On the top of Lindsey's list of things she wanted to see was St. Fagans Castle. It's only around 20 minutes north of where we are staying. St. Fagans is on 18 acres of majestically wooded land. I am so glad she chose this place.
Oh, and that barn's colour? Ox blood.
Below is a map showing the village. It covers time from the stone age to the mid 20th century.
I've included this for Ted: a pig pen.
I can't believe our good luck this morning. This little robin chose to grace us with his presence and allowed us to take many pictures.
As we made our way to the further reaches of the grounds, the paths went through this very tall forest. I've included people at the bottom so you can see the scale.
These are Iron Age farmhouses. Again, the scale: look at the height of the door and Lindsey's head. Somehow, we made it through the day without smashing our heads on door frames. There was a lot of, "Watch out!" from Yim. That helped.
St. Teilo's church was built in either the 12th or 13th century. It was highly and colourfully decorated with many paintings on the walls depicting Bible stories. There was also this recent collaboration by local school children and their teachers. Isn't it wonderful?
There is a group of rowhouses called Rhyd-y-car Terrace. Each unit represents a year: 1805, 1855, 1895, 1925, 1955 and 1985. This is one of the earlier ones. The black bread intrigued me.
I just had to include this picture. There is a common grazing field in the centre of the village where a local farmer's sheep live. If you didn't get enough cuteness from the post of a few days ago, here's a top-up.
Any guesses what this is?
A 17th century cockpit. For cockfighting.
We left the grounds of the castle to the end of our time at St. Fagans. There are lovely gardens to wander around in.
There's the castle.
The gardens were enjoying the recent rains....
... and there was beauty everywhere.
After lunch at St. Fagans - Lindsey & I have tried faggots - yes, right word - and don't need to eat them again. After lunch, we drove back downtown to the Cardiff Market. It's somewhat like the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, but with many more non-food vendors.
Welsh cakes made up for the faggots.
Later in the afternoon, we wandered into one of the downtown arcades, looking for a place to have tea. This arcade is particularly beautiful and we had tea inside where those chairs are.
Yesterday, Yim & Cynthia met a former member of parliament while having a beer in a downtown bar. He arranged a private tour for us of Cardiff Castle tomorrow. Cardiff Castle is in the downtown area, sort of like King & Bay in Toronto. We walked beside the walls of the castle before we headed back to our place and noticed that.....
...... they are looking for us. There are maybe a dozen carved animals peering over the castle walls.
We'll see you tomorrow.
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