Wonderwool

 Day trip to Wonderwool with Liz, Fi and Sian. I was the chauffeur on the drive to and from the Royal Showground at Builth Wells. So many stalls with so much wool, knitting and crochet stuff. Plus a lot of rare breed sheep.

I did manage to buy something as there was a tremendous stall run by Little Grandma's cooking. Jars of horseradish mustard, Indian spiced chutney, and Lemon ginger chilli made their way home with me.

The Small Space

 

Fi had booked The Small Space on Island Road for Nick's 65th birthday party. 25 people max and Sian wanted people to come dressed as an animated character. I borrowed Tan's Tigger ears as I'm not a fancy dress person. Tan went all out as Woody from Toy Story. Tasty buffet had between the two halves of the Magic Show. The magician was very funny and a talented magician.

First Flat Holm Trip

Booked onto the Bay Island trip over to Flat Holm leaving Barrage South just after 3pm. Parked in the small car park near Penarth Marina as suggested by John Treby. As I walked through the marina to the pick up point, Cardiff Cruises were manoeuvring their new landing craft to join up with the Lewis Alexander. It's amazing to me that the whole marina/barrage area just didn't exist before I went away to University. 

When the rib arrived there were only two other passengers on board. We locked out at 3.30pm. We passed the Barry lifeboat making its way back to Penarth Marina from Welsh St. Donats. With Barry Harbour not having been dredged for the summer season, the lifeboat sits on the silt at the bottom at very low tide, so has to relocate to Penarth Marina. It was definitely bouncy as we crossed its wake.

Simon, the permanent warden, met us at the jetty, where I left my waterproofs, and, after the safety briefing, took us over to the Barracks. As a FHS member I didn't have to pay the £5 landing fee. 

The gulls were quite chilled so I didn't need the folding walking stick. Simon gave us a guided tour, and once that had finished and the ladies had had a drink in the Gull and Leek, I showed them the Victorian gun battery by the lighthouse. The ammo stores steps were no quite finished (Woody's Lodge are doing the work) so couldn't go down. Did catch a glimpse of the Marconi monument. There were rabbits everywhere.

 

Cardiff Bay 10K

Was a volunteer at the Cardiff Bay 10K run. We parked for free at the Red Dragon Shopping Centre, a five minute walk from Roald Dahl Plas. I'm finally getting to know how driving in Cardiff hangs together. 

The weather was not the greatest, but in the bag drop we were under cover. It was great to be in the thick of the action, being situated opposite the Millennium Centre and within site of the start/finish line. However, that meant we were short of space.

The cadets at the elite end of the drop wouldn't listen to advice about getting things in number order as they went along, as did the women in the bays on either side of me.

It was chaos with long lines of athletes and I ended up at the back of one of the pens trying my best to help out. Lots of the first time bad drop volunteers will not be doing it again!

Site seeing in the Vale of Glamorgan

I took myself off down the Vale to do a bit of historical site seeing on a lovely Sunday morning.

First stop, St. Quentin’s Castle in Llanblethian, which is up the hill behind Cowbridge. It's a scheduled monument and a Grade II* listed building under the care of Cadw.

Probably built by English nobleman and military commander Gilbert de Clare in the early 14th century, the most notable remnants of this castle are its huge, twin-towered gatehouse and high stretch of curtain wall on the north of the site. In the centre of what was once a large fortress is an earthen mound with the remains of a thick-walled building on top of it, which may be all that’s left of an earlier keep.

The residential gate house compares with those built by Earl Gilbert's father at Caerphilly and by King Edward I at his castles in North Wales.

 

Next stop Ewenny Priory, a monastery of the Benedictine order, founded in the 12^th century. The priory was unusual in having extensive military-style defences. The priory is not open to the public apart from the Church of St Michael, the western part of the priory building, which continues to serve as the parish church for the village. The priory is in the care of Cadw and is a Grade I listed building. Ewenny Priory House and its gardens remain a private residence of the Picton-Turbervill family who also operate the house as a wedding venue. J. M. W. Turner painted the priory during his third tour of Wales in 1795.

 

 

Stopped off at Nash Point. Parked for free as the cafe isn’t open at this time of year and they collect the parking charge. Then onto Dunraven Bay, better known to locals as Southerndown beach. To Doctor Who fans it's either Darlig Ulv Stranden/Bad Wolf Bay or Alfava Metraxis, where the Weeping Angels crashed. Close by is what is left of Dunraven Castle, a mansion built in the early 1800's for the local MP.

Next up was Ogmore Castle.It is part of a trio of fortresses built to guard Glamorgan against attacks from the Welsh-held west. Beginning as a castle of earth and wood in the early 12th century, it was quickly fortified in stone before being further strengthened with a curtain wall in the early 13th century. An original feature is the deep ditch around the inner ward, designed to fill with sea water at high tide.

The Stepping Stones are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. A ghost, Y Ladi Wen or the White Lady, is said to guard the castle’s hidden treasures.

Final stop was at Coity Castle, which is undergoing major renovations and wasn’t accessible, which was a shame as it’s more intact than a lot of the local castles.

 

 

 

A new volunteering experience at the weekend. Sunday saw the resumption of the Barry Island 10K run, and I was a volunteer at the bag drop. I chose that rather than the water station only to find that the water station was in Romilly Park. I could have wandered down at the last minute rather than having to be on the Island by 8am. 

The bag drop was good fun and well organised if a little short staffed. Each bay should have had two people but no shows meant one per bay. My race numbers went from 3000-3500. These were not the elite runners and not the total slow coaches. My bay ended up with about 100 bags in it. We had 30 minutes to watch the start of the race and get our bays in proper order number order before we were back in operation with the first of the elite runners getting back. 

 It was good fun and I'm down to work with the same supervisors in October for the Cardiff Half Marathon.

First Post in a while

I last posted just over 17 months ago, which was four days before Mum died. When that happened I suddenly has a lot of things to do, and lots of decisions to make. The need to blog disappeared whilst I got myself sorted. Lots of things have changed. The major change has been my moving permanently back to Barry. I realised that the house down here was nicer as was the location. I didn't realise how much I had missed the sea. Wilmslow was never really home. I always said I was going home any time I described a trip to Barry. When I got an offer out of the blue from the son of a neighbour it seemed Karma was telling me to take the money and stay in South Wales. 

So far it has been totally the right decision. I am doing some new volunteering and continuing with some old ones. And there is a new man in my life. Marmite.

I got him from Cats Protection down in Bridgend. He's a now nine year old black cat, who is no longer on the strict diet I had to continue when I collected him as he has gone from 6.8kg to 5.5kg. He's supposed to get down to 5kg but we're both happy with the weight he is. His previous owner was an expat in Spain who had to come home through ill health. He was flown back to the UK (he's got a passport and everything) but couldn't stay with them so was given to Cats Protection. Apparently black cats are always the last to be selected. It seems to be because they're not cute or pretty, but I think he's gorgeous. The local mouse and bird population are not so happy with him, and on one occasion he brought home a frog, but he's a bit of a wuss when it comes to other cats. I have bought a big water gun and have been well trained to come and rescue him when he gives his "Help Mum" cry in the garden.

He loves the garden (when it's not raining), has claimed the chair in the front room as his own, but will sit on my lap provided I have the blanket on my legs. That means he hasn't sat with me for most of the summer as it made both of us too hot. He may be of Spanish origin but he doesn't like it when it's really warm. Wearing a black fur coat isn't great when the temperatures are rising. 

He really loves the soft blanket and I find he's dragged it from the living room into the hall when I get up most mornings. Let's just say he's had the snip but he's still a randy little bugger.