Flew to Heathrow and picked up my car then drove to Wales, the colors of the trees along the motorway were stunning so the journey passed quickly. A little bit of drama when I got to my mum’s, there was no answer to my knocks, ringing the bell or calling her phone!! Quick call to my Aunt, who then rang my Uncle and he came over and let me in. I asked him to check upstairs but no sign of her. 40 minutes later in she came with enough food shopping to feed the rest of the street. But at least she was ok.
We had lunch and watched the birds having fun in her garden including a very sweet Robin Redbreast
I took Mum for a ride to our local beach, and reminded myself of all the times I used to go there in my teenage years. It is only 6 miles from home and i was there most weekends. There was a nightclub there that had all the top bands at the time and also a lot of the Motown stars come to visit in the 70’s.
The log that the children are climbing over got washed up with an abnormally high tide a few years ago. The locals decided to adopt it, you know the Welsh love their dragons and dragon lookalikes. So there he stays. The land with the sun highlighting it is actually Ilfracombe which is over in England, on the other side of the Bristol Channel.
On Wednesday we went for a tour of the Vale of Glamorgan, the first stop was the beach at Southerndown, while still school age, I used to work at a cafe a short walk back from the beach, its now been converted into a heritage center. The local lifeguards were all from the international college that was a few miles up the road and we thought they were hunky, so…….. one day after work we went down the beach and even though it was freezing cold we ran into the sea and then pretended we needed help, only to realize they had shut the hut and all gone home!! Ah well, lesson learned.
We carried on around the Vale, going through to Barry Island (Gavin and Stacy fame) Penarth and back up the A48 to Cowbridge and then home.
That evening I went to dinner at my lifelong friend’s house, we have known each other since we were 7 years old. We had a great time catching up and promised to spend longer with each other next time.
Thursday morning I drove to Swindon to start my adventures at Mrs Parkmans school of needlework.