6th August 1998
2 weeks off work, 2 weeks without seeing a computer, 2 weeks of tents, rain & sun, the elements.
We'd already spent over a week dodging rain (and loving it) in the Lake District. Phil Franks, with whom I had held long discussions by email, but had never met, had invited us to join him & Lola at the Druidstone Hotel in South West Wales. Feeling like we had all the time in the world (as long as it could be squeezed into this week!) we meandered across Wales until we hit Druidstone.
Incredibly enough, Phil's hyperbole wasn't hyperbole - Druidstone really is about the most relaxed place you could want to visit.
We spent the best part of a day on the beach - wondering up and down, peering into rockpools, hassling crabs, collecting shells, getting wet feet, and just being.
Gill & I both made temporary exhibits from the available materials. I collected all of the purple-tinged stones I could find and piled them against one another, attempting to grade them by degree of purpleness until Rowan's constant re-arranging of the pebbles got too much for me. Gill made a fish from colored pebbles, feathers and driftwood. It felt good to know that we had both put so much effort into something that wouldn't survive the next high tide.
