Churchyard at Llandewi Aberarth

The sun was rising over 'our hill' as I got up on Saturday morning (it's now Monday). I enjoyed the calm, reading and writing before my chalet mates awoke and started stumbling over the annoying coffee table with slippery curved edges.

After breakfast (did I mention that the cooker doesn't really work?) we set off by car for Aberaeron, which is a charming town on the coast, with brightly coloured houses and plenty of boats. Our walk took us along low cliffs to Aberarth, the next settlement. From there, we walked uphill through the village, over the tumbling falls of the river Arth and up a track until we reached the church at Llandewi Aberarth, with its graveyard of tall headstones overlooking the sea. There was a strong maritime theme, with many master mariners lying at rest there. This anchor-stone stood out for me.

From there we continued up some near-vertical fields until we found a grassy bridleway with overhanging trees. In time our descent took us back to Aberaeron, where we found a vintage-styles tea room that could serve us lunch. Many of the customers were speaking Welsh. My Welsh beef chilli went down easily.

Our next stop was the estate at Llanerchaeron, which includes a John Nash villa and extensions, a farm and a walled garden. It's now run by the National Trust. We particularly enjoyed walking around the gardens, the lake and the old farm buildings in the late afternoon sunshine. Newborn piglets and lambs delighted us, while turkeys and geese strutted and preened.

After driving back to our coastal base and attempting a general knowledge crossword, it was time for Helen and I to try to teach Brian and Angela how to play Bananagrams. Not sure that we succeeded entirely...

I'm pleased to report that the oven-baked risotto, which was cooked in stages and ingredient-batches spartly on a ring (useless) partly under the grill (good) partly in the oven (terrible) and finished off in the microwave (excellent) only took an hour and a half to make. It tasted good too. Next time, microwaved ready meals all round.