Lammas Part Six and a Half - Pembrokeshire and Basket-making

Our cob course came to an end on Friday afternoon but we weren't quite finished with West Wales or Lammas yet.
I had planned to spend Saturday visiting the Centre for Alternative Technology, mostly out of nostalgia for my student days in the Green Society when we all piled into a van and headed west to volunteer at what was then a grassroots project in its infancy.
In the end I decided against visiting for fear that it would be an anti-climax. I am glad it has done so well, but when organisations go mainstream I usually bail out.

Instead we explored the Pembrokeshire coast. It was pretty but access was limited and hence each National Trust car park was full of cars. Instead we found a footpath leading down to the coast away from the crowds and had a relatively short walk in the sunshine.
The day was enjoyable but useful too as it helped us decide this would probably not be the best area to come back to with the dogs.

We even found an old wool mill to look around, but we resisted the temptation to spend.

On Sunday we returned to Cassie's place to learn how to make a frame basket. There were only four course participants. The weather was glorious, so much so that we had to move into the shade.
We had a lovely day making our baskets under Cassie's expert guidance.

Almost as importantly we came away with two very presentable and usable baskets.

This is something I definitely need to make the time to develop. It appeals to my love of natural materials and to my love of mathematical pattern. I should even be able to grow most of the basketry willow that I need.
Who knows, maybe some day I will become skilled enough to lead my own courses.

And that was that.
Into the car and ready for the long drive home.
We rolled back onto the farm just as it was getting dark. We were both looking forward to seeing the dogs again. Arthur was beside himself with joy at our return. Boris was happy to be meeting someone new. I'm sure he actually remembered who we were!
Getting to sleep that night was difficult. We had come back to the hot side of the country and even at 10 o'clock the temperature was way above 20 degrees. Beside that, my head was absolutely buzzing with ideas and plans.