Be Less, Do Less

 Hello lovelies! I am still looking at ways I want to be better in the new year. But as the title suggests I am still rather busy and struggling with time and energy management. 

The problem is that I LOVE to DIY. If I see something in a shop that can be made, then I  make it. I pride myself on making it myself for less. It is one of my superpowers. But I am also TIRED. 

And so part of my resolution this year is that I do not have to do it all, especially if I am doing other creative things. 

1. IT'S OK TO OUTSOURCE

Since the Amazing Spiderman died I have struggled with energy management since it falls to me to do EVERYTHING. I try to do a lot of pre-portioning foods like kale or broccoli so I can just grab-a-green-and-go. I had been using plastic ziplock type bags with a slide lock, but they were wearing out and I didn't want to just keep using and throwing away bags with such frequency (see number 2 on my resolutions today) and so I thought I could make some cloth reusable bags.

I wanted them to have that food grade wipe clean PUL liner but that stuff is EXPENSIVE. I found a half metre of the fabric on sale for £15 (Ker-ching!) and then I would need to factor in outer fabric, velcro if I chose to add that, plus time and energy. I looked at my life and just thought I can't pull blood from a stone. I am currently making storytelling props for the shop's Youtube Channel and rehearsing my lines, getting ready to film and then edit and there just is nothing left in the creative tank. So i decided to OUTSOURCE. I bought some on Etsy from EMMA MARY BAGS N BOBS. It kind of hurt my heart to let someone else make these, but it would have cost me that much to make them myself and now I don't have to.

They are adorable with cute fabric and are perfect for dividing greens into portions in the fridge. And they are wipe clean as well as washable. 

So what have I been making instead? An apple tree, a baker's oven (complete with felt loaf of bread on a wooden paddle) converted from a Troll Bridge leftover from a previous storytelling  and a piece of cloth that looks both like feather bedding and snowflakes when you shake it. Can you see why I didn't have time to make those bags myself? And that's OK.

These leads me into resolution 2:

2. LESS SINGLE USE PLASTIC AND WASTE

I am already doing that with the lovely reusable bags. However, starting this month there are changes to our waste/recycling collection and I want to improve. 

Previously our collection alternated--one week recycling pickup and the next week black bag non recycled waste pickup. But starting at the end of January, recycling is picked up every week and black bag only every three weeks (basically once a month). Normally, it takes me 3-4 weeks to fill up a black bag. But now I really want to concentrate on stretching myself to see how long I can go before I have to put out a black bag. Can I go six weeks (two pickup cycles?) Can I stretch to nine weeks (three pickup cycles?) 

Our recycling is even better than it used to be. Many more things are accepted locally to fill the blue recycling bags and now large supermarkets like Tesco have collections for things like crisp packets and certain plastic food bags that can't be recycled kerbside. 

I would love to be able to buy more naked fruit and veg, but it is not always available or affordable. Broccoli I can get plastic free, but kale I cannot. Kale comes in a crinkly plastic bag that can't be recycled so I try to use them as a bin liner in the bathroom before it goes into the black bag. 

Also when you try to throw away crinkly plastic bags they will not scrunch. Or rather they won't stay scrunched. This means that they take up a lot of space (very light air-filled space) but space none the less in your black bag filling it up quicker. The trick is take one minute to cut it into strips so it takes up less space. Another trick is to designate one crinkly bag as the "fill bag" and put all your strips into it before you put it in the black bag. 

And the last resolution for the day is:

3. ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCES

Let's be honest--the Amazing Spiderman was my EVERYTHING. We had lots of fun experiences over the years, but now I need to do them differently. Now I do them on my own (which is not as bad as i thought it might be. I was afraid I would look like Billy-No-Mates, but truthfully--nobody cares) and some I do with my FRAMILY. 

I got some birthday and Christmas money and so I have bought myself tickets to have a variety of experiences throughout the year. I will see three NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE at the cinema by myself (The Crucible, Othello and a play called Good starring David Tennant) and two comedians at the LYRIC THEATRE (Rich Hall and Mark Steel) with my Stand Up Comedian Friend (and Spiderman's former supervisor) Bettina. I also have tickets to see the Peatbog Faeries in concert. I have tickets to Swansea Comic Con with my Geek Friends the FT Gang and have already started going out with my Cinema Friend Pearl--we went out on Monday night to film club at the Lyric to see The Muppets Take Manhattan. 

