Long hot summer - June 2025

June is probably my favourite month of the year. Long nights. Warm weather. It's usually busy. And it definitely was this year! 

It marked the end of the football season. I saw both Wales women's and men's team playing within a few days of each other to round off my season.

One of the big life events of the month was replacing dear old Marco the Polo. I'm now droving a Mazda 3, in "soul red" (their name for it) and we've called him Vincent. 

Here's a picture of Vincent looking suave and a teeny bit sandy on our holiday in North Wales at the end of the month.

My first long distance trip in Vincent was to Swindon because the British Thematic Association was holding its AGM at Swinpex, the annual stamp show of the local philatelic society. This year we had a presentation about daffodils, but there was surprisingly little Welsh content in the display. There was some, though.

Speaking of flowers, I went along to the Grangetown History Society's talk about Grange Gardens on the park's 130th Anniversary.

It was very interesting seeing pictures of the Gardens when they were newly opened, and also when it was turned into vegetable patches during World War 2.

There was even a cake, provided by the Friends of Grange Gardens. 

I've already mentioned our week on holiday in North Wales, where we encountered butterflies on Anglesey and played underground golf! 

But on the way back we stopped in Shrewsbury. Joy, our eldest niece, had her birthday during the week before we popped in, so we were able to give her some presents.

She so big now!

We arrived back home with just two days of the month left. On the last Sunday of the month we went to a big print fair at Chapter Arts Centre. 

I really liked this big print, but decided I didn't have the wall-space to do it justice!

And then on the last night of June, I accepted Sara's invitation to an event with Rhun Ap Iorweth, leader of Plaid Cymru. He was a very engaging speaker and came across as honest and realistic. I liked him. (He was funny too. When I told him I'd driven past his office in Llangefni a couple of days before, he told me I should have popped in!)

Sara is standing as one of the Plaid candidates in her area in next year's Senedd election. It was great to meet some of the other Plaid members who will be helping her try to get elected. 

And that was a wrap for a busy month!

Recap of the Month - May 2023

Random selfie of the month - Salisbury Cathedral cloister

May was a very busy month and I barely managed to blog. I missed writing my traditional Star Wars Day post. I was able to post on my blog about Tony Gwynn's baseball cards on Tony's Birthday - it was the first post in months on that neglected project. But apart from a snack of the month, that was it. 

So, what have I been doing? Well, Cathy and I have mainly been trying to sort out the stamp collection my Dad left behind. The collection is in several boxes and lots of it was still unsorted, over four years after he passed away suddenly. We had a date at the end of the month to take them to be valued. Although that turned out to be a waste of time, it was good to have a date to work towards. Deadlines focus the mind and all that. Plus it gave me the opportunity to visit Salisbury. 

After my disappointing trip to Salisbury, I contacted another stamp dealer who said they could collect the stamps from my Mum's house in Shrewsbury. So, we reloaded all the stamps back into the car and I set off for an unexpected bank holiday Monday trip. Mum was pleased to see me and her doggo, Fred, was almost equally as pleased!

In work I have been serving my notice period. We had a great event up in Merthyr Tydfil, which was my main focus for the first half of the month. Now I am starting to work on planning a handover and identifying what I can wrap up before I leave so I don't leave too many half finished projects behind. 

I went on my first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year. Among the haul of rubbish on nearby streets I found a TV and an abandoned fish tank. 

Those were probably the most unusual items I picked up. We have started collecting discarded vapes for recycling as well, as the lithium batteries in them can prove a fire risk in rubbish lorries. So they went in a separate bag. Our litter picking crew found several, which adds to my theory that smokers are litterbugs, even when they are vaping instead.

Near the end of the month, Marco, our trusty and slightly battered VW Polo, successfully passed its MOT, so our little red car was clear to carry on motoring. Just as well, given I was ferrying stamps around the country!

Cathy and I had a cinema trip to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3. I've enjoyed the Guardians movies ever since the first one came out almost a decade ago, as well as the contribution the Guardians have made to other Marvel movies, especially Thor: Love and Thunder last year. This film focused on my favourite character, Rocket Raccoon, and gave all the characters a satisfying character arc as this particular part of the Marvel franchise came to an end. 

And in the lobby I got to see what it would be like to be a Ken doll!

And even though Barry Town's season ended at the end of April, the football season continued right to the end of May. I saw six matches, including my first 0-0 of the season in a game that went to a penalty shoot out after extra time. I had not seen a 0-0 for well over a year - a run of 75 matches. 

I also watched five Cardiff Draconians games as they battled to escape the relegation zone in their league. 

The Dracs survived by winning their final game, against the team who were one point ahead of them and who ended up getting relegated instead. I was really pleased the Dracs stayed up and look forward to visiting the Orange Llama Stadium again next season.