Puffin Pictures!

As promised…

Camping in Pembrokeshire

 

I’m going to shamelessly plug everything who made me happy while on my camping holiday in Pembrokeshire as I seem to get a fair few people clicking on my blog via google, so I hope that I will be able to provide some holiday inspiration for others too.

 

We went away for four days, and camped at Foxdale Camp Site which is on the southern peninsula of Pembrokeshire in Marloes, close to Skomer Island. It’s the first time that I’ve ever been to a proper camp site and I liked what I found. It was very quiet, the facilities were clean (and the water hot) and the people were friendly. They even provide a breakfast cafe, and a bar. I imagine that it would get rather crowded in peak holiday time, but there were only ever about four other tents while we were there.

 

 

Pembrokeshire reminded me a lot of two of my favourite places, Cornwall and Skye, so needless to say I fell in love with it very quickly. We walked for miles along the coast path admiring the rocky coastline with its aquamarine water and white sandy beaches. We had fantastic weather too which was surprising, but lovely as we were outside most of the time.

 

 

One the second day we headed off early for the hour long drive to St David’s for our long awaited Whale and Dolphin Cruise (with Thousand Island Cruises). We ended up going out with a group from the WDCS, so needless to say we had a lot of knowledge on board. It was the most expensive thing we did (by a long way) but we’d been saving up for it and I got to achieve two of things on my ‘things to do before you die’ list so it was well worth it.

 

 

Unfortunately it was unsuccessful on the Orca front, but we did have a large pod of common dolphins swimming and jumping around the boat, and I also got to visit Grassholm, the only Gannetry in Wales, where around 100,000 birds live. It was amazing, and I got pooed on by a gannet! OH, and I wasn’t seasick which is a minor miracle considering we were out on the open sea for 3 hours and I normally get sick going on swings!

 

 

We then spent the rest of the day exploring St David’s which although has city status because of its cathedral, is the size a village. It’s very cute, and I could recommend it for a day visit.

 

Next day we headed off to Skomer Island. The wind had picked up a bit so I was dubious about the boat, but the weather really improved and we got there without a mishap. It was great and we saw lots of sea birds, and were able to watch porpoise and dolphin feeding just offshore. Unfortunately I haven’t loaded my Skomer pictures up on this computer yet but I will post some cute puffin photos soon!

We ate at the Lobster Pot Inn in the evening. If you’re eating in Marloes, I would really recommend this place. It looks unassuming from the outside but the menu is just amazing, with so much to choose from – I’m sure it could rival the restaurant a few doors up.

 

The next day it was back to Aberystwyth, via Strumble Head and to eat in Aberaeron!

I’m Alive!

Hi everyone

 

…I’m sorry, I am still alive and I will be back blogging soon. There has just been a lot going on here lately! Josh had a fit on Monday afternoon so I haven’t had internet access until this morning, as I’ve been looking after him. He’s okay(ish) now but it has been a worrying time.

 

I have soooo much work to catch up on, but I promise I will give you a full update very soon, with pictures of our wonderful holiday.

 

Here’s a sneaky peek…

 

 

A bit of a ramble

I apologise for being a bit re-miss on the ole blogging front. It’s a mixture of being really busy, but having nothing very interesting to say at the same time.

 

I just wanted to write something before we disappear off next week…yes, only 2 working days to go before we are on holiday, horrraaahhhyyy! We have planned so many cool things to do that 4 days isn’t going to be enough! I have been watching the petrol crisis with interest but unleaded in our area seems to be alright. We have enough petrol to get us down to Pembrokeshire anyway, I don’t mind if we get stuck on holiday!

 

I won’t have internet connection until the 30^th so I don’t expect I’ll be blogging before then but I plan to schedule some posts for the week so you don’t get too lonely!

 

Have a lovely week!

 

(I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for Orcas)

What is Poverty?

What flashes into your mind when you hear the word poverty? Dirty children scrabbling through rubbish heaps, poor Africans living in mud shelters? I have a friend who is currently living and working in Zambia, and I know that she could sum up poverty perfectly, because she sees it every day. People who are devastated by AIDs and who just have absolutely nothing to their name (except beaming smiles and a great sense of humour – it’s funny how the poorest people are often the happiest isn’t it?).

 

Anyway, I was reading the Guardian yesterday and apparently we live under the poverty threshold for the UK, which frankly I find crazy, and set me thinking, what is poverty?

I couldn’t remember the figure that the Guardian stated, but according to ‘The Poverty Site’ (2005/06 figures) the poverty threshold for a couple with no dependant children is £182 a week. Josh and I currently live on around £120 a week (or £96 in a 5 week month) which puts us quite a long way under the threshold. However, I would not consider us to live in poverty on any level. We can afford to eat local organic food, we have more possessions than we need, a car, a lovely flat and we live in one of the most beautiful places in Wales.

Fair enough a lot of the ‘stuff’ we have were gifts, like wedding presents, and I do believe that God has provided us with money when we’ve really needed it and prayed about it (like the time we got £200 anonymously through the post when we were worried because we couldn’t afford to get Christmas presents – awesome!) but that doesn’t really mean that we haven’t been able to afford to live on what we earn.

