Best day for years

Yesterday and today have been utterly fabulous - bright sunshine, cloudless skies, temperatures in the high twenties, light breezes. Perfect weather. In fact, weather like we haven't seen for years. For each of the last three or four years, there have been a few warm and even pleasant days early in the Summer, and then it has descended into grey, overcast and damp conditions for the months of July and August. 2008 was the wettest Summer on record for Wales, and 2009 wasn't far behind. As someone who loves sun and warmth (and dry roads, heh), the last few years have been rather depressing.

Yesterday was a belter, and we spent most of the day getting a barbecue ready - Anna inside on the salads and me outside resurrecting an oil-drum barbie that hadn't been used for several years. We had a few people round last night, and had a barbecue on the lawn and didn't feel the need to go inside or wrap up bare skin until ten pm or so.

Today, we had breakfast in the garden, and then later moseyed off for a pub lunch, a treat from our visiting friends. We ended up in Little Haven, a small village on the coast:



and had lunch in the Swan Inn:



The sun was bright, the sky was deep blue and cloudless, and the sea was a wonderful deep blue-green. The slight breeze made some white horses, and the sun glittered on the wave-tops:



These photos don't do any kind of justice to the reality. The colours of both sky and sea were stunning.

On days like these, there is nowhere I would rather be. Pembrokeshire is a beautiful county, and the scenery is the equal of anywhere. The usual comparison is with Cornwall, but today we had a choice of tables in the pub, attentive service from an unstressed waitress, and no crowds to battle with when we emerged into the daylight for a lengthy doze in the sun. Cornwall without the masses.



Together with the company of some old and very close friends, today was a little piece of heaven.