llanerchaeron – Simon Hendy Photography

We've been spending a few days in Welsh Wales - the weather has been pretty good, but it's been damn cold. It's bloody May - it shouldn't be this flamin' cold! First up was Manorbier in Pembrokeshire. We've heard how lovely it is - it wasn't. Might have been something to do with the Arctic gale blowing, but we didn't hang around for very long. There's a surprisingly pristine castle, but it's not National Trust so we were buggered if we were going to pay to get in... After that, we went to Colby Woodland Garden, which *is* National Trust. Quite nice, with a reasonable walled garden, but nothing desperately exciting. When we were in Wales in September, SWMBO was trying to find a beach on the Cardigan Bay coast that she visited as a child. We've been to about half a dozen of the damn things now, and we still haven't found it. I suspect that the passage of 30 years has...

The final stop on our Welsh trip was to Llanerchaeron, near Aberaeron - a John Nash house with an enormous pair of walled gardens. These were full of more fruit and vegetable plants than you could imagine. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 There is also a working farm, with some particularly inquisitive pigs! Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 Some of the plants in the walled garden were covered with more bees than I've ever seen - I assume they've got a hive or two somewhere. There were also plenty of butterflies - I seem to have hardly seen any since I was a child (and that's going back some way now...). I was surprised by just how close I could get to it with the macro turned on on the compact camera. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 Having mentioned on a previous post about the fogged infra-red film at Dyrham...