I wish I was a Tenenbaum

At the weekend, again in much need of friend therapy I headed to the Mumbles for my BFF Pugs birthday adventure.

We hit up our fave local spot Cafe Vallance for a romantic cheese & wine Brodeo.

Jamie and Miles met us after practice and Pugs' sister. I fell asleep drunk watching Mean Girls with Pugs and Jamie, standard.

It was awesome to get to see Batman again too.

In the morning we were meeting to go on an expedition to the Gower. Of course they were all on "Swansea time" so a 10 o'clock departure turned into midday after a Veggie sizzler at the White Rose.

We left the car and the stuff at Torbay, and headed off to the rendezvous at Mewslade bay. Mewslade is proper lush never been before, sea was proper choppy and full of jellies.

I was fully hoping to see Gower Chough for the first time, as I had heard they were in this area.

As we headed over the top there was lush views of a Kestrel hunting doing its classic wind hover.

Then I spotted 4/5 Chough foraging in the short turf again lush views.

As we headed off along the top there was a first for me, which I was pretty stoked with a Yellowhammer, although once common and present all year round I hadn't managed to see one until now, which tells me they are in decline sadly.

I drew this Yellowhammer when I got home to commemorate the sighting.

Three friends on a cliff

We stopped for the holy trinity of Chip Butty, Peanut butter Joe's Ice cream and Booze in Port
Eynon. I had a Black Dragon by Gwnt-y-Draig 7.2% bit rich for lunch time, but bloody lovely.

The inaugural shit punching contest took place back on the trail.

"Like that fella from the three rings!"

We headed on along the coast path towards Oxwich the path took in some sensational views and some stunning secluded cove that would be lush for wild swimming.

The final stretch was pretty killer through a large wood in search of Sasquatch. No sightings or scents of placenta unfortunately...

We got to the Oxwich Bay Hotel totally fucked, dogs barking bro one and all.

I had a pint of cloudy cider and then walked in the sea across the beach to Torbay to soothe my aching trots.

I hadn't been to Torbay before it was lush like the beach from Moonrise Kingdom!

We still had to walk to the car to get the gear too. Got the gear, set up a pretty sick camp on the beach.

Pugs set up a pretty sweet fire, whilst we got the BBQ's going, the wrongbow's started flowing.




















We ate some BBQ, collected more wood, Rez cooked a Tadik in the fire a traditional Persian rice dish, we chatted shit and enjoyed the fire for a couple of hours then hit the hay, all pretty knackered from the walk.

A fantastic expedition

Awkward family portrait by Jamie Morrison

I look forward to the extended version in August.

City Bouys - Walk the Gower available soon on slashsquash records

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!"