Sunny scenes at the seaside

Hello All…or should I say “is anyone out there?”!

Seems the poll I posted recently fell on stony ground so I might have to consider whether I should continue to post and maybe just pop my photos into the odd competition as I do anyhow. I had processed these pictures anyway so I shall post this entry and see how may visitors I get in the next week or so. Come on guys and gals!

This set was from a few trips back when I go for a trip along the coast. Some of you may know that I do a bit of sailing with a couple of friends out of Neyland marina during the Summer (as it is of late) and in the Winter (quite why I don’t know). My skipper won’t dare go under the road bridge just outside the marina as he says the winds and tide are way too risky. Didn’t stop this guy……

Heading into troubled waters….

Taken from the same vantage point (about 120 feet up) a view towards Pembroke Dock yacht club and the plethora of yachts and varied craft moored in the little bay just along the way. I like this picture because you can clearly see the tide running against all the ropes and it made for a good effect I thought.

Moored craft outside Pembroke Dock at sunset

Now we head North to take some pictures from Goodwick. This is the harbour arm where, off to the left and out of view, the Stena ferry berths and heads off to Ireland every afternoon. In the future there are plans to make this enclosure which is pretty empty now, into a very fancy marina to attract visitors from Ireland and further afield. I did once see a boat from Canada moored in Neyland as we left on a jolly…now that’s a journey I’d shy away from!

The view from Goodwick towards North Pembrokeshire

Rust. Universally hated the world over if you own a car or any type of machinery (in this case, the bottom of the lighthouse). Kept at bay by oodles of WD40 if you are lucky but eventually the car gets to the stage where it has to be ground out to pass its road-worthiness test! However, I don’t think for a moment that it would get anywhere near as bad as this. Whilst it is a scourge, I thought it looked quite pretty…colourful to the extreme.

I think we are going to need a bigger wire brush…

A portrait view of the previous portion of rustiness. Judging by the fist size holes in the metal further down there’s a bit of work to do here. However, having seen the winter storms that this area takes the brunt of, I am not surprised it looks a teeny bit shabby. After all, why would you spend months repairing it when there is another storm a few weeks away?

A very colourful repair job!

Yes, I’m sorry. A sunset. This one was taken from the bridge in Neyland at the same time as the images further up. I don’t often include coastal scenes so it is a little out of the ordinary, honest. As you can see, this looks towards the refinery that is still going after all the news stories that it was being closed/sold/dismantled and such. In addition there are a number of wind turbines that have popped up in the foreground since I took this picture….a nod towards a greener refinery per chance?

Sunset over Neyland….time to ride home!

Well, that is the lot for this post. Please, please keep visiting. I like showing you the local area (although you get a slightly limited and bias view!). If anything, the poll has made me realise I should make decisions like that myself!

Thanks for your visit, see you soon.

A trip to the Cleddau

Hello All!

I entitled this one a trip to the Cleddau (pronounced Cled-eye, not Cled-ow) but in essence it’s only walking distance from where I live! Well, part of it. The earlier pictures are from a different area, but I will explain in the fullness of blog. As ever, click the image for the full proper quality image…the previews are a tad fuzzy.

I hope everyone is sorted for Crimbo? We better had be as the weather here is blooming awful; every other day we have had very gusty storms and heavy rain and even hail at a few points. There was one evening I came home from work and I was sat in the car for a good 10 to 15 minutes waiting for the rain to calm down or something to fly off the trees in the garden, whichever happened first. A colleague of mine was in Milford Haven at that exact time and he swore blind that his vehicle moved ever so slightly in a big gust…and he owns a truck!

Anyway, enough talk of horrible weather, these pictures show the nicer days of late Summer/Autumn. Firstly, in the Neyland Nature Reserve, a little further along the Cleddau than the later pictures with nice clear access to the sea, hence all the sailing yachts under the bridge (they’re a bit further on, but that’s how it appears here). I’m down here quite often, as the guys who own the yacht I sail on moor it here in Winter and keep it just outside the marina in Summer….

Neyland Nature Reserve – the ducks had abandoned me at this point as I had no bread rolls

A little closer to home now, a very small (and rarely used) launching bay called Port Lion. Reached by driving, if you dare, down a very tight and enclosed single track road. Once you get to the bottom, depending on the tide and weather, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to turn around! Hence I walk or ride. At low tide, there is a small shingle beach where I stood to take this picture….

Port Lion looking toward Llangwm village and the Preseli Hills

Turning 180 degrees now, you can see the estuary disappearing between the clumps of trees and a few pretty permanent fixtures in the shape of yachts that never ever seem to move. I can only imagine this is because the moorings this far up the estuary are very cheap. But, honestly, if you ever visit, you will know where you are as these boats will be here. Unless they have sunk because the rain overwhelmed them! Such a waste.

You wouldn’t want to paddle I know, but it is quite picturesque

Talking of wastes, this is a little dinghy that never moves too. However, on this occasion with my most favouritest (yes, that is a word, honest) type of sky it was making a good picture today. Now we have had the storms, I am tempted to go down to Port Lion and see whether all these boats are still there!

Poor thing looks so lonely. But I bet if you moved it, there would be hell to pay!

Back up the hill,m the single track opens up and I never noticed the field of oil seed to the left but couldn’t help but not this time as it was in full bloom under a blue sky, which was too good an opportunity to miss. Possibly a tad too dark this picture, but it got all the colours I wanted so I was happy.

A lovely Summer image…slightly twee but pretty good nonetheless

Last but not least, a little bit of a hark back to the good old days of Summer sunsets that are a little bit dusty so you can see the disk of the sun. This one wasn’t a cheat taken on another day and was in fact on the same day as all the other pictures I’ve posted here so this is a full day of edited highlights of me wandering around camera in hand.

Must…resist…cirrus…sunset pictures! Can’t help it, I’m afraid

Right, now I’ve said it, I’m going to hop on my bike and going for a quick zip down to port lion and see what it looks like down there after all this wind and rain. Dare I take the camera? Hopefully I don’t get caught in a shower but amazingly it seems to have cleared up now…here’s hoping.

Before I go, Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you all get what you wished for or, if not, a close second! I’ve asked for a Ferrari from my girlfriend, but I’m hopefully for at least a model from her. See you all in 2014 when I have to try to remember how to update my copyright label!!

Thanks for dropping in.