As always, my best intentions on blogging regularly* have fallen by the wayside, with no post since 7th March, so here's a brief, mixed bag update of sorts
* not that I have any/many followers, but I suppose it's also a diary/reflection thing of sorts, albeit a very limited one.
Life's too short
Soon after my last post in March, we lost my wife's brother after a relatively short illness. At 70 he'd previously been fit and well living a full and active life, playing golf, motorbiking, walking and being a Dad/grandad and loving music and beer. He may have been my brother in law, but he was like a brother to me. To lose him so quickly was a shock to us all - he seemed as one of his daughter's said, "indestructible". But there you go. He wasn't. None of us are, and it brings our mortality front and centre. I still find it hard to believe he's gone.
Live life to the full, because you just never know what's around the corner.
Sunshine at last
After what seemed like months of rain (actually it was months of rain), the weather finally broke a couple of weeks ago, and what a relief it's been. Sunshine and warmth lifts the mood so much. The garden's run away with growth, new wildlife is around in abundance. I can get my shorts on for golf and the BBQ can be broken out of it's winter wrapping.
We've had some fabulous days out recently. We did a swift overnighter to our favourite place - St David's in Pembrokeshire. We did the four waterfalls walk near Neath in the Brecon Beacons (now reverted to it's original Welsh name, Bannau Brycheiniog), and we visited the Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary, which actually isn't that far from the waterfalls area, although we went a week later than our waterfall visit.
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| Whitesands beach, Pembrokeshire |
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| Sgwd yr Eira on the Afon Felte You can walk behind this waterfall if you're steady and have non-slip footwear! |
We walked on the Heritage coast on the South Wales coast near Monknash and last week went to the enchanting, if quirky Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes near Caerwent, between Newport and Chepstow.
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| Heritage Coast, Vale of Glamorgan |
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| Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes |
In between all this, I've managed to get plenty of golf in. I've enjoyed it though my form hasn't quite returned to it's best, but it's great to be out on the course.
So we've been pretty busy all told. There's a holiday coming up with a visit to the Lake District, somewhere I've never actually been, so that'll be fun and definitely worth a post of it's own who we get back. There's also some other trips later in the year to look forward to so hopefully plenty to update on in due course.
And then to top everything off so far this year, my better half and I are celebrating 30 years of marriage. To be honest, I don't know how she's managed to put up with for this long, but personally, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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