That's all I have time for today as I need to finish making props so i can go and do a dress rehearsal for the storytelling. 

I hope you have lots of fun this year and don't feel like you have to do it all by yourself. 

Re-evaluating My Relationship With Plastic, Renewing My Commitment to the Earth

Today is Easter. A time where we renew our faith in both the natural world (spring is here and we watch Mother Earth renew herself) and for all my Christian friends, a time of renewal of faith in the church (with the resurrection of Jesus.)

It is a time for renewal and re-evaluation.

Ever since my trip to the US, I have been reevaluating my relationship with waste. I spent two weeks in Louisiana and my home town STILL doesn’t recycle.

 In 2018.

Does. Not. Recycle.

Other towns do. But not Alexandria. I was incredibly wasteful while I was there, going through single use plastics like water. In fact, many of them contained water. In the UK, I would rarely if ever buy a plastic bottle full of water, but where my daughter lives the city water is not great and the pipes in her house were old and made of lead, so they drank bottled water.

 

I drank four 500ml bottles of water every day for two weeks.

That’s 56 plastics bottles just from me. That does not include other members of her household.

It made me want to cry. I suffered noticeable panic attacks having to throw things away or whenever a cashier tried to give me a single use plastic bag.

I was so relieved to get back to the UK. I could not live like that.

But the whole time I was in the US, I kept thinking “at least you can recycle all this when you get back.”

But coming back, I started to reflect on how much we do for the environment and how much more we could do. I looked at old blog posts about our plastic usage which you can read {HERE} and realised that our plastic usage has increased since we moved to Wales.

Hitchin was a market town and had a huge fabulous food market twice a week. We got 90% of our fruit and veg naked there with no plastic packaging. The food was also really cheap—like a heaping bowl of 10 apples for £1 or 1 kilo of mushrooms in a paper bag for £2. These days, we have nothing like this near us. There is a tiny overpriced veg stall on the Wednesday outdoor market, but all their food is pre-bagged in plastic. I spoke to the man last week saying, “If I wanted to buy these apples, would you pick me out a kilo and put them in my cloth bag?” And he replied, “Here they are, love. Already bagged and ready” as he tried to hand me a plastic bag with apples.

 

These days, as we live on considerably less income than we did when we lived in England, money must be a consideration. The cheapest produce comes from Lidl and is almost always pre-bagged. We have looked at naked produce at Tesco, but it costs more. Considerably more. And prices have been creeping up since we began our ill-advised journey to BREXIT and so our £30 a week for food doesn’t go as far as it should. That means plastic bagged produce for us, sadly. Which means I must start looking for other ways to cut back on rubbish to compensate for this.

I am also more and more convinced that we need to recycle LESS. I know, I am horrified that Alexandria doesn’t recycle, but we can’t just keep buying all these single use plastics and pop them in to our blue bags feeling all virtuous and never wondering what happens to them. Or (God forbid)find out that they are not even actually being recycled at all. I really think we all need to eliminate (as much as possible) our use of single use plastics and THEN recycle what is left.

So, I have been looking at other ways to reduce our waste in other areas. Ways to always have reusables on hand and completely sever ties with single use plastics.

For the next few weeks expect some blog posts about ways that we are doing this.

I hope you’ll join me.

What I Am Fighting For

I came across this short film today and it hit me right where it hurts.

I saw the world as it is and it reminded me what I am fighting for.

It reminded me why I am vegan and an environmentalist and what that means to me.

Humankind is destructive. FACT.

God has entrusted us with the care of this green and blue planet and we seem to do nothing but pollute it, destroy it, use and abuse it. So many people only think of themselves --satisfying every momentary desire and whim without thinking of the consequences.

Because they think they are the
Top of the Food Chain
King of the Hill
Pinnacle of Creation 
it gives them the right to treat every living being as a vending machine and fill our world with garbage. Wherever they go, humans seem to leave a path of destruction in their wake.

You should definitely watch this with the sound up as Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King really enhances the film.

Here is everything that is wrong about humanity in one short film.

Steve Cutts has just become my favourite animator.

I also saw this on his Facebook page and it hurt because it is so true. Why do we do this?

Celebrating fish in their natural habitat

He has also recently done the animation for Moby's new video. I like Moby because he is an outspoken Vegan and spreads compassion with his music. I am not necessarily a fan of his style of music, but I appreciate what he does.

This video, with its fantastic mix of modern technology and retro style drawing is truly mesmerising.  It features something else that feel needs fighting against. 

