Wish I could be drinking down the van...

During half term I had the privilege of spending a couple of days down the caravan with my Bessie mucker Pugs.

We set off from mine in Pugs' mams convertible beetle on wed afternoon. We picked up some essential provisions eggs, beers, bread, pizza etc at the local Lidl. 

The van is situated on a site at the far west end of Gower on Broughton beach. 

We took Bryn with us, he us awesome. He is a Golden retriever Poodle Cross.

We had a quiet first night had a few beers, a walk on the beach and watched Autumnwatch.

We got up the next morning took bryn for a walk on the beach, loads of birds around Oystercatchers, around 35, a few cormorant and loads of gulls.

We decided to head to Worms Head Rhossili for a bit of breakfast. Which was banging hand rolled Glamorgan veggie sausages. 

We had a walk out on Worms Head the views are unreal. On the way back we sat and watched two dolphins fishing in the water, amazing. 

We had a couple in the pub overlooking the bay. I had a Tomos Watkins Worms Head Bay followed by a Gower Power from Gower brewery, which was lush. 

We headed back to the van and decided it was such a nice day we needed a dip bear in mind it's October 30th.

We shared a bottle of Buck's Fizz to get us in the mood, packed some stuff,  the bins, a few beers and headed for Blue pool.

Blue pool is a natural ring of rocks, which fills when the tide comes in leaving a plunge pool when it retreats. 

We both had a quick dip it was surprisingly not that cold for the time of year, we had a beer watched the sunset and headed back to the van. 

We had a quick change, an amaretto coffee and headed out on foot to The King's Head Llangennith for a few beers and a spot of dinner.

I had the Gower Power IPA, which again was good. We shared a baked Camembert with garlic bread and chutney to start.

For main I had a gourmet pizza, which was anything but gourmet.

To finish I had sticky toffee pudding with hot vanilla custard, which was to die for. I finished off with a Gower brewery Lighthouse, which was Delish. Rolled back down the hill to the van. 

We watched a bit of Snow White and the huntsman, I was falling asleep though from the overwhelming fullness.

We took Bryn to the beach in the morning again loads of Oystercatchers about around 35 or so.

We decided as I was heading back today we would stop off at Kenfig Pool to see if  there were any birds about. Bear in mind Pugs has never really done any birding before, I have about 5-6 years under my belt and in that time I've barely seen more than a fleeting glimpse of a Waterrail. 

We were literally in the hide five minutes we were informed we'd just missed the Bittern, when not one, but two Waterrails came out of the reeds and started foraging right in front of us.



Needless to say I'll be taking Pugs birding with me again!

Love Marilyn x

"Wish I could be drinking down the Van!"

I LUUV Pale Ale-gels

On Friday, I met up with two of my olde butties, the enigma otherwise known as Pugs and Kev. Me and Pugs met in Cardiff straight after work, over a Barry Island IPA at the Duke of Wellington. We also sampled an Anchor Street Porter at the City Arms, which was delicious. We headed to Newport on the train I had an M&S Belgian Cherry Wheat beer which was excellent. We met Kev at the Olde Murenger House, one of the oldest and coolest pubs around. We opted firstly for a Extra Stout which is rich, thick and delicious. We also sampled an organic wheat beer and a scotch each.

 

Le pubs beer selection is pretty damn great now too. We had a Celt Golden Age and a Bushmill's chaser. I also over the course of the night sampled. Butty Bach from Wye Valley (See Iolo Williams State of Nature on Youtube), Welsh Pale Ale from the Kite brewery, probably my fave on the night so I stuck with that. We headed upstairs to watch the bands...

Luuv features an old friend and probably one of the best all round musicians South Wales has produced Sami Hunt. So I knew from the off, going from his previous pedigree (see Harbour, Night & the City of Broken promises..., The Keep, Bedford Falls, Blackbeard, Chain of Flowers, From This Moment on, Of Noble Blood and the list goes on) that I was probably going to "Luuv" them (pun master). 



I was not wrong they take me back to when I first got into music and first started going to Le pub actually, they have elements of Echo & the Bunnymen, Wire and Jesus and the Mary chain going on all good in my book. Bit of fuzz, grunge, indie and a bit of goth for good measure.

Pale Angels features another dear friend Jamie Morrison of The Arteries, Mike from Static Radio and on this tour, Reza from The Cutups on drums (Reza also played in Blackbeard for a while) Pale Angels play fuzzy grunge, are heavily influenced by the likes of Nirvana and Dinosaur Jnr. I've seen them twice now and they've been great both times check out their debut album Primal Play out now on Specialist Subject records, you can listen to it now on their bandcamp page.