Llanerchaeron

Llanerchaeron is a country estate, now owned by the National Trust, lying just a few miles inland from the seaside town of Aberaeron. The house itself isn't a huge stately home but a place you could almost imagine living in. Once the estate was safe sufficient, with vegetables from the walled garden, and crops and livestock produced by the farm. 

You can visit the old farm buildings and discover what life used to be like here but what brings me back time and again is the old walled garden. Its greenhouses may now be crumbling and definitely unsafe, but the ancient apple trees still survive, central beds are filed with vegetables, and the borders with flowers.

On a sunny day it's a wonderful place to just sit for a while.

If you feel like a short walk, there's a path around the lake next to the garden, and for a longer one, explore the woodland beyond the car park - you can follow a series of paths close by or join the cycle path which links Aberaeron and Lampeter.

 

Wetness and wildlife (but no pics of the wildlife)

After a fun time by the coast over Saturday and Sunday, Monday saw us heading home, and the weather looked suitably depressed with light rain from early morning just getting worse as the day wore on.

We didn't want to jump in the car and just drive back. First we returned to Abereiddi, for one last look at the (not so) Blue Lagoon. This is a huge hole scooped out of the cliffs and now flooded; one of many remnants of slate quarrying in the area.

It's normally a sheltered spot, with calm blue waters (hence its name) but not this particular day; it was wild and forbidding.





















There were a couple of folks out doing the coasteering thing, and looking like they were having fun despite the rough sea, and elsewhere in a more sheltered spot were seals - an adult and a couple of pups.










My husband claimed he saw another seal surfing on the waves on the main beach, but I'm not so sure.

Our route home took us north following the coast, with a brief stop at Newport Parrog, before heading to New Quay for lunch.

Fish and chips by the beach seemed like a good idea, but the rain started to fall again while we were eating. Somewhere out to sea was a fishing/crabbing boat and not particularly close to it but the same distance out were dolphins! Well, I assume they were dolphins as at that distance all we could see were dark shapes jumping out of the water.










I was determined to see at least a little of New Quay but by the time we'd walked to the end of the pier, the rain was heavier, so after a very brief look at the boats in the harbour (and an encounter with a seagull, the only wildlife I managed to photograph) we headed back to the car.

I've been in summer when New Quay's a busy bustling place, with the sheltered beach an excellent place to swim, but even the pretty painted houses looked drab in the rain.

 Heading up to Aberystwyth then inland towards home we pass the Forestry Commision's visitor centre at Bwlch Nant yr Arian. We always stop. Sometimes to just see the sea from the viewpoint. Sometimes to catch the regular red kite feeding. Previously we've seen dozens of kites, but not this day. The food was spread out for them, and a dozen or so came and circled the lake, but they didn't seem interested in eating. We sat and watched a live-screen in the cafe for a while, and a couple of kites investigated the food, but in comparison to other visits it was a disappointment. Not the best end to our weekend, but the other days had been good.

Aberaeron

Last Friday we headed off to Wales for a long weekend near St Davids, in Pembrokeshire.

It's about a five hour drive so a couple of stops en route were called for - the first at Attingham Park just outside Shrewsbury, the second by the sea in Aberaeron.

It was early evening by the time we reached there, with the sun dropping down towards the horizon. More importantly - it was windy. Not just a bit breezy, but 'Hang on to your hat, and hope you aren't blown away' windy!!

The tide was high, and the sea rough, and it certainly wouldn't have been advisable to stand on the opposite side of the harbour.

Turning my back on the sea, things seemed much calmer though the boats were still rocking up and down.

As the sun sank into the sea we had to move on, but the sunset continued so bright and dramatic that I had to take photos from the car.

Laburnum Hedges of Ceredigion

 This time of year, at home in Derbyshire, the hedges are covered in white hawthorn blossom but driving back from our Spring Bank holidays in Pembrokeshire I've discovered a different hedgerow blossom - laburnum flowers.

 Not just one or two in gardens, but almost everywhere along the roads from Aberystwyth down to Cardigan the hedgerows are filled with bright sunshiny yellow.

I wonder why there are so many here but none that I've seen elsewhere. Does anyone know?

Note - the comment below led me to do some hunting around on the web, and I found a different tale about the origins of laburnum in Welsh hedgerows. Woodworker Roni Roberts quotes a tale that the trees were fencing posts which 'struck' and grew.
However they arrived, they're the most beautiful hedges I've seen