Tag Archives: beach

Welsh Wales

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We’ve been spending a few days in Welsh Wales – the weather has been pretty good, but it’s been damn cold. It’s bloody May – it shouldn’t be this flamin’ cold!
First up was Manorbier in Pembrokeshire. We’ve heard how lovely it is – it wasn’t. Might have been something to do with the Arctic gale blowing, but we didn’t hang around for very long. There’s a surprisingly pristine castle, but it’s not National Trust so we were buggered if we were going to pay to get in…

After that, we went to Colby Woodland Garden, which *is* National Trust. Quite nice, with a reasonable walled garden, but nothing desperately exciting.
When we were in Wales in September, SWMBO was trying to find a beach on the Cardigan Bay coast that she visited as a child. We’ve been to about half a dozen of the damn things now, and we still haven’t found it. I suspect that the passage of 30 years has merged bits of several different beaches into is a mythical place that only exists in her memory/imagination.
Today we tried the wonderfully named Mwnt. Nope, that wasn’t the one either. Nice though – probably really nice when it’s warm. Which it wasn’t. National Trust car-park though, so we parked for free! Cheap? Us?

Finally, we went back to Llanerchaeron, near Aberaeron (see post from last September). Yes, it’s National Trust…
The vegetable plots in the walled garden are just starting to get going – blossom on the fruit trees, potato plants just starting to come up, that sort of thing.
I quite like this shot of one of their espaliered apple trees – shot from very low down with the very wide-angle lens.
We went back to see the pigs as well, and they’re much too big to lay in the food trough now.
Are there left-handed and right-handed pigs, based on which way their tails curl?

Bosherston

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We also visited Bosherston in Pembrokeshire, where three small valleys were flooded in the 1800s to form a large series of lakes. These are full of water lillies, and look fantastic.

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f5.6, ISO 100

Having walked for a mile or so along the valley, you suddenly come out at Broad Haven beach – completely unexpected and very picturesque. Without wanting to sound rude, you wouldn’t guess it was Wales, would you?

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f4.4, ISO 100


And on the walk back, we came across this cormorant, which happily sat there for ages while I took photos.

Panasonic FX-37, 130mm equivalent, 1/125 @ f5.9, ISO 200

Llansteffan

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We spent a few days in Wales in early September, which coincided with several days of fantastic weather. For a change, I deliberately left my digital SLR at home and shot a bit of film. I’ll post those up when I get them back from processing and scan them – these shots are from my little digital compact.

I’m so impressed by the macro facilities you get with them, making shots like this dead easy.

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/640 @ f5.6, ISO 100

Llansteffan was lovely – it was really quiet, and at times all you could hear was a bit of wind and some seagulls. The tide times were just right, which enabled us to walk out surprisingly far onto the sand banks. And yes, we did take care to make sure we weren’t cut off.

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f5, ISO 100

And finally, I resurrected an old family habit of drawing “DON’T PANIC” in the sand (from Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) – since the early 80′s we’ve done this on endless beaches!

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f6.3, ISO 100