Visiting Chirk Castle

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

Chirk Castle

A 13th-century Marcher castle, that from 1595 became the home of the Myddelton family for over 400 years.

Current saving £52.35

One adult £15.00

Parking free

Total saving £15.00

Cumulative saving £201.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £67.35

There is a lovely view as you drive to the car park. Continue reading “Visiting Chirk Castle”

Back along walking down the seafront

Living in Weston-super-Mare and not being allowed to travel due to Covid-19 restrictions, we often make use of the seafront for our allowed exercise. It’s not as though we never walked there before, but now with limited choices, and only so many times you can walk around the area where we live, it’s nice to pop to the seafront. Its a short drive to the seafront from where we love and it was easy to park close to the seafront. This time we parked at Knightstone Island and popped some money in the meter.

I think for me one of the big changes over the last twelve months in the various lockdowns is how little I use cash now. Before the pandemic I would use cash for the parking at the station (though to be honest more often than not I would use phone parking). I would use cash for buying coffee or snacks. I would even use cash for larger purchases. However with the pandemic my use of cash declined dramatically as mainly I did less, bought less and moved much more to contactless payment.

It was a beautifully clear day, the sun was shining, and it wasn’t too cold. The tide was well in and even the ferry moored at the side of Knightstone Island was floating, something I don’t think I have ever seen happen before.

Generally we don’t see the sea, as the tidal range in Weston is so huge that for most of the day the sea is some distance away. Today as we walked along the seafront, it was high tide.

We walked all the way along the seafront to the old hospital and back again. When we turned back we had in the wind in our faces and it was hard going walking back and felt much much colder.

But soon we got back to the car and headed home for a coffee.

Walking down the seafront

Living in Weston-super-Mare and not being allowed to travel due to Covid-19 restrictions, we often make use of the seafront for our allowed exercise. It’s not as though we never walked there before, but now with limited choices, and only so many times you can walk around the area where we live, it’s nice to pop to the seafront. Its a short drive to the seafront from where we live and it was easy to park close to the seafront.

Today it was beautifully clear day, the sun was shining, and it wasn’t too cold. However it was quite windy.

You could see clearly over to Brean Down and even further across to Cardiff and Newport in Wales.

There were kite surfers making the most of the strong winds and the high tide.

Generally we don’t see the sea, as the tidal range in Weston is so huge that for most of the day the sea is some distance away. Today as we walked along the seafront, it was high tide, combined with the winds there were waves crashing down onto the sand.

We walked all the way along the seafront to Knightstone Island and Marine Lake. 

Then it was time to turn around and head back to the car to drive home.

Pembrokeshire coast

The coastal pathways in Pembrokeshire are stunning, as these photographs of mine from 1998 show.

Pembrokeshire coast

Pembrokeshire coast

Beautiful cliff paths, that as you walk along, you can see the waves crash against the rocks below.

Pembrokeshire coast

Pembrokeshire coast

Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

Back in the 1990s I visited the Pembrokeshire Motor Museum near Haverfordwest. This was a small museum, but very much a labour of love for the owner.

Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

I took those images with my film SLR back then and recently scanned the photographs.

Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

In those days, using film, I would conserve the number of shots I would take, as I would ration the 36 frames I had for each film. Whereas with today’s high capacity memory cards, I have been known to shoot hundreds of photographs in a single day.

Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

Sadly memory and time, as well as a lack of information on the web, means I have no real idea about which types of cars these are. Even googling the number plates doesn’t bring up much info.

Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

Sadly due to the ill health of the owner, it is currently closed.