Tales from Wales #4 :: The Blue Lagoon

Hi there everyone 😃

We are back to Pembrokeshire for today’s post … It was Wednesday and, after a day having been pretty much confined to barracks because of the weather, we were off on a big adventure.

This time we were heading north … in search of The Blue Lagoon. Neither of us had ever been and we had no real idea of what to expect …

There were certainly some cracking views along the way …

We were soon parked up on the beach and heading off for the coastal path …

There weren’t many steps and it was a good path so Martin did ok on his crutches …

The views were fabulous …

… and we certainly wouldn’t be needing to take heed of this advice …

It was only a short walk before we got our first glimpse of ‘the lagoon’, which was formerly the main slate quarry of the St Brides Slate Company and was active up until 1910. The slate gives a brilliant aqua blue colour to the water. It is a popular spot for coasteering and climbing along the cliffs at sea level …

It really was a beautiful spot …

We went up a bit further … just for the view …

… and for the obligatory windswept selfie …

… making sure to keep well away from the edge …

… before retracing our steps for one last look …

After making our way back to the car the plan was to head to St David’s … once there we found it was really busy and couldn’t find a parking space anywhere so ended up taking the very narrow coast road round to Solva … where we managed to find a spot to park on the quay …

We stopped for lunch and a bit of a mooch before heading for home …

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Our Step Challenge

Hi there everyone 😃

In our quest to get a little bit fitter and to help Martin’s ankle recovery we have set ourselves a goal of walking at least 2000 steps a day. I know it may not sound like much … but for us it’s more about getting into the routine of moving our bodies just a little bit more.

We started when we were on holiday back at the end of September and we’ve carried on since we’ve got back home. Our only acceptable excuse, or reason, for not doing our daily walk is if we have a good day working in the garden.

For November I thought I’d take a photo each day on our walk and make a note of how far we’d gone … for two reasons really … firstly to hold us accountable and secondly to see if we are managing to perhaps walk a bit further over time.

So here we go with our first week of November walks …

1st … 2109

We dropped mum off at a funeral at the crematorium in Fradley and, while we were waiting for her, rather than sitting in the car and doing the crossword, we had a good wander round the grounds …

2nd … 5106

We headed over to Lichfield for a bit of a wander and a bit of Christmas shopping. It was a glorious autumnal day …

3rd … 2000
We have discovered a roundabout route to our local Co-op, where we buy sourdough, that takes us just 2000 steps …

4th … Garden leaf clearing

The forecast for today was good and we had the day earmarked for a good tidy up in the garden … mainly leaf clearing … which for us at this time of year is a bit like painting the Fourth Bridge. We soon managed to fill a wheelie bin and two huge black sacks, before heading back into the warm for home made soup and sourdough …

5th … 2510

Today we just had a wander up our main road to Aldi to pick up a few bits and pieces … normally a trip that would be made in the car. On the way back we finally got to have a closer look at the veg stall outside our local Polish supermarket, which we have regularly admired from the car when passing …

6th … 2231

After a very relaxing and mindful morning at my local craft group we just had a wander down to our local nature reserve for a short walk before getting the heating on and settling in for a chilled out wintry afternoon …

7th … 2462

We were back to Lichfield today to meet some very good friends for brunch. We deliberately parked the other side of town so we could have a bit of a walk …

… before enjoying our very nice breakfast treat … we may not have made the best choice from a ‘nourishing’ point of view … but we both enjoyed every single mouthful and that’s every bit as important …

Just had to add this fabulous, definitely Instagrammable, photo Hannah took of our breakfasts as it puts mine a bit to shame … though it did take a fair bit of effort 😜

So all is going to plan so far … I’ll be back next week to let you know how we are get on over the next seven days 😃

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Photo Scavenger Hunt :: November #1 … Bonfire

Hi there everyone 😃

November already … how on earth did that happen? This year has seriously flown by at a real rate of knots.

It’s time for the first of Astrid’s challenges for us for November and we are looking for inspiration from the word … bonfire 🔥

Now years ago, after I’d first left home I lived in a flat close to our local Castle Grounds and every bonfire night we wandered across to have a warm by the fire and watch the fireworks … before heading home for jacket potatoes that had been cooking whilst we were out.

It’s been a good few years since there has been a bonfire … a casualty of Health and Safety I guess, but the fireworks have got dramatically bigger and better over the years. It’s been a few years since we’ve been … it has just got to be such a big and busy event that it’s no longer really our thing.

For a while we had our own garden firework gathering for friends and family … but an incident with the accidental ignition of a full box of fireworks in our kitchen eventually put paid to that … don’t worry there were no injuries or damage caused … though the incident did involve a visit from the local fire service … called by a neighbour who wondered what on earth was going on. Nothing to do with me I hasten to add … I was at work at the time.

So … when I saw the theme bonfire I didn’t think I would be able to find any photos at all … but I did come across these few … it’s not really a bonfire, it’s a brazier …

… in the gazebo in the garden at The Inn on the Lake in Glenridding …

We got married here in 2009 … and we had fireworks. For a few years after we got married we returned to stay there for the New Year. They always lit the brazier later on and you could follow the candlelit pathway down to the gazebo for mulled wine and toasted marshmallows … which we did … even though it was flippin’ freezing …

So not much by way of bonfires but here are a couple of the fireworks we had on the evening of our wedding …

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Photo Scavenger Hunt :: October #5 ... Halloween

Hi there everyone 🎃

Well here we are for the last of Astrid’s photo scavenger hunts for October … A little bit later than usual as we were waiting for the main event.

This week’s word is Halloween and we knew we would be spending Sunday walking round my brother’s housing estate again, with the little man, searching for all things creepy and doing a bit of trick and treating.

On the way over we had a call from my brother to pick up more sweets on the way as his door hadn’t stopped knocking and he was running out of sweets … it was only about 5.30pm.

After a quick stop at the co-op for replenishments we could soon see why. The streets were packed with groups of people all dressed up for the occasion and my sister in law had gone to town on her windows and the house looked fab … it was calling out for trick and treaters to knock on the door …

... which is exactly what we did … to be greeted by a tiny grim reaper holding out a bucket of sweets … he was so excited …

Once inside we got to have a good look at his costume ... he really did look fabulous ...

In the 15 minutes or so we were there I lost count of the number of times the little man answered the door and dispensed of his sweets.

After a lull in the knocking we decided it was time for us to head out … so left the remains of the sweets on the doorstep for any visitors to help themselves and set off to try and refill Bobby’s bucket.

We couldn't leave without a few formal photos ...

It was so funny … the first house, just across the road, and Bobby’s reaction when told to go and knock in the door was … in a scared little voice … “I’m not knocking on it”. In the end daddy had to knock the door … but Bobby did pluck up the courage to help himself to a treat. He was definitely more excited about opening his own door than knocking on others.

He soon got into the swing of it … accompanied by daddy … and we saw some fabulous decorations …

It had obviously been a very busy night as lots of houses had signs out saying that they had run out of sweets …

That didn’t stop us having a very good walk and our last stop, at my sister’s house … Auntie Sarah’s … ensured that Bobby went home with a nice full bucket of sweets … whilst daddy did a quick visit to the chippie.

Nearly 5000 steps later, which Martin managed really well on his crutches, and we were back at my brother’s, drying out, as we’d got caught in the rain, and sharing a big bag of chips on the kitchen table … to be interrupted by one last knock on the door for treats that we had to pinch from Bobby’s stash.

We’d had a lovely evening … it was lovely seeing Bobby all dressed up and excited, we’d had a good walk and the local houses had done themselves proud. We headed home with treats of our own from Bobby …

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