LJ just loves it

The tide was miles out, well as far out as it gets here, when we went down for the first walk of the day.

It was really windy and for most of it we had the beach to ourselves. No wonder LJ loves his winter holiday.

This beam has obviously been in the water for a while. Barnacles?

And the boyyo waiting for me,to come back from the shopping. To be honest he's got so comfortable he's starting to shout at passers by!!

Coastal cruising .. But not in a boat!

Lovely sunny day today and with the forecast looking grim for the weekend we set off to do some cove hopping. We even had a list. We got through it and had more.

First stop was an us scheduled stop as we went into Fishguard. Could not resist watching the ferry arriving from Ireland.

and we saw some of the old defences

Alistair was, I am sure, marking the Captain on manoeuvring! Well with 30 years at sea he would not be able to stop himself.

Then on to Abercastle

Building up to Alistair's favourite spot. Trefin. Scene of his painting epiphany. 

Porthcrawl was a huge surprise  - we had not known it had been a working harbour. So very different

Finally Abereiddi

And back to Newport and another fab meal in the Golden Lion. 

Stumbles ... but not me being my usual clumsy self

Just teasing... it's Strumble Head and the very impressive lighthouse

                  

What a lonely old billet that must have been.

as if by magic

I went off and has a luxury bath with Christmas Aromatherapy Oils, courtesy of my in laws and they are just amazing and Subday afternoon Radio 2. Heaven. Then I tried the old log off and log on trick and hey presto we seem to be up and running again  so here are the tide in/tide out photos I wanted to post earlier. When the tide is out it's another fab walk for LJ. We are spoilt. 

Why can't they just leave things alone?

Some upgrade to the system means I no longer know how to upload photos onto the blog! And it was so easy before.

I feel about as much use as this boat! 

Why is New Zealand so far away?

My goodness, New Zealand has a  musical feast in April with shows from:

The Boss

His, Curtis Stigers and my recommendation , Jason Isbell . Just can't stop listening to Southeastern. Listening now

And these old codgers

And these are just the ones I know about! Thanks Peter!

Out and about in Pembrokeshire

We took advantage of  a lovely day yesterday to do a bit of a wander. Down  to St David's and on to Solva then to Newgale beach. LJ was, and is,  totally shattered after two beach and an estuary walk and I fell in love, not just with the scenery but with the Window on Wales shop in Solva. I need another two hours in there. I'm not worried as am sure we will be back. Solva just such a special place.

We finished the day with a meal at the Golden Lion. Our second. We just have to visit the Royal Oak and we'll have spread ourselves round the three Newport pubs open through the winter. We thought we'd learnt our lesson from last Saturday and arrived at 1800. The only two tables left in the bar were round the corner by the pool table! They don't serve food until 1830. Arrive early to avoid disappointment. My meal was so good I forgot there was a chap playing pool resting his cue on my shoulder but our quest for a sticky toffee pudding to beat the White Hart at Lydgate continues.

Some of today's views

Oooooops ........ A rebuttal

Sorry folks, I've given you the impression that a painting I included on a blog to show what the area was like was the one Alistair sold recently.  It wasn't!!  Thanks to Gentleman Boater of 2013 for making me look again!  Below are some early photographs. These courtesy of Alistair as I'm still grappling with the new phone!! 

How on earth can I be moaning........

The excitement of meeting Maggie took over from a bit of a moan - YES but not about Newport - and some photos from our first proper walk with LJ this morning.

Best to get the moan over with, it's Tom Tom. Yesterday we followed it off a perfectly good dual carriageway that we knew would take us to Haverfordwest/Fishguard/Newport. We also knew their was a northern alternative on maybe not quite so fast a road. Foolishly we believed this was the option selected by Tom. Er not. He preferred to take us over a mountain with his route getting progressively more challenging until we were on single track lanes between high hedges. My favourite. Of course,mby the time we got to that point we couldn't have turned round if we'd wanted to. Shall I mention the unfavourable diesel situation? Best not. We made it to a garage anyway - after that we even made it to a garage that was open!!

Green Cottage http://www.greencottagepembrokeshire.co.uk quickly cheered us up. This followed by a walk down the estuary to the harbour and by a trip to the Golden Lion which absolutely lived up to it's reviews. (Sometimes the Gods smile ...' Sunday Times). We didn't stand a chance of making it to pudding. I am hopeful the sticky toffee might equal that of Ben and Jess' wedding - always on the hunt for that!