Happy Birthday Georgia and Momery

and a fairy-tale year for you both.  Momery sent me her Welsh photos so I can blog more detail.

Remember Castel Coch (Pink Castle) which I have blogged previously?

It was built as a folly, a fantastical place and a perfect place for story telling.

It also has relevance to The Year of the Horse.

A bridal party was imminent when a group of horsey people turned up and one rider was adamant her horse would go across the bridge and up to the castle.  The poor horse was scared and equally adamant it was not going  up there, and it did the huge steaming poo visible in the photo.

A beautifully dressed attendant had to race down with a broom.

Lovely London

 Jumping around a bit here but Cynthia and John's Wedding Anniversary is soon(ish) and I want to post this while I can.  Some of you know how much I love Halloween so I was a bit miffed to miss out on the activities on offer at Oriel y Parc in St Davids - especially the Coracle Making, actually.

Cynthia and John picked me up from David and Frances' house on 29th October and we drove to their house in Watford.  With only one day to go before I flew out to Singapore, we spent 30th October visiting Catherine, their daughter, at work at Burgess Park (nearly wrote Bletchley Park there - the heat is disorienting me...).  To my mind, Catherine has a dream job and is Site Manager for this wonderfully reclaimed piece of land.  I got to see the pumpkin carving workshop in action.

 

Mother and child photographed with permission of course.
I'm assuming I have Cynthia, John and Catherine's consent - they seemed happy to pose...

 

 

Catherine's office. Palpitations.

You can just see the Eye to the left of the above photo.  That's how central this park is.

 

Then imagine my joy when I saw a fox who proceeded us to the Community Garden where we were heading.

A glorious day.  Then home by buses and trains.  Elementary really.

Photo below purloined from http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/place/284140-baker-street-station

 I love public art touches like this, and celebrations of place.

I flew out on Halloween.  Unfortunately they made us keep the window blinds down so I don't know which wild ones were flying beside us.

Sundays

One Sunday Frances and I walked to the shop to get the paper.

We walked the cliff tops from Caerfai to Carbwdy (which is where I had previously been Seashore Foraging)

then walked along a lane to the main road.  It was good to be reminded that others had to work.

 

From the service station cum news agency cum General Store we could look back on the harvesting farm.

Another Sunday David, Frances and Cairo took me to Marloes, a favourite beach of theirs and one I don't remember ever going to before.

 

The variety of rock formations here is astounding.

And the pools just cry out to be  played in.

 

Couldn't help but think of Petra here

and lunch here.

 

Along the track to the car.

and stop at Broad Haven for the paper this time.

 

Cats

5 cats are visible in this doorway at Tregginis Farm - the others scarpered before I could get the camera out.  This farm is now run as a Farm School for city kids.  It was the first time I'd walked to Treginnis - the best blackberries along the roadside.  I walked past the kids, who were learning at the pondside, to the coast track and found myself at the place I had previously danced the Dance of Gratitude.  On that day I had heard children playing and thought of the essay I had written in first year high-school.

 Back to The Gardens at the Bay in Singapore now.

 Likewise.

Back to Georgia's - Waffles seeks refuge

from the aptly named, irresistible, Loki.

Last castle - Pembroke

A while ago I read about a flat for sale built into the wall of Pembroke Castle.  An appealing idea so I thought I would check out the castle this visit. Frances and David drove me there, though for some reason they don't appear in any of the photos.  The castle was originally timber, built for Roger de Montgomery in 1093.  He was a cousin of William the Conqueror.  There is a huge cavern in the rock under the castle and evidence that the site has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, possible shelter during the Ice Age.

The Castle calls itself the birthplace of the Tudor Dynasty.  King Henry VII was born within the castle walls in 1457.

 

 

 

 

My favourite apples - Cox's Pippins in this shop in the town.

 

I didn't see any houses built actually in the castle walls but thought this would do nicely.