Blessings

Cardigan has a "blessing stone", located very close to where we are living for the next six weeks. We will seek it out, but I'm not sure it will be a blip. Some TripAdvisor reviews say "It's a stone, on a beach, not very near its plaque (one star)". More thoughtful visitors point out that it is local 'bluestone' (a name assigned to much of the rock of north Pembrokeshire), it may have been the capstone of an ancient burial chamber, it is the spot where fishing boats came (come?) for church blessing at the start of the season, and it is also called 'Carreg Ateb' - the Answer Stone - because there is an echo at this point

Nearby is a wooden statue of a mermaid, comemorating the legend of an 18th century sailor who caught a mermaid in his nets and tied her to the boat to take her ashore. Before landing, he was touched by her pleas for freedom and let her go. She promised him a blessing in return. Ten days later she saved his life by warning him not to go out in an approaching storm, one that killed many others who had put to sea. We passed the statue today, but missed it in the rain

Myths and legends - one of our ways of dealing with past traumas and present anxieties. This expanse of muddy sand is at the very end of the Teifi estuary, beyond the town. It's not a golden Carribean beach, but it's a well-known playground for children visiting the area, the foundation of lifelong memories. However, it is a shallow slope; the tide comes in fast and raised areas get cut off. Last summer, a man in his 40s called Hywel Morgan rescued two children caught in rip tides. The children survived, but Hywell drowned, acclaimed a hero, blessed - we must assume - by the children's parents, and the foundation of a new legend