St John's Day

As soon as I woke from a good night's sleep I published the link to Morning Prayer for the Nativity of St John the Baptist. For breakfast we had the scallops Clare bought yesterday, and Saturday pancakes two days early - we've be up and out of here early on the day itself, as there's an early departure time for this holiday let. 

The weather was cool and overcast again today with mist over sea and land for much of the day, and a few drops of rain in the evening. We walked around town inspecting restaurant menus before lunch, with the aim of eating out on our last day. We got a booking in the Hive eaterie on the quay we can see from our front window. The evening was already fully booked.

After lunch we walked north again along the coast path to Aberarth. For much of the way Clare chatted in Welsh with a fellow walker. The tide was further out than we've seen it all week not surprisingly as tonight the full Summer Equinox 'Strawberry' moon rises at ten. For the first time since we arrived I heard an oystercatcher cry in the distance. Low tide exposes a vast bedrock shelf covered in seaweed. It's half a kilometer to the sea from the coast path in places, no sand visible. Beyond the bedrock shelf I guess there's a sandy surface to the seabed in which the oystercatcher would hunt for food on the occasions when it's exposed.

After supper this evening we took our empty wine bottles to the bottle bank, and a full rubbish bag to a nearby container. One less task to do tomorrow evening when we're backing our bags. After a couple more episodes of 'Coroner', we watched a documentary about restoration work in Kensington Palace, which showcased the unique specialised work of a craftsman making huge gilded wooden candelabra for one of the state rooms, and training an apprentice. Apart from the fact that low maintenance electric lights now replace candles, the construction method used is the same as that used three hundred years ago when the originals were made. Curiously the originals were removed and disappeared without trace a century ago.

Summer solstice

A slow and lazy start under a grey overcast sky. It's the longest day today. We went for a walk to the south beach in the morning and bought fish and chips for lunch on our way back. After a siesta, we walked southwards again on the coast path, half way to New Quay. Over the harbour we saw a buzzard circle and then dive to attack a gull unsuccessfully. The next time the bird circled overhead I got a few photos of it with my Olympus camera about 30 meters overhead. I was quite surprised at the good quality of the cropped image obtained after basic processing. I got another excellent image of a bird which flew out of a bush on to the beach nearby. I think it may have been a meadow pipit. The hedgerow along a part of the coast path was strewn with wild roses and honeysuckle, foxgloves and many other flowers we didn't know the names of. So beautiful.

I had an email from Michelle and Andy while I was out, asking if they could postpone Harry's christening for a month as they'd had a couple of family bereavements. I got in touch with Fr Phelim to discuss this, and found myself being asked if I was free to cover St German's services in August, in addition to doing the christening on the first. He actually finishes his ministry there the last Sunday in July, and then takes a month off to move house and take time out before starting as Area Dean of South West Birmingham. He'll be a great loss to the diocese. I'm pleased to be back looking after St German's again as often as needed as I have done three times previously when there have been breaks in ministry there.

This evening after uploading my third batch of photos, I watched the most recent episode of NCIS to reach channel 5USA - it's nearly the end of the penultimate series that has been made, and the winds of change are blowing. Gibbs looks his age (70-ish) and other key team members are looking more their age also. As happened with characters in the long running French crimmie 'Spiral' also. Time passes.

Coast Path walk

As the weather was reasonable, we went to Penarth again for lunch today. Then we walked along the clifftop as far as Sully Bay, passing the substantial concrete remains of World War Two coastal defence positions at Lavernock Point, something I've not visited before. The route has been upgraded, fenced at dangerous points and properly waymarked, all as part of Wales' 870 mile Coastal Path, currently receiving a fresh publicity boost in national news. Several years ago before the path was stabilised, we walked only as far as St Peter's Church Cogan and I got very muddy indeed.

The churchyard wall bears a plaque commemorating Marcon's first ever broadcast in 1897 of a radio signal received at Brean Down on the other side of the Severn Estuary.

The tide was at its lowest during our walk, revealing a two hundred yard pavement of Jurassic rock strata reaching out from the base of the cliffs for a hundred years or so. The worn rock layers form edges and ledges whose pattern seems to imitate the movement of waves coming ashore. Along the steep cliff edge bushes bearing May blossom were in full flourish.

Overlooking Sully Bay is a gun emplacement which was unusually constructed with heavy steel shutters, presumably to keep out the wind and the rain when not in use. The shutters, though much corroded over the past seventy years are still there - one is fused by rust into its guide rails. The other lies within the shelter, torn out of its mountings and thrown to the floor. What the Lufwaffe and dodgy scrap merchants could not manage has been achieved by idle handed idiots incapable of valuing a significant if ugly token of our island history.

Watched the final two episodes of 'The Bridge' after supper. Lots of suspense, the odd snatch of quirky humor but it was hardly worth watching ten episodes of grisly melodrama to see Saga, Ms Robocop finally display a few seconds of normal human emotion. Impressive acting, to have remained stony faced for so long, but the whole thing was ultimately disappointing. The fact that the series used Danish and Swedish languages because of the mise en scène was only capable of entertaining someone adept in Scandinavian languages.