Updatey

Just an update on the doings here.

Starting Saturday Christien and I will be house-sitting for two weeks for a family in Llanmadoc, which is out on the far north end of the Gower (right down the road, about 20 miles from Swansea, you'll remember us talking about Rhosilli, we will be north of there). Not the most glamorous of house-sits, we had looked into some in France, Spain, and Ireland ... but the most practical for us right now, basically no travel costs, etc. The owner is a Professor at Swansea U, so they were glad to get someone there associated with the school and who knows the area. Plus we figure with a "local" recommendation (all things going well, hopefully) we will have a good start toward some holiday getaway/house-sitting gigs in the future. They have 3 dogs, Lurchers (which are a mix breed, with greyhound in them) which need lots of walking. The house is right below a hill which we will be walking with the dogs every day, with 360 degree views of the sea and peninsula. They are just up from pine woods, dunes, and beach. No market except a tiny co-operative place just down the road. A real Welsh village. So we will take lots of pics and I will update how it goes! We will have internet, but not on our laptops, so I will have to post pics later.

In other news, our move will likely be the week of Sept 10th, sometime between the 10th and 17th. We are moving into a studio apartment -- which will take a little getting used to after all the enormous amount of space we've had here at Beck. However, with fire alarms and workmen and landscapers and 3 a.m. students talking outside our room, I think we are looking forward to a change. And the place will be cheaper, as well, which is good cause we need to save money, as usual!

I leave you, then, with a Swansea shot ....



This is down at the boardwalk near the beach looking back up into Brynmill and toward the Uplands. The lights and stands of the Cricket/Rugby grounds you can see right in the foreground.

California Dreaming?

Is it me, or are these California Poppies? They really look quite like them. There are a couple plants growing from a wall down on Pantygwdyr Street. I've now seen a few similar flowers at the botanical gardens in Singleton Park, but not in the pure golden California shade.




I've realized that in the past we've been very bad about taking atmospheric shots of places that we've lived. We take shots on special sorts of trips, like hikes, or of special kinds of things, like castles ... but I've realized that so much of what makes Swansea interesting is just the streets and the garden walls, and the alleys (I love the alleys) and the way you know you're in a sea town, even when you can't see it.

C & I both had a working Sunday this weekend, wrote, etc. -- but we stopped at 5 pm and walked down to the beach together. The tide was in, which I always like because then I get to touch the water. There were a number of fishermen down on the beach, and a whole group of sail boats doing S's around the buoy's out in the bay. Very lovely. Anyway, why did I bring that up ... oh ... cause I realized that even sitting in the flat with the breeze coming in through the window, you know there is sea out there--its just in the smell of the air, and the salty, seaish feel of it .... How's that for brilliant description? Hmmm, yes.

Back to the poppies--they could be transplants, there are so many plants here from all over the world. And the weather here is very California coastal ... a bit cooler perhaps. We've been averaging in the 60's -- low to high -- but that is beach weather I suppose.

I include, besides the poppies, a couple of my attempts at recording more of the everyday atmosphere of Swansea....







If you take a zig-zag route through Brynmill (neighborhood) down toward the bay you have to climb. You come out at a spot where there is a school with a gorgeous and very nautical bell on it with an amazing view of the bay and the lighthouse at Mumbles, and a great white fence. Just up from here is a pub and a chip shop (of course)


I just love rust ...

rain and cloud

After a sunny June and a fairly sunny April and May, the rain has returned to Wales. Mornings of drizzle followed by afternoons of deluges and evenings of light patter. Never realized how many kinds and qualities of rain there can be. A few days ago the rain was so tiny and faint that the droplets were alive, buzzing and drifting like insects rather than like water.

Today after a morning and afternoon of writing I hiked up to Town Hill, behind our apartment. From the edge of Uplands I could see I'd be walking into the cloud which covered the top of the hill. But its interesting because as you walk up it doesn't look like cloud--but it rains harder and harder. It was wet, but beautiful--looking at the wet beach and the ocean far below. Waves of rain rolling up the hill over the trees.

Some new pics

I am trying to get better about pictures. I just wanted to post a couple of nice ones from recent walks. June was amazingly sunny--we're told this is quite unusual, though it is the sunniest of all the months apparently. We took a long, 8 mile walk from Rhossili around the coast to Port Eynon a few weeks ago. It was beautiful if a little muggy. We saw a seal down at Mewslade beach, and "wild" horses up on the trail near the fields.

Another walk up onto Rhossili downs last week. Which is the higest point on the Gower, so a steep trek. But you could see all of the Gower penninsula--we were so lucky going on a really clear day--even when its sunny sometimes it can be so hazy. But we could spot the smoke coming out the stacks of the steel works at Post Talbot in Swansea Bay, 30 miles away. Gorgeous views.

