Highways and byways of Laugharne - some more photos added

View across the estuary from Laugharne.

A magnificent Wisteria was growing up this beautiful house.  It was just putting out tentative buds.

What a lovely Georgian cottage . . . in need of some tlc though . . .

Browns Hotel, where Dylan Thomas was wont to drink. . .

Opposite Browns the windows had been blocked out and various paintings replaced them.  Think Dylan Thomas again although I'm not sure about the Chameleon? at the top . . .

I took a little lane which went down towards the park, across a little stream.  This beautiful house was half-hidden in its woodland setting.

A closer view, with the Gunnera putting up their huge umbrella-like leaves.

I saw this huge Magnolia flowering behind someone else's taller garden wall.  This was the best iew I could get of it, with someone else's wall and garage in the way.

A secluded patch at the end of another garden, with Honesty flowering and a sprawling Magnolia thinking about it.

Up the little cobbled street . . .

A view across houses near the little bakery (which did AMAZING sticky buns!)

The castle.  If I wasn't completely shattered, I would give you a little history.  Perhaps a separate post some time . . .

This house was called Green Dragon, and next door to it was Green Dragon Cottage, which abutted to . . .

The rather grand Dragon Park.  I'd love to know where the name came from.

I've always rather liked the look of this house (formerly The Rectory).  It has just been sold and folks were moving stuff in - from the back of their car, so I assume they had lived locally and bought it.  It looked to have lots of character from what I could gather as I nosied through the front door from across the road . . .

Some beautiful words to leave you with.

My birthday day out

Yesterday was my birthday, and I always like to celebrate it with a day out somewhere, a special meal (at home) followed by a bottle of wine (usually red).  Yesterday was no different . . .

Here we are on the road between Cynwyl Elfed and Newcastle Emlyn, close to the turning to Tanglwst.

I would love to support wind turbines and wind farms as an alternative energy supply, BUT quite apart from the fact they are totally inefficient and have to be backed up by conventional power stations at all times, they are a blot on the landscape and wreck areas - many of outstanding natural beauty - in their construction, not to mention their impact on wildlife and anyone living near them.  Wind farms need pylons (cheaper than burying cables) to take the electricity to the national grid.  This has another detrimental effect on the landscape.  For a discrete area and small locale of dwellings, they can work, but NOT to supply vast cities and populations.   Denmark, Germany and Spain have all tried it and have NOT made any real impact on reducing reliance on traditional power sources such as gas, coal or nuclear power, nor reduced carbon emissions . . .  Right, I'll get down of my high horse now.

Above and below, the beautiful Presilis in the distance.  In the bottom picture you can see cairns as well as rocky outcrops, not unlike the tors of my beloved Dartmoor.

Carn Ingli (the Mount of the Angels).  After our Finals at Uni, a group of us "mature students" climbed up and sat amongst the rocks, drinking champagne.  Happy times.

Of course, there was an antique shop involved in the equation.  This is one we have been to regularly over the years, and is run by a knowledgable couple who actually know what they are selling, and its value.  Unlike the multi-trader "emporiums" where everyone is trading in "stuff" (mostly china), frequently don't know what it's worth and put a high price on because they are either worried they may sell it too cheaply or just want to try and fleece a gullible (and equally ignorant) Joe Public.  I . . . may . . . have bought some books here . . .  Well, no may about it - I got a hardback copy of Thomas Hardy's Under The Greenwood Tree (I am trying to replace my old paperbacks with good hardback copies), a Folio copy of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise (lovely old photo illustrations), and a big hardback book of the first 4 Poldark novels.  All for £10 . . .

My OH walking back to the car park with the books past the pretty cottages of Newport.  Apparently it's desirable with Londoners now, so prices have rocketed.

I was trying to get the ancient castle walls to the right of this lovely house, but obviously didn't!

Above and below, Carreg Coetan Arthur.  Now in the middle of a small estate of bungalows . . .  In one of my archaeology books there are some photos of this stone with a strange light anomaly.  It is a Neolithic dolmen or burial chamber and had a cremation and sherds of Beaker and Grooved Ware pottery associated with it.

Then it was time for some proper sea air, and we walked a short stretch of the coast path.

Check out dust on the nettles

There is a fresh post in memory of Edward Thomas, over on my other blog, Dust on the Nettles.

Sante Croce, Florence

This is Sante Croce church in Florence:

"Santa Croce, rebuilt for the Franciscan order in 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio, is the burial place for the great and good in Florence. Michelangelo is buried in Santa Croce, as are Rossini,Machiavelli, and the Pisan-born Galileo Galilei, who was tried by the Inquisition and was not allowed a Christian burial until 1737, 95 years after his death. There is also a memorial to Dante, but his sarcophagus is empty." 

The great and the good were indeed buried here . . .

Here is the beautiful tomb of Galileo.

Tomb of A Gino Caponi.  That surname rings a bit of a bell . . .

View down the church.

Dante's tomb (although the sarcophagus is empty).  I believe he is buried in Ravenna.

