A busy weekend and brief update

The weekend was hot, and quite busy.  There is a lovely Vintage Show down on our local showground at Ponargothi each June.  There is a car boot sale with it, so we thought, as it couldn't get any more local than that, we would put a few things in the car and see if we could offload them.  Unfortunately, although there were quite a few stalls (there are folk with caravans who seem to go from one vintage fair to another with their  stuff) no-one was buying anything.  It got even hotter and quite humid and by 11 a.m. I had had enough as it was starting to have an affect on my asthma, so we just packed up and came home.  Walking into our wonderful cool house was such a relief!  I did take a few photos, but have managed to lose them.  If I discover what I did with them, I will share them with you.  Think old cars, old caravans, old motorbikes, static steam-powered engines and machinery, a chap with a chainsaw making owls and toadstools and a fabulous big bear.  Old tractors too of course - they go on a parade around the local roads at one point.  (Found them now, so I shall do a separate post).

Anyway, on Sunday I was booked to go for a walk with my friend Deb.  I hadn't seen her or her lovely Welsh Cob youngster Morgan for over a year so it was time to catch up.

Here is the beautiful Morgan, who has a stunning head (he is stunning all round!).  He is 7 now and Deb has had him 4 years.  When he first arrived he was even unsure about standing on 3 legs to have a foot picked out, bless him!  She has brought him on quietly and he has grown to be about 16.1 hh, which is really BIG for a Welsh Cob, but he is the old-fashioned riding type - as compared with the high-knee-action butty little driving cobs.  

When he had finished his feed and been fly-treatmented, we went up onto the mynydd above Pontardulais and the Amman valley for a walk along the ridge.  Panoramic 360 deg views and we could see the sea at the end of the Gower Peninsula.

This was a little lower down, as we were driving up to the high spot - you can just see our lane on the horizon, mid-photo.

I think that's Pontardulais in the background.  The gigantic flat-roofed building on the left is Tesco.  The white farmhouse in the foreground is Plas Mawr, which goes back 100s of years (Cromwell stayed there when he was "in the area".  It became virtually derelict but was "done up" and sold in 2014.  If you want to be nosy, here is the inside.  I think it has been over-restored with those sharp edges to recently plastered walls (they probably won't have been done in lime plaster either . . . though that said, it IS listed).    

Looking more northwards towards Ammanford.

The River Loughor reaching the sea at the end of the Gower Peninsula.  You can just make out the bridge crossing the river on the left, and that is where the Romans crossed it too.

The Gower hills, with the long sandy beach of Rhossili stretching towards Worms Head.

Looking inland towards the back of the Carmarthen Fans, and the windfarms which are being erected all around this mynydd.  I give them 20 years, when - having despoiled the landscape - something new will have taken their place.  I am all for alternative energy, but these just cannot ever provide enough for the huge population of this country.

Looking Eastwards.

This has taken me ages to load photos for, and I was also bidding on-line at an auction, so I really MUST get back to working on Tam's quilt now!