So here are a few from those trips.

at the chip shop last night ...

I went to the chip shop late, near 10, though it was still light. Hungry cause it was a long day yesterday at Writer's Day, and our dinner was tapas, which never satisfies, unless you're willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money. Anyway, the guy at the counter, (young, perhaps in his late 20's, dark hair with a very conservative cut, dark eyes, olive skin, could be middle eastern, greek ...?) is the one who gave me extra chips last time and we had shared a quick knowing smile when he added another scoop. I came in, smiling, flirting my way into extra chips. But of course this time somehow instead of just saying "large chips, salt", a pantomine of customer and clerk, I repeated myself, stumbled, spoke the words over twice. A dead give-away. He said, "Where are you from?" "America" I said, already deflating, but still playing along with this game that is starting to become familiar. His hand, hovering, let's go of the scoop, he starts to wrap up the normal ration of chips. "Where do you think I am from?" A minefield. He gives a half-smile, looks at me narrowly. A horrid and terrible minefield I refuse to step in. If I say Greek he could be Turkish, (and they are enemies from way back), if I say Syrian or just Middle Eastern, Iranian? I keep repeating "I don't know" lightly, as he keeps saying, "Guess...", insistent now, and with a look in his eye that is not joking. Finally he says, "Iraq". I only hear the hard "kk" at the end, "Where?" "I'm from Iraq", he repeats. His eyes are intent, are asking me to answer some other question--not the one he just asked. No I am not making that up, it is not just a poetic or metaphoric device. There is a whole volume of words behind his look, just as there is when I turn to look back up at him again, flirtation over, thinking like a flash, "I'm so sorry," but biting my words down because this is a chip shop and he and I are just two people, and I have no idea what his life is or who his people are ... I can guess that with deaths from the war estimated at over 1 million in a country with a population of about 30 million, with 1 in 30 dead he knows someone, some friend or relative or colleague, who died due to the war, the violence, the starvation. And he says, "One pound seventy five" and I hand him 2 quid and he gives me my change. And I leave the shop with my wrapped packet of chips, and walk the alley back home, as the twilight turns the sky purple, streaked with red.

market day

Market day today, which means a walk down the 60% grade of Bryn-y-mor Crescent to Saint Helen's Ave. past 3 charity shops (ie, thrift stores), the Uplands Diner with its windows open and the smell of ketchup and eggs, past the posh new Noah's Yard--which is apparently a bar and live Jazz venue, but it has the oddest hours and we still are not quite sure of its real purpose in life, past sad, empty Mr. D's our favorite Chip shop that closed a couple months ago when Mr. D got sick--it's been cleaned out of its fridge full of sodas and squash ... so I am afraid he is not coming back, down past Eaton Crescent which for some reason we think of as the Bank's street (from Mary Poppins), and the tiny little corner coffee and panini shop on Kind Edward's Rd., and the pubs down on the flat part of Bryn-y-mor, and the Chinese grocery with its bright red-painted door and unreadable (to me) signs, where sometimes I get tofu, bok choy, bean sprouts, or rice noodles, on past the pickled eggs in the window of the chip shop at the corner of Bryn-y-mor and St. Helen's and left, past "Serenity" where they offer ear candling and aromatherapy sessions, to my favorite grocery shop, Exotica--which always has pallets of produce out front being unloaded. Have you ever seen 3 dozen flats of cilantro (or rather Coriander as its called here)? Exotica is filled and piled and stuffed with asian goods. I wouldn't know what to do with half the veg and fruit--but I want to. There are at least a dozen kinds of chilies. And where else can you get 3 tins of tomatoes for only 1 pound? I am always tempted to get something new ... chutney or lichee's or something ... but usually I don't. Meanwhile Christien is off to the enormous Tesco downtown for our more "English" staples: oatcakes, pasta, treacle (ie molasses), and salted peanuts.

And not a bad day for it, high 60's and the sun is shining. And now I am hungry ... hmmm, what's for lunch?

May, oops, I mean June ...

May was busy, but in a marvelous way--Kirsti & Chris came to visit! We had an amazing time touring around Wales. We took two lovely coastal hikes on the Gower, walked down to Mumbles to see the Castle and the cemetery, and have a pint at the White Rose, went to a couple films at the Swansea Film Festival, hiked up Corn Du during a icey dagger rain storm, stayed in a lovely B&B on the Wye River at Hay and marched through a dozen or so used book shops. And then we had a great time in London, ate Ethiopian and saw St Pauls, and wandered around the streets. Busy and wonderful and much much too short. Who's next? And when are K & C coming back?

A couple pics from the visit.