A visit to Kidwelly Castle

Bank holiday Monday dawned fairly bright and the forecast was promising. After Ben,s first walk of the day Francesca and I decided to risk a trip to Kidwelly Castle. It was lovely, the sun shone and we had a good 2 hours rambling round. We took in a 30 minute local history talk with lots of detail on the weaponry and battle tactics through the ages, including a hands on lesson in drawing and firing a long bow.

The views from the castle walls were panoramic.

Dogs on leads are welcome and Ben was on his best behaviour.

The stone walls lent a gloomy atmosphere even though the sun shone.

Once inside the walls though it was bright and cheerful.

Another view of the village.

Ben was fascinated by this from a distance, however one close up look and he realised that it was not real. His look was of pure distain and he was out of there.

We had lunch in the village and then a poke round a shop filled with china, glass, brass and furniture, piled up and swathed with cobwebs in places. I found a pretty teapot but at £195 put it down very carefully, there was a lovely Davenport hiding under a slithering pile of unframed prints and a war chest supporting an unsteady tower of crockery.

I itched to sort, dust and polish, then came to my senses and left smartish.

We took a leisurely drive home and were no sooner through the door than the kettle was on for tea.

An hour later Ben was ready for another walk, we were gone for almost an hour and Fran had to put her feet up and get a few gentle snores under her belt before dinner. That is what comes of working in an office I suppose, plus her legs are considerably shorter than mine so she takes many more steps.

Yesterday we had a lazy day, just pottering round and walking Ben, after dinner we were feeling a touch of cabin fever so hopped in the car and drove out to the Gower peninsular, I will share the photos tomorrow.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Good weather, bright and sunny most of the time.

2. Lots of happy time spent with Francesca.

3. Realising that I remember so much of my early history lessons.

4. Looking at some of the farming tools that were adapted into weapons and recognising them from my childhood.

5.Seeing Ben enjoying a day out with Fran, he loves spending time with  her.

It was something of a shock to see hedging tools and reed cutters being used in demonstrations and remembering seeing my Grandfather using the identical things in his work. In fact I have used a reed cutter to chop kindling myself in the not so distant past.

The small hunting bows were similar to the play ones that my play mates and I used to cut from the hedgerow as children, and some of the arrows were almost identical to the ones we fashioned. How many generations of children have enacted our history out while playing and used skills handed down unknowingly for centuries.

Fran has now gone on to Cardigan for 2 nights, we are all meeting up at James,s tomorrow for Juniors birthday and then, once the presents have been ripped open are off to a play center on the coast. The weather report is not wonderful but we will be indoors.

My dinner is just about ready so...............

                TTFN                                    Pam