Many people have said this is meant to be anti-technology and I don't believe that. It is meant to be anti-selfishness. Anti-coldheartedness. Against being anti-social. 

These days, how often do you have a proper conversation with someone?

How often do you sit down for a meal and really talk and listen to others? 

When was the last time you talked to someone about your hopes and your dreams? 

When did you last put down your phone?

With technology that allows us to be connected 24/7, it is easy to spend our lives virtually, rather than in person. To me, this is another kind of destruction--the destruction of the soul. I think you lose yourself without true face-to-face interactions with people. You lose sight of who you are online. It is all too easy to become a troll and say things you would NEVER say in person because of the anonymity of the internet. You can forget who you are because you spend all your time documenting your life with a selfie, presenting the best version of yourself which is not the real version of yourself. We all have have our ups and downs.  But if people only show the edited, cleaned up version of themselves then it is easy to feel more inadequate about yourself because it seems that your life is not as "perfect" as everyone else's. This is what technology can do to us.  

OK, so maybe there is a hint of anti-technology there as well. 

I originally watched the video with the sound off and I was deeply moved. I watched it again with Moby's music and I was glad I had already seen the video so I could concentrate on the song, because I might have been distracted by the song if I was trying to absorb all the messages from the video. So it is up to you how you would like to watch it. I recommend watching it both ways--sound off then sound on,but it's your call. Just watch it. 

So be kind. 

Spread love and compassion.

Keep your country tidy.
Stand up for what you believe in.

Put down your phone and look into someone's eyes when you speak to them.

Listen.

Be Vegan, Make Peace. 

The End Is Nigh

 

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know how much we love Jonny and the Baptists.  Oh how we love their silly songs, their serious issues songs, their satirical look at the world songs, their trying to make the world a better place songs, their chemistry together with Paddy's brilliant guitar playing and Jonny's soulful voice.

They *are* comedy blues.

You can also imagine how we felt when we moved to Wales. There might be no more Jonny and the Baptists for us. We used to see them quite regularly when we went to Distraction Club in London on the first Tuesday of the month. They are fantastic musicians and because we have chatted a few times at these gigs and had some email correspondence  I can honestly say they are also all-round nice blokes as well.

Most things in Wales are brilliant, but there was a giant Jonny and the Baptists shaped hole in our lives.

But no more!

Yesterday we took the train to Cardiff which is two hours for us and then walked about 30 minutes in the rain (this is Wales after all) to get to the Chapter Arts Centre. We were all jiggly with excitement because we were gonna see us some Jonny and Paddy!!!!!!
We got there early and brought a bag load of food as we knew we were going be back later. Really late. Spectacularly late. Next day late. But we were wet and weirdly steamy (plastic waterproof coats and hot weather are not a good mix) and so we perused the menu at the Chapter Arts Centre and it was AMAZING. There was a vegan menu. There was a gluten free menu. With a bit of cross referencing on our parts to find stuff v/gf we managed to order a large plate of homemade kidney bean vegan sausages over mash with brown gravy and falafels with hummus. Plus they had that posh rose lemonade I love by Fentimans.


Soon we were dry and well fed and it was time for the fun to start.

There were about 90 people there and we were a very appreciative audience. We even laughed at the duck butler joke.

Jonny had grown a beard and Paddy occasionally let down his golden hair like Rapunzel. The show was called The End is Nigh and was all about Jonny and Paddy trying to stop climate change after Jonny frightened his favourite four year old niece Isabella by telling her the world was going to end because we were not doing enough to stop climate change.

He made her cry and this tour is out  to rectify that.

It was a mixture of serious and silly with lots of facts about climate change and saving the environment (there was a song about weeing in the shower because of how much water is used when you flush the loo) but also a striking indictment of those who walk the walk as opposed to those who talk the talk.


When the show was first written it featured a man named Mathew Hancock who was at that time the Minister of State for Energy which was a strange appointment as he was a bit of a climate change denier and was seen as slightly controversial after hiring a private jet to take him home from a climate conference. A climate conference!!!!

What a dick.

Which is where the next part of the show went. There was a toe tapping number called Willies about...well drawing willies on things. Spiderman spent a decade working at an all boys school. He is an expert on this. If there is a blank, available space--a boy will draw a willy on it. FACT. The song lamented a simpler time when all you had to do was draw willies on stuff (like when studying WW1 about the Germans and French you'd draw a little willy poking out of the trench) but now we need to take action and solve climate change and it is not as easy (or as much fun) as drawing willies on stuff.

