Crazy weekend!

To celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary we invited the children to join us for a weekend of activities.

On Saturday morning we headed out to Glan-rhyd woods for a wilderness/bushcraft experience. It was a very hot day and we could have done with using the first open air swimming pool in Wales had it been in a fit state.

The woods are on the old estate of Arthur Gilbertson, a wealthy local industrialist, and have lots of interesting features as well as being a source of peace and tranquillity. Until we all arrived. Then it was camouflage, cooking and den-building.

At base camp the leader of BeeWild Conservation and Education explained the purpose of camouflage in nature before his intrepid team set off to be hidden.

It was really and surprisingly hard to find them. They all did very well keeping quiet and still.

Some of us even managed to fit in a bit of whittling to prepare sticks for cooking marshmallows.

The den at an early stage.

Climbing trees wasn't meant to be part of the adventure but some of us see a tree and have to climb it.

After a picnic lunch in the woods it was back to our house for much fun in the pool before the barbecue. Toby decided he'd have a go at this camouflage lark too.

Today, our actual anniversary, we went to Port Eynon to play on the beach. We built castles and hearts, paddled and rock-pooled. We caught a fish, a shrimp, a large crab and a small crab. We also found a dead shark i.e. dogfish. My attempt to get the grandchildren to help me fill in a heart shape with stones was less successful than I might have hoped i.e. other things proved more interesting leaving me to collect most of the stones.

If you look very carefully you may be able to make out the 40 in the centre.

It finished with fish and chips on the beach and ice cream before we set off for home. A pretty good way to celebrate a special anniversary I think.

Tomorrow we set off for France for the re-creation of our honeymoon. No idea if we'll have wi-fi but I'm sure I'll be popping up every now and again.

A good year for blossom

I'm waiting for Elder Son and family to arrive. They're here for the weekend to help us celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary on Sunday. But before that we're off out into the wild to celebrate GrandSon1's seventh birthday (early). Photos and stories to follow.

When I was young my mother planted a mock orange shrub in the garden. She said it would be ready for me to carry some on my wedding day. 

She died before I was married but I made sure my bouquet contained some of the orange blossom from our garden. Today the house I grew up in is being renovated and the garden is a tip. I suspect the orange blossom won't have survived, which is a shame as it's a very good year for all blossom. This tree is in our garden now.

And here we were almost forty years ago.