It must have been about May last year when we were all stuck indoors and H spent a few hours rifling through endless websites, looking for places to escape to in the UK for a week or so. We'd talked about visiting Pembrokeshire a while ago, so he was v pleased with himself when he spotted a sweet little cottage just off a beach, that was fully booked apart from one week in November.
So he went ahead and booked it – only then realising that instead of it having availability for Nov 2020 it was in fact fully booked for an entire 2 years ahead (!) and he had in fact found the only slot they had, in Nov 2021… So it has been quite a long wait for our trip to Wales, and it finally rolled round last week.
Not the most auspicious start as we rocked up in the anticipated Welsh grey drizzle and howling wind, but luckily the cottage itself was very sweet, things picked up and we snaffled a few decent days.
Scrumpy of course was deliriously happy, yomping up and down different beaches, legging in and out of the surf, chasing sticks and magically finding lost balls pretty much everywhere we went. And doing her usual photo bombing trick – here I am!
We did our bit and picked up a scary amount of beach plastic – poo bags as ever coming into their own, as they were filled either by the dog or by fishing rope, bottle tops, twine and unidentifiable lumps of stuff that should never be on a beach..
Jules & Nicky popped up for a couple of nights while looking at potential bits of land to buy, none of which quite ticked the box this time round. Did lots of beach walking, puddle jumping and rock scrambling, all very necessary considering the huge amount of scoff, including testing out Welsh cakes both sweet and savoury, both v nice.
And thank god for the hot tub – a tricky little sucker to use as it was wood fired. Hence we waited about 3 hours the first day for it to heat up, H doing a fine impression of the Macbeth witches as he stirred the massive tub with a handy wooden paddle. And then it got waaaaay too hot – one foot in, semi scalded, bloody quick leap back out. And repeat until finally, both feet in and daring to go down to the lower level of the hot tub, shoulders back and bright red boiled lobster impressions all round.. But still very nice to have a drink watching the sun set – and oddly it seems to have taken 10 years off everyone in this photo!
Scrumpy also had the highlight of the week – a run through a huge turnip field, where all the veg was bursting at the seams and practically picking itself. She though they were giant carrots – one of her fave snacks – so could not believe her luck at all the free monster sized food! (Little sod less in my good books when we got home – I popped out for less than 2 mins to move my car, during which time she found the gingerbread I had bought for the neighbours as a thank you for feeding Mojo, in a bag on the floor and ate the bloody lot).
So, Wales has been ticked as a destination. Although I still had Welsh Vanessa-from-hockey's words ringing in my ears, every time we looked out from the house – 'oh I was conceived on Newgale beach…'. It was never quite the same after that! x