Oh, and they also dressed a member of the audience up as Mathew Hancock and then drew a willy on him.


The show ended all too soon with a rousing chorus of the song We're All Going To Die and that had us giggling and singing it all the way back to the station (once again in the rain). We kept mouthing it to each other on the train--fearful of singing it too loud lest someone get the wrong idea. The happy vibe from the concert and all the humming and laughing made the two hour train journey back to Carmarthen pass quickly.

Before we left, we stopped to say hello to them and as always they are just genuinely lovely human beings. They used to sell CDs but now after looking at the environmental aspect of them have decided to go to the download version only. We spent a fiver for a photo of them on recycled paper which had the download code for getting the music online. They signed it with--what else--a drawing of a willy.


If anyone out there would like to hear more about them (and you totally should) go to http://jonnyandthebaptists.co.uk/ where you can download their music for a reasonable rate and watch their videos.


We love you guys! Thank you for coming to Wales!

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

We can all agree that plastic bags are evil, right? They are not biodegradable and can remain in landfills for hundreds if not thousands of years. They litter our landscapes.  They find their way into our oceans and are swallowed by animals such as turtles who die a slow and painful death as it prevents them from eating. But there is a solution, right?

BYOB. Bring your own bag. Simple as that. You can have a string bag or a heavy duty bag for life from your local shop or a jute bag or a beautiful bag up-cycled from a pair of old curtains (my personal favourite) --the point is JUST BRING A BAG.

How about charging 5p per plastic bag as an incentive to bring your own?

I am proud to say that Wales was the first country in the UK to do so. We have been charging 5p per plastic bag since 2011, thank you very much.  And what was the result? a 71% drop in plastic bag usage in the first year alone.

Northern Ireland and Scotland followed suit in 2013 and 2014, respectively. And what happened? The same as Wales. They saw a significant drop in plastic bag usage.

So what in the hell has happened to the people of England?

They've gone mad, the lot of them.

A month ago I was working in the shop when a holiday-maker from England regaled me of her outrage that a shop dared to try and swindle her out of 5p for a bag. When I asked if she would like a bag for her purchase she said:

Her: Are you going to charge me for it?"
Me:  We use environmentally friendly paper bags and so we don't need to charge.
Her: Well I was just at Debenhams and I was buying a pair of shoes for £45 and they had the *nerve* to expect me to pay 5p for a bag. (by now she was practically foaming at the mouth like a mad dog and shouting much to her husband's embarrassment) I told them that I wasn't going to pay 5p on top of £45 so they could get stuffed. I wanted a refund immediately for the shoes. 
Me: So you didn't buy the shoes?
Her: Hell no! They weren't going to swindle me out of 5p. How dare they! 
Me: (thinking) Don't go mad--whoops, too late.

I tried to explain that it was the law here, but she was having none of it. I thought it was a one-off crazy reaction, but apparently not.

October saw the 5p plastic bag charge hit England and the shit hit the fan. People went mental. They didn't care that the number of plastic bags at the 7 major supermarkets rose by 200 million in 2014 exceeding the previous year's unbelievable figure of  7.6 billion bags. This is equal to 140 bags per person  or 61,000 tonnes of waste. 

They didn't care. They just weren't going to part with their 5p.

Now instead of making people outraged about the 5p charge and spurring it on to bring their own, it had the opposite effect.

People stole trolleys.
People got banned from shops for effing and blinding and swearing over paying for a bag.
People were stealing bags by the handful and now some shops have had to electronically tag their plastic bags and trolleys.
People got into a fist fight with shop security in a car park when trying to make off with a trolley.

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11926042/Eight-incidents-that-prove-the-English-public-have-lost-their-minds-over-the-carrier-bag-charge.html

Seriously? This is England? Losing their mind over 5p? You would spend more than that on a lottery ticket and a packet of fags (cigarettes to my American peeps) but you won't spend 5p on a bag because you can't be arsed to bring your own bag.

I am *so* glad I live in Wales where things are more civilized.

Grow up England and stop being such a  titty-baby.

Last of the Summer Wine

We had our annual Llansteffan Castle picnic a week or so ago. It’s called Last of the Summer Wine just because it is the last bit of warm summer before the cold and rains of autumn rear their heads. This picnic was one of the first outings we did with Carmarthen vegans last year and it was extra thrilling to be doing it again. We got to be firm members of the group, welcoming new people unlike last year when we were the newbies.

