He was there!

Dr. Raymond Garlick was there at The Ivy Bush in Carmarthen, and we had tea with him and a lovely chat, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity for me to thank him for all he did for me so long ago. And to tell him about The Current Career - turns out both his kids, Angharad and . . . was his son named Iestyn? are both in film! I am going to search IMDB for them :) He gave me his address to keep in touch, and Dr. Jon Dressel's, and Malcom Gilbert the Soviet Studies and Geography teacher, and Ian Lloyd-Davies the Outdoor Pursuits teacher . . . and we talked about poetry and Dylan Thomas and Bryn Myrddin (though it is privately owned and you can't go there, it is near Abergwili, a little beyond, on the Llandeilo Road . . .) and the time he was at a P.E.N. meeting and met President Carter and loved him (he delighted Dr. Garlick by casually walking into the room and saying "hi" so unlike the Royals), even though he did not buy Fern Hill Farm after all, as there was a crisis in the Balkans, and . . . oh how can I speak of such a glorious and happy meeting? He gave me so much encouragement as a young would-be poet. The poems I wrote with him as my tutor were some of my best.

Then we went to the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne, seeing his very writing hut (used to be a garage) and were most inspired, and had a simple lunch of Cawl and Brod :), then we drove to Pentre Ifan burial Champer on top of the Preseli Hills where the stones for Stonehenge came from . . . amazing . . . we tried to get into a nearby Iron Age reconstructed hill fort, but just missed it at 5pm.

Drove back to St. David's via lovely Fishguard, admiring the hills and sheep and horses and hedgerows and gorse and seabirds, and stunning sea views and tiny lanes beside sheer 12' hedgerows and one-lane passes through stone walls and tiny towns. . . Wales. I love it so, and it means a great deal to me to be able to share it with my beloveds. Wish Theo could be here, but of course then it would be about "Crazy Golf", as they call it here, and not so literary :)

Now we are about to either go play Scrabble, or go for a walk if my blisters will cope (they are a bit worse every day despite many blister protections I bought at the chemist).

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We think we will not drive any where, but walk the coast trails and fully grok the Cathedral. Then they come home to Theo and I join dear Megan in Ireland . . .

More pictures tomorrow if I can find a connection somewhere . . . if not, not till Ireland.

Bless all who read this!