Above, and the next few photos - everything was designed and exactingly made to the Glory of God.

These stained glass roundels reminded me of the kaleidoscopes of my childhood.

A marble effigy has been worn down by hundreds of years of passing feet.

Above and below: we had seen artwork of this calibre and age in the Accademia (where the magnificent statue of David is housed), but one can better appreciate it when it is in its proper setting.  I think it is safe to say that the wealth of the Catholic church supported the artists and artisans throughout the century and has given them immortality . . .

My beautiful daughter, who treated me to this holiday.  My family is good to me.

Even busier now!

I have finally got my computer back from being fixed (AGAIN!) and will be able to access my Florence photos and do the last couple of posts to wrap that all up.

In the meanwhile I have been gardening almost every waking hour and if you don't think you can garden for 8 hours a day and still not get on top of a garden, you are welcome to take the challenge up and visit mine!

Back later.

A busy time of things

Nothing exciting to report, as we have had a very busy few days taking the car from garage to garage to have repairs done, new tyres fitted and tracked etc - long story, and a blardy expensive one, I can tell you!  We were haemorhaging money yesterday.  It didn't help that we had a couple of hours to kill whilst the car was in the tyre place (new track rod end needed), so we walked around town, something we don't normally do.  Tea for two (they only do single pots of tea . . .) at M&S was £3.90 which seemed excessive, especially since it wasn't even Twinings Earl Grey (which is what we have at home).  We shan't be going THERE for a cuppa again.  Anyway, we went back later and got a few groceries, and my OH bought me a lovely t-shirt for my birthday (normally I would NEVER spend that much on a t-shirt, so I will have to make it last and last!!)

We wandered down to Poundland and got what we needed there, then TK Maxx, which was fatal, as I couldn't resist a little jade green crackle-glaze ceramic bunny and a bright stripey towel to brighten up the downstairs shower room.  Then we strolled  round the Market, where the display of fruit and veg on one stall was DIRE - with floppy-leaved cabbages and tired past-its-best produce.  After Italy it was a REAL eye-opener I can tell you.  What you want in produce is FRESH.  Anyway, we stocked up later at Abergwili and spent £7.80 on good fresh produce at very good prices.  Ten oranges for £1 and 10 sweet and juicy Clementines were also £1.  A bag of onions 50p, 4 peppers £1.  Cucumbers 50p each or 80p for 2 (I got 4, as I eat a lot of Cucumber).  Lovely vine tomatoes cost me a shade under £1.  Two crisp lettuces were 75p.

I looked at the plants and shrubs on offer from the market stall of Farmyard Nurseries, good prices and lovely plants, but difficult to carry back to the car, so we bought reduced Primulas later on elsewhere, as we had to get compost for sowing seeds, topping up planters and titivating the tired areas of soil in parts of the garden.  I bought half a dozen of the deepest claret red Dianthus too, and in the dimpsey last night, planted them all up in tubs which had been emptied of their winter pansies.  A bit of instant colour to tide me over.

The agent hasn't got back to us yet (but we have been out a lot, in fairness) so we will have to try her again today and see if she actually WANTS to handle our house sale.

Currently planning my birthday bash for next week.  Which shall it be - Snowshill Manor or Kelmscot Manor (this latter house beloved of William Morris)?  Both are in Gloucestershire.  I shall let you know what we decide upon and will try and get back with some photos later.  The main computer has to go back to the repair place as it is threatening to start dumping all the physical memory.   That's not good . . .

Busy in the garden

I am having to use the laptop as I've got problems with a freezing cursor (mouse problems) and of course, all my Florence photos are on the main computer and not on here.

So I shall tell you about my busy weekend in the garden.  I have been putting in 6 or 7 hours a day out there and made great strides in getting it spring-cleaned (all those jobs I should have done last Autumn, really, or to be totally honest, the PREVIOUS Autumn!)

I recently got two big trays of Primulas (buy one, get one free) so I've put these in along the top of the wall and in the little log planters by the gate, for some instant colour.

This used to - laughingly - be called the Herb Garden.  As you can see, it has got completely choked with grass, weeds and other garden thugs planted in it to attract the bees.  One of my friends from down the road kindly came and gave me a couple of mornings' help and we broke the back of cleaning it - all edged now, and more than 3/4 cleared, although I need to dig over again and drag up as many grass roots at I can.

