Horse-fly

Why on earth did I decide to paint a horse-fly?  Out of a kind of superstition in fact. One day, as I was setting out to walk round the estuary in Newport, Pembrokeshire, one settled on the inside of my wrist and started to have its lunch. Quick as a well-trained Girl Guide, I brushed it off, sucked the spot and spat enthusiastically. Despite this, I developed a large, hard, red swelling that looked unsightly for days. I though the way forward would be to create an image of the insect and flick at it to act as a deterrent by proxy. This technique has worked and the little menaces are now eating someone else. I hope it isn't you but, if it is, you know what to do.

The Pembrokeshire Coastal Path

The Pembrokeshire Coastal Path dips and rises for approximately 200 miles through fascinating scenery, dropping down to coves and lifting to amazing viewpoints.  Little buses take you, your baggage and your well-behaved dog down to the beach all summer long. Nearly at one end is Tenby with its busy harbour and ancient town walls.

SEA BATHING

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, quite like a dip in the surfy briny. Waves roll in and you can either mount up over them or be knocked down by them, in my case the latter.  In the middle of this inclement summer, the sun came out at a remote Pembrokeshire shingle beach called Abermawr and in I plunged, to emerge reinvigorated - and disastrously hungry for sausage rolls and fruit cake.  Will I sink next time if this goes on?

Government Health Warning: those of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away before viewing this photograph of me in my shortie wetsuit. Too late? Sorry!