanah and Archie visited St Davids.

Shaken but not stirred by the man who'd chatted to them all the way from London and then also disembarked at Haverfordwest.  We did allow him to buy us a cup of coffee in the station tearoom.

First glimpse of Caerfai Bay.

 

Mother and child at St Non's Chapel, a short clifftop stroll from Caerfai.

 

The first look at the ruins of the place where Non gave birth to David in the 6th Century.
Or so the story goes.
We returned here to dance whenever the weather threatened.  We were always sheltered here.

The window upstairs at The Refectory, the cafe at St Davids Cathedral.
This overlooks the Secret Garden where Mum, Georgia and I spent blissful days in Summer 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walk from Porth Clais to St Nons on the day of the anticipated Big Storm.

 

 

 

The sky the night we danced on the bank of the River Alun outside the Bishops Palace.

The day we rendezvoused at David and Frances' house and walked The Pilgrims Walk that Momery and I had walked on the day of Harvest Festival.

more to come...

A present for Momery

Momery's camera battery went flat while we were in St Davids so she used mine for a while.
Here's her photos.

The River Alun on the day we went wild food foraging.

 

Abercastle, near St Davids but I'd never been there before - the joy of a hire car.

 

 

 

You can eat that pennywort.

 

Peter, our guide on The Pilgrimage, as we enter the tunnel of chinks...

The Pilgrimage continues towards St Non's.

St Non's Retreat in sight.  Carn Llidi in the distance.

The Retreat and the Chapel.

 

 

 

St David's birthplace.

Momery was rather taken with the light.

Merry Christmas!!!