The New Digs

We moved! Hurrah! It's been a week here, seems less--probably because it just been so busy and with the new Term starting up time seems to be collapsing like a spent accordian ... (just something I was trying out. yeah, not the best metaphor).

Our new digs are quite unlike our previous place ... infact if you think of almost an exact opposite, this is it. Beck House was like a student reservation, removed off the road by a wall and parking lot, set apart, with several blocks for students. There were the fire drills and the 4 a.m. revelries. Our place was on the bottom floor, almost like a basement because it was partly dug into a hill, cold, damp, not particularly light. With no view (except the parking lot) and quite large (but in an empty, echoey kind of way since we didn't own anything to fill it up.

Our new place, though still managed by the Uni is a flat in a row house on a real honest to goodness Swansea street (and a crazy busy one at that). Bryn Y Mor is a main thourofare back and forth from the Uplands area to downtown. So we are now a bit closer to town and though it may be a tiny bit further from school it's only maybe a 5 minute difference in the walk (about 20 min.) It's on the 3rd floor, nearly the attic, and is a studio, so pretty small. We've got amazing light, skylights, views of the bay and of trees. It feels like an entirely different universe.

After a year of a tiny nasty shower that I couldn't stand to get in (okay, I will admit that I didn't shower quite as often as I probably should have because I just hated it so much), we have a shower/bath. And with a huge skylight you can stand in the shower with the curtain partly open and look at the clouds. I plan on having my first bath tonight, by candle-light ... looking up at the stars and moon.

And I am totally in love with the kitchen, which has a floor to (low) ceiling window and a huge skylight as well. And a "breakfast bar" with stools. It is much smaller than our old kitchen but arranged so that it feels like a much more useable space.

So, lots of pics to share, but since I can only load five I will try and give an overview ....



Coming up the stairs -- there is a nice airy landing which I might use for my office ... a little unconventional, but ... why not?



Bedroom/Living room combined -- but it's a nice space.



Bathroom with tub and skylight!




The gorgeous kitchen.





One sample view from out the kitchen skylight over the rooftops!

Rainy Day

It's raining in Swansea. Which is the natural state of things, I know--and not the bright and sunny days we've been having for so much of the summer. And honestly, I do love rain, but today for some reason it feels like a rainy day in almost a kind of Winnie-the-Pooh sort of way. (Perhaps I should make some tea).

The cloud is seamless, low, enveloping. The rain is coming down steadily now in a fine fast fall. Poor Christien is out in it. Everything in the world is damp. The papers on the table are beginning to buckle and curl, the clothes in the cupboard come out of it damp. The cotton shirts I am wearing feel slightly chill with faint wetness.

Ah, sea and rain, I do love you ... but why can't my clothes be dry?

I wanted to keep forging on with Llanmadoc--because it really was such a lovely retreat for us. So I posted about the pups last time (miss them still!) and thought I would post a few pics from the walk which was right behind the house--an enormous steep hill from which you get basically a 365 view. In fact you can see Wormshead (our favorite spot KB & WC) as well as out to the salt march and across to Llanelli and Burry Port. And I just looked it up and found out you really can see Tenby from there on a clear day (it's the edge of the Pembrokeshire coast). We walked up it with the dogs on a few early mornings and also by ourselves (hard to stop for scenic sights with three Lurchers trying to bound off after sheep or rabbits).

It is commons land, so there are herds of sheep that wander up and along it and also a herd of wild horses that was often grazing up there. On our afternoon walk we were wandering back along the ridge when we spied another couple wandering very close to some of the horses (they had foaled, so there were several babies wandering with the herd) and then another family came along on the same path. Well the stallion decided that this was enough and we were treated (from a but farther up) to a remarkable display of stallion herding behavior ... he chased after the mares in a wide arch, with his head and neck out flat (which I read was like a mimicry of a snake, scary--and indeed it would worry me if he was coming after me like that), stamping, nipping, chasing the laggards and rounding the whole group (which had spread out pretty far) into a tight circle. Then he stood guard at the edge--keeping the mares in the circle and watching us humans.

So here are a few pics from Llanmadoc Hill.




Coming up a trail (through shoulder-high rain-wet bracken (ie. ferns) and gorse, the trail meets another road.





In this picture and the next you can see the inlet which is essentially north. There is a huge area of sand flats, dunes, a long stretch of pine wood (that used to be a municions test area) and a salt marsh where sheep and wild horses graze.




This is basically of the salt marsh, underwater. We went to the beach the next day and discoverd that high tide has an unpleasant aftereffect--sheep droppings all along the beach that floated in from the salt marsh!




Here is from our afternoon walk to the far end of the hill--that is looking out toward where Tenby would be.




And finally, past the gorse and heather--Wormshead!