Frittilaria at Aberglasney

First stop of the day was the Gower Heritage Centre, a place with an old corn mill and various attractions. We were told we'd have an hour there, so I broke away from the party, and legged it down to the beach, Three Cliffs Bay, passing under the ruins of a crumbling castle. When I got to the spectacular  beach, I found I was on the wrong side of the estuary to paddle but I did manage to cross at a point further up where there were stepping stones, and walk back to the centre along another path, thus making a circular walk. It felt amazing to get away from the herd and have a decent walk/march, and I got back in good time. I'm glad I did, because it turned out that this was the only beach on the Gower that I actually got to see!

The coach turned round and went back to Mumbles. Mumbles is still lovely, even on a grey day. We had lunch in the same restaurant overlooking the sea where we'd dined last year. Goodness knows how we got a table: luck, perhaps?

Final stop was the 'lost gardens' of Aberglasney. They weren't so much lost as abandoned, until about twenty years ago.They and the house have now been restored, and my favourite elements were the magnolia trees and the drifts of  fritillaria (above). D. Was in strange form. I left him on a bench in the walled garden, and when I went back to fetch him, he said he hadn't had enough  time for a sleep. In fact, the tea shop visit took forever, because the staff was young and inexperienced and somehow overlooked us, and guess what? We were last back on the coach. The driver came looking for us.

Dinner was paschal lamb, and the restaurant staff have cottoned on to writing GF on the menu where appropriate, and even made a GF dessert. Strange, but wonderful in its own way.