My Father's Haunts

Wales boasts a remarkable landscape and it was in this setting that my father grew up.  One of the things I wanted to do during our UK visit was to make a connection to the land that my dad called home.

My father grew up in Pembrokeshire - the south-western tip of Wales.  The hills there are not the mountains of northern Wales, but they're pretty damn serious hills.

This is taken from a hill overlooking Dinas, the village where my cousin and his wife live.

Although Dinas is on the northern coast of Pembrokeshire and my dad grew up on the southern coast, this picture and the next give you an idea of the rugged beauty of the place.  This is the beach that lies at the bottom of the hill my cousin's house sits on.  It's about a ten minute walk...

About a ten minute drive a little to the south of Dinas lies the Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber.  These standing stones have been there for over 6,000 years.  The top stone is reported as weighing over 16 tons and is balanced on the tips of 3 uprights.

The large stone in the middle - the portal stone - does not make contact with the cap stone.  This site stands on an unassuming hilltop, surrounded by fields of sheep.

But we have to head south to get the my father's haunts.

My dad grew up in a place called Pendine and my childhood was filled with tales of this place.  I heard the stories so often that I felt I'd know the place as soon as I saw it.  We drove into the village and parked at the lot for the Museum of Speed - which was closed for the season.  When it is open it has motorcycles and cars on display which have broken world speed records on Pendine's seven miles of compacted sand beach.

When they were kids, my aunt and dad were in a movie filmed in Pendine called, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.  My dad and aunt are apparently in the crowd shots as the car races down the beach (along with just about everyone else in town).

Along the beach are caves.  My dad was an avid spelunker as a kid and, according to my aunt, much of it was without my grandmother's knowledge.  These little caves along the beach are not the one that my dad spoke of.

Apparently the deep and dangerous caves are higher on the cliffs.

Speaking of danger - check out this sign:

Doesn't that sign have "Exciting Childhood" written all over it?  Running along the beach are miles of sand dunes that the British Ministry of Defense thought was a good place to use as a testing ground for heavy guns.  Since it was forbidden, my father and his friends would, of course, wiggle under the fences and play hide and seek in the bombed out tanks and vehicles.

My parents actually got married in Pendine and it was a quest of mine to find the church while we were there. In old black and white photos of my parents' wedding day there was a white arch with lettering on it.  My cousin took me to two churches.  One was actually high above the town.  I knew right away it wasn't the right church but they did have the most elegant cenotaph I've ever seen.

In the village was the church I was looking for.  Here it is with the kids standing in the archway.

It was a very special moment for me to see my kids standing in the place where married life for my parents began.

Just down the road from Pendine is the town of Laugharne.  Laugharne is home to Wales' greatest poet and there's a Beynon family connection here...but it'll have to wait until next time.

Long Weekend and a New Friend

Another Canada Day has come and gone. It was a great weekend filled with a pancake breakfast put on by the local volunteer firefighters, a trip to the beach, barbecues aplenty and spectacular fireworks. Absolutely no work was done on writing projects but that's as it should be - family time comes first. Today, however it was back to the grindstone polishing Loremaster.

Another thing that didn't get done over the weekend was gardening. Normally, a long weekend would be spent cutting grass, weeding beds and maybe working on the odd woodworking project but it has been so dry here lately I'm actually afraid to do anything but water. The forecast calls for rain tomorrow, but I'll believe that when I see it.

Over the last week I've been working outside. I've retreated to the backyard with the laptop to go through Loremaster line by line, word by word. I guess it was last Friday that I first met my new friend. I was typing away, wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals, when I heard a scuttling noise to my right. It seemed to come from a slightly overgrown flowerbed. I glanced over but quickly dismissed it and got back to work. The next thing I knew I heard the scuttling again but then something scurried over my sandal and bare foot. I screamed like a little girl and nearly shat myself. (I find it wonderful that Blogger's automatic spell checker doesn't take issue with "shat")

After I regained my composure I saw that the culprit was a very cheeky chipmunk.

Since Friday he has made daily visits and yesterday the kids and I fed him peanuts. Today he showed up less than three feet from me and seem to shrug his little shoulders as if to say, "Hey man, where's my peanut?"

Of course I went in the house and got him one.

On an added note - went to see Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer. If you're thinking of going - don't bother. I went really wanting to enjoy it but the timing was bad (poor editing, perhaps) - there was no chemistry between the actors and the story, while having a lot of potential, fell flat. There was even something weird going on with Jessica Alba's make-up. If the makeup team was going for peroxide-blond California Tan-in-a-bottle whore, then they succeeded in spades. It wasn't completely bad. Special effects were pretty good. The reason to rent it when it comes to video is the best Stan Lee cameo yet.

'Nuff said.