We put up the remains of my small plastic greenhouse on Saturday.  I thought I had a lovely brand new cover for it (for just 50p in the Lidl one day sale last year) but although the width was right, it was too short by about 3 feet, and has gone back in the shed, and the old ripped cover put back on.  I ran out of compost yesterday, but not before I had potted up lots of dahlia tubers (two bags of 3 came from Lidl recently, for just £4 for 6 tubers).  Lidl ones are "Bora Bora", "Star Elite" (both red and yellow and pink and yellow combinations), 2 Cactus dahlias "Purple Gem" and a single (more expensive!) Bishop of Llandaff which is Scarlet with bronze leaves.  I start them in pots or else they get nobbled by the slugs . . .  I also have a Peony started off (Sarah Bernhart), two Phlox - a pink one called "Bright Eyes" and a red one.  These are dessicated roots, so I hope they grow.  Mum used to grow Phlox and Dahlias (and roses) so I think I am turning into her as a gardener.  She always had Nasturtiums too, and I started off some home-grown seed yesterday.  A couple of weeks ago I bought another Morrison Clematis, only £2 I think - a red one, "Earnest Markham",  I finally got around to putting that in a big pot yesterday, but don't know where it will go permanently.

Last year's seed packs from Wilko's autumn sale included several packet of Sarah Raven seeds (which I can't afford full price, but at 75% off were do-able).  So yesterday I sowed Cleome "Violet Queen", Verbena bonariensis, and Mixed Cut Flowers.  In a corner I have two Moneymaker tomato plants which I bought from our local PO at the weekend for 70p each.  I prefer to buy ones that someone else has had the bother of growing as without a proper greenhouse, I struggle growing from seed.

As soon as I have more compost, I will get my runner beans in trays (I grow "Scarlet Emperor" from home-saved seed).

Anyway, yesterday I weeded a bit more of the stone pathway to the greenhouse, and started to straighten the edge of the driveway, which is covered by stone chippings at the top, where we had several tons delivered a few years back.  What I uncover in my straightening up, then gets spread on the pathway.

I carried on with the soft fruit patch - clearing all the brambles and weeds, covering in weed-surpressing membrane and then No. 2 muckheap for food and mulch.  I've done some of the blackcurrants and redcurrants, and yesterday started on the harder job of clearing around the young fruit trees and the very-overgrown raspberries.  I got two strips done and a lot of bramble scratches up my bare arms (it was T-shirt weather - around 70 deg. and WONDERFUL).

Whilst I worked, I thought.  I conjured up pictures of Florence, walking round its cobbled Medieval streets; the shop windows (ALL that leatherwork - jackets,coats, wallets, belts and the most wonderful handbacks - I'm not a handbag person, but I could have bought quite a few!  One afternoon we walked for 40 minutes in search of the little Patisserie where we had seen some gorgeous pastries with fresh fruit which was the only thing I REALLY fancied eating that day.  Eventually we tracked it down and there was one fruit pie left - it was DIVINE.  M&S's alternative bought on our return was very disappointing . . .  I thought of the religious artwork we had seen in the galleries and in Sante Croce (another post to come, photo heavy).  I debated the significance of the religious symbolism I had seen, including the theme of the Christ-child holding a bird - usually a Goldfinch - and when I researched this on my return, I discovered that it was symbolic of the Resurrection to come.  Birds like the Goldfinch, Linnet and Robin were used - their splashes of red colouring denoting the splashes of blood from Christ's crown of thorns which the little bird had tried to remove.  See link..

Moving away from Florence - though the sun reminded me of our time there - my mind moved to the book about artist A J Munnings I had just finished, and thoroughly enjoyed and which I can recommend: "Summer in February". (I have asked for the DVD for my birthday).  It tells of his time in Cornwall, in an artists' colony at Lamorna, a spin-off of the one at Newlyn, and his marriage which ended up in his wife's suicide.  Her first attempt had been on the honeymoon so something was obviously VERY wrong with their relationship.  I pondered that a lot as I pulled out handfuls of grass and chopped brambles into small pieces for ease of disposal.  Was it the shock of sex?  Did she have second thoughts about their relationship?  He sounded a rather abrupt and strong-tempered man in the book (I don't know if that was the case in real-life, but the author, Jonathan Smith, had obviously done plenty of research and read biographies as well as Munnings' biographies.  Was she in love with someone else - as suggested in the book - and didn't realize her mistake in marrying Munnings until it was too late?  We will probably never know . . .

As my OH had cut the lawns, my final hour out in the garden was spend starting to edge them, and weed.  I started at one margin of the pond and made good progress, though I am still trying to eradicate the thuggish stripey "decorative" grass I foolishly planted out there . . .  it gets EVERYWHERE, and particularly enjoys growing inbetween the stones creating the pond margins. . .

Last week my OH cut down one of the diseased ash trees at the bottom of the yard, so we are already drying next winter's firewood (not that we hope to be here to USE IT!!!)

Meanwhile, having woken at 3.30 a.m. and risen at 4 a.m., I am still trying to spin out these extra hours by keeping busy, and have the slow cooker full of a huge pan of Vegetarian Chilli (well, Vegan actually) with tomatoes, mixed beans and kidney beans, sweetcorn, carrots, red pepper, onion, garlic, and spices.  Tea tonight is now sorted, and I shall portion up the rest for the freezer.

Anyway, we phone the new agent today and put the house back on the market, so it's all hands to the pump to get the last couple of jobs done internally, the new polished slate house nameplate up and the garden looking spick and span.  Cross your fingers for an early sale please : )