Riding the lanes

It's warm today, but overcast for much of the time. Kath returned from the beach last night later than us with romantic photos of the waning moon emerging from the sea beyond the Bay. At that late hour  didn't have the energy to go out again, so maybe tonight, depending on the weather. 

We gathered for breakfast at the hotel this morning at nine thirty, and lingered long, enjoying a lazy time, pottering about until lunchtime. I went down the beach to take some low tide photos of the Bay with my Sony DSLR and wide angle lens. Finally a walk to Port Eynon was decided upon with a picnic on the beach about a kilometre away from the village. The slope above the coast path is home to lots of small butterflies, and the most wonderful bright purple gorse flowers. 

Port Einon beach with the tide out is a spectacular expanse of sand, with long shoals of grey pebbles and bedrock with green and brown seaweed exposed when the tide is at its lowest, altogether colourful. In today's sunshine, it was well populated with family groups.

Clare and I were too tired to enjoy the return walk, so we waited an hour and caught the local bus, which turned out to be an exciting ride through narrow lanes, expertly driven by a guy who had his passengers in stitches of laughter with his comments as we sped along. We arrived just after Kath Ano and Owain, who found a slightly shorter route back.

I cooked a big veggie pasta dish for supper while the others went swimming, as the tide came in again. Afterwards we went down to the beach and made another fire with driftwood, as did several other small groups along the foreshore. Oxwich Bay is one of the few places around the country where beach fires are tolerated. I'm not sure why, but it could be something to do with ownership and management of land right down to the shore. On the whole, people are respectful and tidy up after them, and after dark there are far few visitors around as the (paying) car park closes for the night, and there's no public transport at that late hour, so it's only people who can stay overnight are likely to go the the beach in the dark.

Scores of messages of sympathy have been posted on the Parish WhatsApp group over the post twenty four hours, and Fr Rhys has reorganised the rota to cover Frances' absences, I can't be of much extra help as I'm covering St German's for most of August. Just as the parish was getting back to normal, again we are in a time of upheaval. We are fortunate enough in the new Ministry Area to have five retired clerics supporting the existing four full timers (with one vacancy) and one NSM, but the availability of retired clerics varies a great deal, so there are always unforeseen crises to be managed in an area with seven congregations and a constituency of 80-90,000 to serve. It'll be quite an achievement if we can get through the next couple of months with a minimum of cancellations.