 

Also, after the hike in the Brecon Beacons where is was clear I needed more sturdy shoes a blessing occurred. I was all set to cough up the £45 I needed to buy a pair of waterproof hiking boots from Charlie’s when lo and behold my beloved discount German grocer Lidl had pairs on sale for £15. That’s right. I bought one, Spiderman bought one, I went and back and bought another pair for when the first ones wear out because I hate shoe shopping. I told all my vegan peeps and Kathryn, Peter and Susie bought some. So now we’re all twinkies (twins!)

 

Anyway, I had mine on for this walk and you might can catch a glimpse of them.

 It starts down below by the River Tywi estuary. This is the view from the car park where we wait for everyone to arrive.

 

There were many little friends out and about.

can you see his little eyestalks?

lots of little friends

 

 Then we all walked together up the steep road.

heigh ho, heigh ho! It's up the hill we go!

 

We saw at least one little eight legged friend on the way up.

can you see her hiding in her web?

 

An artistic view of the castle we were headed up to complete with spooky old gnarled tree.

 

Then we arrived at the top of the ruined castle. This is the view looking outward.

 

Then we all sat down in a circle and ate ourselves silly with delicious vegan food.

 

This is what the ruined castle looks like.

 

This is the view out to sea.

 

This is the view if you climb to the top of the ruined castle.

 

Or if you look through an arch.

 

Here is me by the old well holding the well key pretending to be the evil Dodge in the form of the dark lady from our favourite graphic novel Locke and Key by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez. I am putting on my evil face which Spiderman says is less effective due to the wee flower in my hair. Go figure.

 

scarier than me

 Here’s another little fuzzy friend found on the castle walls.

 

Not sure what was happening here. I was standing up to avoid sitting on the rocky wall but it somehow looks like I am the teacher and they are my pupils. However you do get a great view of my new teal and black hiking boots.

click to enlarge and admire my new boots

 Yes I go hiking in a dress. No I don't care if it looks dumb with hiking boots. Any other questions?

It was a little chilly, but we still had a blast. A new young lady called Rosie brought some watercolour pencils and some bristol board and we happily sketched the view together and chatted.

A big thanks to the Amazing Spiderman for all the lovely photography. Didn't he do a great job?

 

It was a lovely day and just goes to show you can make your own fun.

 

Good food, good friends, fresh air and exercise. What more do you really need?

I left my butt in Brecon Beacons

Or I left my arse in Aberhonddu (if you use the Welsh name for it)

Whew! Last week we went hiking with the Carmarthen Vegans in the Brecon Beacons.   It was a blast as usual but with a bit more exertion than our regular walks. Dave from Swansea said it was about a mile and a half walk to a lake where we could picnic. He said it was suitable for munchkins so we brought the vegan kiddos.

 

Well, it was and it wasn’t.

It was about a mile and half but it was a very vertical mile and half  through quite marshy ground with lots of rivers and tricky, uneven areas to cross. It took about two hours to get up to the top.

Here’s me mucking about pretending to recreate that famous painting of John Ruskin by Millais (who later ran off with Ruskin’s wife after their marriage was annulled due to non-consummation).

 

We were beginning to doubt the existence of this mythical lake but then it appeared and we all rejoiced.

Once we were up at the top we could take off our soaking wet shoes and socks and let them dry on a rock and walk around barefoot which was lovely.

We waded in the lake, looked out for interesting insects and ate lots of delicious vegan food. We had certainly worked up an appetite.

Here’s me trying to go find a discreet hill where I could have a wee. Yes folks, I had to pee behind a hill. Not as glamorous as it sounds!

Spiderman hiked a bit further up as his shoes were dry and snapped us down below on our little peninsula.

with the zoom lens

without it--you can just make us out if you look hard

After several hours of resting, it was time to go back down.

 

Here’s where things got a bit sticky. It was decided to go an alternate way down that was supposed to be drier.

Well….it was drier.

It was also longer, steeper, more treacherous and in the opposite direction from the car park.

 

Perhaps because we were all tired and we had several exhausted munchkins (including a very cranky three year old who needed to be carried the whole way down) it took us more than three hours to get back to the bottom.

It was a glorious day and we certainly exhibited lots of teamwork carrying Little Dude and playing distracting games and singing distracting songs to keep the increasingly tired kiddo’s minds off the long journey home.

It also taught me I needed to invest in better footwear. I was muddy and sore from head to toe after several slips while trying to hold the hand of small child as we tried to cross various canyons.

