George took us on another hike while we were in Swansea

Well, actually Liz and Mike did, but George likes to take the credit.

They took us to this lovely beach.

With this awesome sky for SkyWatch Friday.

SkyWatch Friday has the SkyWatch Showcase at the site this week, along with this week's sky posts from around the world. Be sure to stop by to see.

Oops, George got distracted.

This view shows the reason that this is called Three Cliffs Beach.

Thanks for your patience. Still lots to do getting the house back to normal. We're sure we'll reach for things for the next few months and find them not there and say "oh..." But it's stuff--just stuff.

Mumbles Hill

I guess Liz and George and I posed for our first Blogger meet-up picture,  not at Three Cliffs as I had said, but the evening we arrived in Swansea when we went for a look see to Mumbles Hill.

(George is the blonde.)

Mumbles is an area of Swansea, and it's where Liz hails from.

I think that's Mumbles Light at the point.

 

We were able to look down on Mumbles Pier, which Liz blogged about not long ago here. The sea was pretty calm, so here is my Weekend Reflection, James.

There were some remnants of some WWII gun emplacements on the hill. Sawnse was a target for bombings during that conflict. Good to see a peaceful sprig of vegetation growing up in the hole.

And the view back to the whole city of Swansea showed that it was low tide.

Worm's Head

 Liz and George and I had our "official" Blogger meet-up photo earlier in the day at another beach and here it is. But since I started with the afternoon walk out to Worm's Head (not to be confused with the head of the "worm" currently gracing my header) I must show you how delighted George was to show it to us.

See: "Come on, you guys. What are you waiting for? I think I can put in twice as many steps as you in getting out to the point."

The spit of land that is the Worm's Head reaches out into the Bristol Channel from the point that extends west from Swansea.

You can hike out there if the tides are right, but the high tides cover the spit, and you have to time your hike to fit within the window of opportunity. We used lunch as an excuse to time  ours nicely so that we wouldn't have to decide whether to go or not.

I don't think everyone notices that the "worm" has an eye--you might not see this natural arch if you don't hike out there--or get really curious with your zoom lens.

Later this evening I will show you what else we saw at Worm's Head with a SkyWatch post. And our walk to Three Cliffs is coming up, too.

A Meeting on the Street Called Steep

Text message:

WE R WALKING UP STEEP HL MEET U IN FRONT OF CATHEDRAL

There is a reason that the street is called Steep Hill.




As we ourselves found the cathedral square, we also found Stewart and Julie--Imac and Mrs. Imac--just reaching the top of Steep Hill.  When Stewart had  heard we were coming to England, he said "If you come to Lincolnshire, let me know." What better reason to visit Lincoln! Hubby took this picture for us on the cathedral steps.

We spent the afternoon visiting the cathedral--it needs an afternoon at minimum, and will get two or three posts here coming up soon. Tea in the catedral's lunch shop, in and out and round about the cathedral. It was definitely dueling cameras and taking pictures of each other taking pictures.






We later went back down Steep Hill to find a great pub meal.

..and a bit of a further wander about the town before Stewart and Julie had to catch their bus home.

Thank you Stewart and Julie for a lovely afternoon. You were most gracious guides for these wandering tourists. Hope we didn't wear you out.   

Stewart is Imac of Photos from the Mind's Eye.

Julie blogs, too, but I still don't have her URL.

ABC Wednesday--G

G is for George.

Do you know George?

Everyone should know George. You can meet him and read about some of his antics at Finding Life Hard. His people are pretty cool, too.

We visited George, Liz, and Mike in Wales. It was one of the  highlights of our trip.

George was a bit upset that he didn't get to help take us to the station.

George is out of sequence in the story of our trip, but perfectly in sequence for ABC Wednesday's arrival at the letter G. See what else starts with G at ABC's link site.

Some more of Edinburgh

My camera was very busy for that day and a half in Edinburgh. We will get to go on to other parts of Scotland soon--just a couple more posts. And next, one of the best parts. We went down the Royal Mile from the Castle (The Royal Mile is the old road that goes from the Castle to Holyrood Palace.) and after taking a look at St. Giles Cathedral...

...from more than one angle...

... we went on to locate the place of a rendezvous...

Actually, this is not where we rendezvoused, but you already saw a picture of Starbucks. We met blogger Lynda, whose blogger name is Loth, and who blogs at The Gym isn't Working. (Her blog title came from her then three year old son when she answered his question about why she went to the gym. Aren't kids something?) Lynda rescued us from Starbucks and took us past here--a place she new well, the courts (she's an attorney) to the tea shop in the basement of St. Giles, where the tea and scones were magnificent and the conversation delightful. After tea and conversation, my hubby took our picture back out on the steps of St. Giles.

While we were still standing there talking, across the square there arrived a wedding party, just hopping off the bus.  We encountered a number of wedding parties and pre-wedding celebrations in various parts of the UK, and I will probably gather some pictures together for a post. I believe this group had that double decker bus chartered for the event. Fun!


Well, in a final tribute to the legal profession, here was another nearby establishment:

I did say we would have pub signs, didn't I?