My August 2026 monthly round up

I did a fair bit of travelling in August. The month started with Cathy and I making a last minute overnight trip to Kent (via Oxford). We stayed near Whitstable, had an evening in Herne Bay, before briefly popping into Canterbury to pick up some new art we had bought online. 

Herne Bay sunset

Canterbury museum

We really liked the places we visited, and would like to return to that bit of the world for a proper holiday sometime. (And to go back to the museum when the Smallfilms gallery is open!)

I also spent a weekend in Shrewsbury, which included a trip with my mum on the Shrewsbury Town supporter's coach to Birkenhead to see Tranmere v Shrewsbury. I'm going to post a separate football review of the month, so you can read more about it there. But on the Sunday I went feeding ducks before church with my sister-in-law and an assortment of niblings.

Cathy and I had another road trip and just about stayed in Cymru this time when we met up with Cathy's aunt and uncle in Monmouth one weekend.

At the top of the Cynon valley, I went on the Tower Zipwire with Sara - my ride down was a birthday gift. I've already blogged about it, complete with video. 

There was another delayed birthday gift this month because I spent my Lego Store gift voucher that Connor gave me for my birthday. I bought the new set of Derpy the tiger from K-Pop Demon Hunters on the day it was released and built the set the same evening! He's fab. (Thanks Sara and Connor for being so generous!)

In the evening of the solar eclipse, Cathy and I went out onto The Marl (the big park near us) to experience it. You can't tell much was happening in this selfie with the sun.

In politics, our local Plaid Cymru branch is looking ahead to the council elections next year. We have started going out on some fact-finding canvassing, with sessions on the eastern and northern edges of the "South Cardiff" area. It's been fun knocking doors in the sunshine, and I hope we get good weather into September as well!

I went to seven football matches in August, but I think that's enough games to merit their own post! Check back tomorrow (or the day after).

And in case you missed it:

• My book of the month was Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
• My album of the month was Sanguivore by Creeper
• This month's Blood Bowl game saw my first ever win for the Norse Team (and some fierce snacks!)
• Our street got resurfaced - but there was a twist!
• I acquired another philatelic passport (this time from Japan) for my collection 
• I also bought some new action figures that were a homage to Action Force 

Gogledd Cymru - Mehefin 2024

A short round up of our recently concluded holiday in North Wales. We did the touristy stuff because we had good weather and the area was gearing up for the touristy season.

We explored castles.

We explored beaches.

We built our own castles on the beaches (because Cymru doesn't have enough castles).

We saw little steam trains.

We rode on a steam train to Blenau Ffestiniog and for the first time ever in my life it wasn't raining when I went to Blenau Ffestiniog.

When we ran out of trains, we rode on trams.

And sometimes we just had to do the scenic driving ourselves.

Could this look more Welsh?

We were staying on a farm and got to meet the ducklings and the pigs.

And on a more wilder note, we went to the osprey centre and saw nesting ospreys (and chicks).

We were blessed with great weather every day and in the evenings we enjoyed pretty sunsets.

And that was our gorgeous holiday in North Wales.

Snack of the Month - we're going to eat the zoo, zoo, zoo

My final "Snack of the Month" for 2022 is a packet of cute animal-shaped biscuits that make up the "Leibniz Zoo". These are another Snack of the Month that was sourced by Cathy, who nabbed the last bag on the shelf in our local Lidl. 

The cute giraffe on the front caught her eye. Packaging design for the win!

There's a cute design on the back along with a recommendation for deer snacks - which is a tenuous enough link to Christmas to make this a seasonal snack!

There is a decent volume of bite-size biscuits in the bag. I was reasonably impressed by how many were in there. 

And the variety of shapes was impressive too. A proper zoo of creatures, including ducks! This is one of each type - but there were three or four of most of them. The duck was the rarest as the one in the picture was the sole one in the bag. There were lots of horses. 

As plain biscuits go, these were nice. They tested like a more buttery version of a rich tea biscuit. They weren't very sweet and they were good dunked in tea.

I won't be rushing back to the zoo, having tried these once. But I did really like the rhino biscuit - here's a close up to close the review!

Quack of the Month!

On a recent trip to the Knap in Barry, Cathy and I saw this very pretty white mallard duck.

Photo: Cathy

We also heard it because she* had a loud, persistent quack! Definitely our Quack of the Month!

*I am reliably informed by expert-in-all-things-duck Cathy, that only lady ducks quack.

Why do you need a new ground?

Maybe this news item from Shrewsburytown.com will shed some light on it...

There was heavy rain in Shrewsbury yesterday and a lot of fans have been ringing to see how the pitch is.

Several inches of rain fell yesterday and this morning the pitch was covered in water, as well as a few ducks and a swan.

That's top quality sports journalism, that is. Not just ducks, but a swan too.