But despite the length and difficulty of the climb we had a blast because being with friends and exerting oneself in the open air actually feels pretty good.  

Plus the view was spectacular.

So despite getting home bone weary and wet and feeling I left my butt in the Brecon Beacons--it was brilliant.

 
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

 But with better shoes.            

Make Lemonade

Sometimes, when things don't go your way you just have to adapt, adopt and improve. As the saying goes, if life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

I am totally cool with this concept these days. But it has taken years to be able to go with the flow and not have a set picture in my head that has to be adhered to the letter or else a fun time *cannot* be had by me or anyone else.  

Besides, I actually really like lemonade.

We were all geared up to go out to Skomer Island on Sunday with the Carmarthen Vegans. Skomer Island, for those of you don't know is a nature reserve in Pembrokeshire with real honest-to-goodness puffins. Seriously, puffins. But it can be a bit tricky and here is why.


1. We don't live in Pembrokeshire we live in Carmarthenshire.
2. They only allow 250 per day out on the island and you can't reserve a place so you have to get there super early to queue for a spot on board the boat.
3. The boats don't always run if they suspect inclement weather ahead and you don't know until you arrive.


We set out as a hopeful party of six all arriving at Skomer from different locations. We left Carmarthen at 7:30 to get us to Pembrokeshire by 9:00. Alas, they suspected choppy seas later in the day and so they boats weren't running. While we are all disappointed, we just laughed and said, "well, we've got all this gorgeous picnic food. Let's go for a walk and have a picnic." Also on the bright side we saved £21 each not having to pay to go out to Skomer making this an incredibly cheap and fun day out. Bonus!

Priya, Susie, Peter and Kathryn, myself and Spiderman went to a beach near Susie's house (she actually lives in Pembrokeshire and has to travel a fair distance to come to any of the meet-ups in Carmarthen so it was so nice to be in her "neck of the woods" as they say.) We also texted another vegan friend Allison and invited her and her dachshund Ruby along. After swinging by to pick up the dogs  Daisy and Nougat from Susie's house we were off to Newgale beach near St Bride's bay. 

This did not disappoint.

The beach was beautiful and there were many amazing geological structures to look upon. There were hosts of caves--some you could explore and some you couldn't.


Thanks to Spiderman for taking all the snapshots. Enjoy the view:

the view out to sea

the view up the coastal path

a rock that was just begging for a Little Mermaid to sit on it and sing

Outside a cave

inside the cave

one of many other caves

It was great to see the caves as a cave features very prominently in our favourite graphic novel Locke and Key. 

Don't go into the Drowning Cave!

some caves were cut off by the tide

the winds picked up and the sea was rough so they were right to call off Skomer

the back of us being whipped by the wind

if you look carefully you can see Carmarthen Vegans written in the sand

Priya wrote Carmarthen Vegans in the sand and a few miles down the beach ran into a Pembrokeshire vegan who was excited to know other vegans were about.

After walking about three miles we walked to another part of the beach and in the shade of a hanging rock we sat down, tired and hungry for our food. There is something about walking along the beach with friends that builds up an appetite.

It was a veritable feast with sandwiches galore and food to share--crisps, watermelon, hummus and vegan cheese all being passed around. It was a glorious meal and then we beach-combed for another two miles or so (where I nearly slipped and fell in some rather slippery seaweed by a lagoon) and then all went back to Susie's for more snacks (flapjacks, chocolate and hot tea) and several hours of lazing about in her beautiful garden and just chatting about anything from silly things to serious deep subjects. We practised our song that we are singing next month at the Summer Vegan Meet Up and realise we still need a bit of work but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We even had Susie's 88 year old Mum joining in on the chorus!

The best thing about the day was the friendship. This group of lovely human beings adopted us straight away when arrived in Wales. We ran into Kathryn and Peter who run a vegan information stall in the market every Saturday. They invited us to join the Carmarthen Vegans and a week later we were at the Waverly cafe eating and visiting like we had known each other forever. There we met the rest of the gang and suddenly we found ourselves being invited to picnics and hikes and we had a social life that involved fresh air, good food and exercise as well as laughter and good conversation. I mean just like that--two weeks after we arrived people were offering us lifts to places and we had friends. These friends have helped us both be more active about veganism and have given us ways to help change the word for animals. 

So even if we didn't get to Skomer, we still had an excellent time. What more could a person ask for?