Tenby, Part Five, And The End !

We sat on the beach and admired the view over to St Catherine's Island and the old fort.  Lots of families were enjoying the warmth and sunshine ! 

Looking behind me, I could see what a wonderful view over the beach these houses must have  every single day.

Especially as part of the view included this:

                                Caldey Island, home of so many Saints throughout the last two millenia.

 It is several years since we last visited, and it is not a word of a lie to say that my heart yearned and actually ached to catch one of the little boats which travel to the island every twenty minutes or so. Unfortunately, we had neither the time nor the money to do so on this visit, but a significant part of my heart is devoted to this holy place, and I have every intention of making the pilgrimage to Caldey next year . And I have given DH due warning of the same :-)

This young gull was a joy. Although very nervous, and squeaking anxiously for his parents, he let me approach just close enough to snatch a photo of him, then I quickly retreated and left him to enjoy the sunshine in peace. He did later actually sit completely down on the warm  wall and gaze at the view, just as we were doing!

On the long way back to the car,  we passed this rather splendid house....

 

at which Admiral Nelson, Sir William and Lady Emma Hamilton stayed during their visit to Tenby in 1802.

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Part of the Caldey beach and slipway. This is where we caught our boat back to Tenby after a blissfully peaceful and tranquil day. I wish we could have stayed forever. 

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I prayed for all of you, my dear blog readers and blog friends. This was me lighting one of many candles ! 

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Abby "writing"/drawing her prayer petition before lighting her own candle. 

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At the top of the door lintel is this ancient incised angel. This year I managed to get a much better picture of it ! 

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Some of the many prayer petitions placed by pilgrims. This is one of the ancient doors of the church leading to the old monastic quarters. 

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I have no idea how old this is, but it depicts St Benedict`s ideal of "Pray and Work". 

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The ancient priory church and some of the monastic outbuildings. 

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One of the monks. 

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Old floor tiling near the original monastic buildings. 

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The main monastery building from the village green. 

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Walking through the trees to get to Caldey village, which is just at the end of this path. 

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A view of Caldey Island from the beach at Tenby. 

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Holidays Part Three

On Tuesday last week we decided to go on the boat trip across to Caldey Island, and 10am saw us chugging out of the bay past St Catherine`s Island, originally turned into a fortification when invasion by Napoleon was considered a threat, and now sadly uninhabited. For a large part of the day this little island is completely cut off from the rest of the beach........

It was still quite overcast, but a rocky outcrop we passed showed these lovely black Cormorants resting and drying out after diving into the sea for fish........

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Home Again

We got home safely on Weds afternoon and the girls went back to school yesterday.

Cleaning up the mayhem generated by holiday washiong occupied most of Thursday, but I promise I will try to post about our trip very soon :-)

We did get to Caldey Island, wayhay!!

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Farewell

We will be off on holiday tomorrow morning, so I won`t be posting again till Thursday next week.

Take care, everyone, God bless !

I will be praying for you all when and if we make the trip to Caldey Island - weather forecast is better for next week :-)

A Happy and Blessed New Church Year!

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Holiday Plans

Last year, we went to Caldey Island whilst we were on holiday in Tenby. See here and the May 2005 archives for photos

We have booked to go to Tenby again on 2nd September, so God willing and weather permitting, we hope to be able to cross to the holy island again.

If anyone wants prayers said for them or for specific needs at the old church, let me know. If we are able to get there, I will of course pray for you all collectively anyway :-)

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Monks and Missiles

Frequent readers will remember I blogged about our family trip to the holy island of Caldey last year.
This year they face a different battle with the authorities, namely a missile base planning on firing missiles after dark for practice purposes, as reported here .

The peace and tranquility on the island has to be experienced to be believed, and considering the monks are up at night for periods of prayer, and go to bed early, they will definitely be affected by night-time firing from a mile away............as will all the surrounding areas.

We visited Manorbier castle, and one of the very low flying training jets went past us, and I have to say it frightened the living daylights out of me..................

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Caldey Blooper :-)

I am extremely grateful to Dave Holford for reminding me of one notable ommission from my list of Saints associated with Caldey island.

I somehow managed to forget St Dyfrig, also known as St Dubricius, Dubric, Devereux, who died c 545.

He was one of the founders of the monastic life in Wales, establishing religious houses in Gwent, the Wye valley and what is now Herefordshire since boundary changes..
St Dyfrig had religious jurisdiction over Caldey, and he personally appointed St Samson as Abbot , and also ordained him as Bishop.

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My Daughter`s Prayer.

My precious six year old, Helen, wanted to light a candle in the old church of St Illtyd on Caldey island.
Many pilgrims had written their petitions and placed them in the niche near the candle stand, and there was a copious supply of pens and cardboard slips for this purpose.
I gave her a pen and a slip, and this is what she wrote, verbatim :

"dear God pleese help me Be Good for the rest of my Orthodox Chrisian Life and my children when I am grown up
Amen "

I think that says it all.
What more could anyone ask for ?

PS The slip of cardboard will be living in our icon corner, as she wanted to bring it home with her :-)

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