Food and fuel costs are rising and we are having to make more cutbacks, but I still wouldn’t count myself living in poverty because I have to cut down on my car useage, stop going to the cinema so often, or stop eating luxury snacks or whatever.

 

Now, Josh is a Student and I am a volunteer, we have a few savings, and unless God decides he wants us to go on working for a church, or sends us to Peru or something, we pretty much know that in the future our earnings will rise. I can understand that for people that constantly earn less than the poverty threshold, the future must look bleak and the prospect of buying a house, for example would seem out of reach. But perhaps we should still try and get it all into perspective. The world poverty threshold is something like a $1 a day – these people have nothing. Maybe we can’t afford the latest gadgets, or the best clothes but compared to them we are millionaires, I think we need to get our priorities right.

 

Or am I totally wrong and do I just have my middle-class head up in the clouds? What do you think?

Is it ethical to own a dog?

I have always wanted a dog ever since I was a little girl. However my parents are not pet people so I had to make do with walking and playing with our next door neighbour’s dog as I grew up. Josh and I have always fantasised about our small holding, and having lots of dogs and children has always been a part of our ‘perfect future’.

 

However, I was talking to my friend the other day who was preparing a seminar on Vegetarianism and she made a comment that made my heart sink…”I’ve been thinking, it doesn’t really seem very ethical to have dog anymore, not now that food prices are rising. How can we spend thousands of pounds on a dog when there are millions of people starving all over the world?” I had never thought of it that way, but I knew that it wasn’t something I could dismiss.

 

Apparently there are 6.5 million dogs spread across 20% of UK households making them, after cats, Britain’s favourite pet.  Owning a dog will cost you around £1000 a year (and that’s not including those people who spend hundreds on sparkly collars and little cute jumpers for their darling Fluffy – I personally consider this barking). Now, according to my maths, this means that we as a nation are spending around £6b 500m a year on our dogs alone? (surely I have done my sums wrong here?!) Add to that the cost of cleaning up after dog fouling, which according to Keep Britain Tidy statistics costs the UK a further £22m a year. That is a lot of money. I couldn’t find any statistics on how much it would cost to eradicate world poverty but I would guess that this money would make a big dent in it. I know that there are lots of issues with solving world poverty including market crashes and the like - which I won’t try and understand - but it’s the principle. Should we be putting our pets before other people in the world who are living in awful poverty? I just read one shocking article in which someone declared that in a burning building they would rescue their dog instead of a total stranger, just because they didn’t know them, and therefore didn’t care about them so much.

And it’s not just about money is it? Our pets are taking up valuable energy and resources through the food they eat. Realistically the food we give our dogs is probably more nutritious than many in the third world will ever consume.

 

But I really want a dog! Many people rely on them as well for their work, of if they have a disability, and they are well known for their therapeutic qualities. I was thinking that maybe it would be okay to have a rescue dog, because they are alive anyway and have not been bred especially for you. Maybe this would be a more acceptable option than buying straight from a breeder…

 

…It’s a tough one and I haven’t really made up my mind. What do you think? Is it ethical to have a pet?

Breaded Quandaries

How much is a loaf of bread these days? £1.20, £1.30? It’s been so long since we’ve bought one I don’t know anymore, I just hear people complaining about the hike in its prices. It set me wondering if it’s actually cheaper for us to make our own, or if we would be better buying it from the bakery down the road. Ok, well I’m going to attempt to do the maths (which I must warn you may contain a glaring mistake, it really isn’t my strong point!)

 

Yeast (I can’t remember the price but I would guess around 5p per loaf)

Flour = 60p per loaf

Butter = 13p per loaf

Sugar and Salt = Around 5p or less per loaf

Milk Powder (although I don’t use this because we ran out and I’m too lazy to go searching for it around town) = around 10p per loaf

 

So this suggests that it is cheaper to make our own…I don’t really have a clue about how much electricity would cost to run the breadmaker, but I guess it’s costing us about £1.10 for a large loaf of bread?

 

The thing I love about making our own bread is that we know what’s in it. I’ve read horror stories about supermarket loaves which are just filled with fat and salt to make them stay risen because they haven’t been given the full amount of rising time due to production pressures. Even if we were paying the same price –or more- I think that knowledge makes it worth it. I guess that goes for all the extra prices we pay to get organic or local food.

 

…although I must admit that we had Subway last week, which I know if all very uneco-friendly and probably full of gunk, but I had never had one before and they are SO YUMMY!

And then there was one…

I’ve had a pretty hectic weekend. I worked on Saturday and then had to cook for 12 on Saturday night when I got home, and then get up early on Sunday to prepare Sunday lunch for our neighbours, phew! And then they didn’t come anyway as one of them was ill! It was really nice actually because we were both exhausted and just ate lots of good food and drank some nice wine, which is a change from our recent ‘grab what ever is in the fridge and chuck it all together’ approach of late.

 

And now my husband has gone. BOOHOO! He’s gone for 2 weeks do his dissertation research in the hoverfly infested fields of Devon because Wales just wasn’t good enough – can you tell I’m bitter?! I’m trying to look on the positive side though…Just think I will get to drink as much milk as I want and get the snacks all to myself. I might even get round to making the scrap book I have been planning since before we got married!