Ann Boland

View Original

Day 11, October 1, 2016 – Around Fishguard, aborted kayaking and back to Southwinds

Beautiful, friendly kitty living outdoors at Pentower - more photos follow the blog.

Goal today is to kill time until our 2 pm kayaking.  Leisurely breakfast, then hanging around Pentower, trying not to become pests.  We head a few hundred yards into town.  Our first stop is City Hall, where the 30 meter long tapestry of the Last Invasion of Britain – 1797 - is mounted.  The project commemorates the bicentennial and is the work of 20+ local stitchers.

The tapestry is full of folklore and humor.  The two sections in the photos show the starving French troops raiding the local homes and the farmers coming to the aid of the infantry.  The second section shows Jemina, local folk heroine who captured twelve French soldiers.  Seems the French mistook her for a British redcoat, her local costume so resembling the military garb.  And, she is fearsome.  The British were ultimately victorious.  We hit the Saturday Market on the first level of City Hall and score a bounty of homemade Welsh pastries and quiche.

Lunch at local pub, then down to the Lower Harbor to meet with Kayak King.  Cancelled!  Wind too strong.  I’m not disappointed.  It’s one of those things that I will enjoy once underway, but don’t look forward to struggling into an ill-fitting wetsuit, fighting the current, etc.  Ed is disappointed.  Norah was going to read in the car and laugh at us, so she is content.  And, we don’t have to make the two plus hour drive back to St. Lythans in the dark – a real bonus.

Easy drive, in and out of rain showers, as we chase rainbows leading the way East.

French or Bigleaf Hydrangea in front of Pentower

Ed and Dizzy

Down the road into Fishguard

Fishguard Tapestry celebrating the bicentennial of The Last Invasion of Britain 1797

Lunch pub

Today a half pint of Brains, the local brew.

Sign on the women's loo, seems to indicate this is the place to give artificial respiration to a torso, or other deviant behavior...

Unused kayaks

Rainbows lead the way east on the A40