I love doing tourist stuff, and I'm one of the few people who enjoy being a tourist on their metaphoric doorstep.

My lover and I have managed to spend some time together recently. I repaid him for my various tours of Swansea with some sightseeing in Cardiff and its environs. it's just lovely seeing someone respond to things and places one likes oneself. A friend of mine was surprised when I volunteered to take her and her brother (unknown to me before our day out)to St Fagans, our wonderful folk museum. more recently I took great pleasure taking my lover around the museum with its amazing collection of Welsh historic buildings put together in a lovely landscape.

This week has been the amazing Castell Coch and Caerphilly Castle.

Castell Coch (red castle)is a fabulous fairytale castle constructed by Burgess for Bute when he was richest man in the UK and seemed to own most of Wales. It is a magical looking plaything of a building set in woodland a few miles outside Cardiff.

In contrast Caerphilly Castle is an imposing and very real Norman castle built to control the Welsh - So a castle in Wales rather than a Welsh castle... it does look wonderfully impressive though.

We've also been back to Penarth and mooched around various garden centres. It's been very holiday-like doing fun stuff together.

...from my frend. Although (because?!)totally absurd I not only enjoyed this, but found it strangely touching...
I do admit to being weird!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL6E7R4IbCM&search=japanese%20domino

Hi Trolly,
You seem rather interested in human footwear so thought you may be amused by topless sandals. Somewhat cheaper than designer flipflops!
http://pollygarter.blog.co.uk/?tag=topless%20sandals

Isn't disambiguation a fabulous word? Just found it looking up hedgehogs on the wonderful Wikipedia.

Hedgehog (disambiguation)
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Hedgehog may refer to:

* Hedgehog, a small, spiny mammal.
* Hedgehog defence, a military strategem.
* Czech hedgehog, an area denial weapon.
* Hedgehog (weapon), an anti-submarine weapon.
* Hedgehog (roadblock), a removable roadblock.
* Sonic the Hedgehog (character), a video game character.
* Hedgehog (cell signaling), a signal transduction pathway.
* Sonic hedgehog, a signaling protein.
* The porn star Ron Jeremy, who goes by the nickname "The Hedgehog".
* Hedgehog in the Fog, a 1975 Soviet animated film

And there's me thinking Sonic hedgehog was merely an animated character and computer game...

the reason I was looking up hedgehog was I had second sighting of my latest guest and suddenly had a horrible thought and wondered if they ate slow wormsThey do eat lizards and snakes so it is a possibility but as I suspected - insects and slugs and such are main diet. And apparently they're lactose intolerant, but can't resist milk although it makes them ill!

Today was incredibly hot in Cardiff and I'm on hols so just dozed in the heat and listened to radio, then sat in back garden after sundown. I could hear hedgehog but he stayed out of sight. I think the little b***er has actually got him/herself under the membrane stuff under the bark as i now have a swathe of black sticking up through what was a lovely sea of bark chippings!

I've not seen my lover since Friday, but will see him tomorrow with privacy although we have some boring stuff to do as well as enjoy each other's company. I shall see him on Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat as well, although Friday is our only proper 'date' day. But we just like being together so it should be a lovely week...

I was sittining in garden at 7.30 last night when I heard lots of rustling and could not work out source - And out of the shrubs sauntered a hedgehog! I thought they were nocturnal but this was still pretty bright sunshine and broad daylight (pedantry note - anyone know what's so 'broad' about daylight?)

Said creature crossed the lawn to the birdbath lido and had a drink, with me sat on bench watching. S/he then strolled over to bottom of garden to have forage and mooch in the bark under the bamboos.

I've been blaming the birds for the disturbed bark but with hedgehog(s) and slow worms who knows...

...forgot to say - As well as all my birds and the slow worms a party of ducks visited my garden last week! Sadly I didn't get to see them as I was at work, but Momma duck and ducklings passed through and then wanderd off...
Meanwhile my very sophisticated birdbaths (three plantpot drip trays of different sizes and depths) are amazingly popular with local sparrows and my back garden is their new lido!

While we both enjoy privacy, we also just like being together and today had a perfectly lovely day in Swansea. We did exciting things like return his library books, pay in some cheques and get my new tax disc. We also saw an exhibition in the Glynn Vivian and had lunch in the Kardomah.

The Kardomah is obviously a bit of an institution - An Italian-run cafe with waitresses in black and white, an eagle eyed manager/owner and lots of regulars. It's not the original where Dylan Thomas whiled away his mis-spent youth, but still very established. They actually have photos of their family and the staff on display.

We later visited the reservoir at Felindre and just lazed and chatted for an hour or so.

And tomorrow I'm seeing him on his own, but we have work to do... And Friday is another opportunity to meet with privacy and no work...

At last! I can be excited about my wheeliebins without sounding like I need to get a life.

I was filling up my green garden rubbish bin and found myself eyeballing a slow worm. Somehow in the transfer of my garden cuttings and clippings we'd transported two of the beautiful creatures into the wheelie bin. As my last sighting of a slow worm was after the grass-cutting and somewhat depressing it was delightful to find two live ones in the bin.

Of course as my lover and I carefully emptied the bin, they didn't realise they were being rescued and proved very fast indeed. We successfully rescued them and given them a home under the hedge. Now we have to keep the grass short to keep them safe.

Slow-worms are lizards. The skin of the varieties of slow-worm is smooth with scales that do not overlap one another. Like some other lizards, slow-worms autotomize, meaning that they have the ability to shed their tails in order to escape predators. The tail regrows, but seldom to its former length.

These reptiles are active during the day and like to bask in the sun. They are carnivorous and, because they feed on slugs and worms, they can often be found in long grass.

The females give birth to live young (viviparous birth). In the days leading up to birth the female can often be seen basking in the sun on a warm road.

They are common in gardens and can be encouraged to enter and help remove pest insects by placing black plastic or a piece of tin on the ground. On warm days one or more slow worms will often be found underneath these collectors of heat.

Although these lizards are often mistaken for snakes, there are a number of features that differentiate them from snakes. The most important is they have small eyes with eyelids that blink. This is a feature that is not found in snakes. They also have notched tongue rather than a forked tongue, which is a common feature of a snake. They shed their skin in patches like other lizards, rather than the whole skin as most snakes do.

Adult slow-worms grow to be about 50 cm long and are known for their exceptionally long life; it has been said that a slow-worm is the longest living lizard. The female often has a stripe along the back and the male may have blue spots.

Another optical illusion

Well, we've now had rain in Cardiff, so less steamy, but I'm feeling less than creative so her's another optical  illusion...

p.s. I copied pic inclusive of text. I thought it interesting that they used the term Native American rather than Indian, but used Eskimo instead of Innuit...

...so here's a puzzle instead. I was putting together some optical illusions and this one took me ages to solve. It's a young and old man, similar to the classic young/old woman. I could see old man but young one remained elusive for ages - and no - it's not a metaphor for life!

We saw each other three times last week! Had very nice time doing things like a pub lunch, visit to garden centre and private time... I had planned a very nice lunch for Friday, but we both got sleepy, so I sent him home with a Mars bar instead!
I had phonecall today which was lovely. Also our usual email exchange and then it will soon be Monday and seeing each other again