Friday February 16^th 2024 was a happy Pembrokeshire day that will be remembered in our family.  After some weeks of winter’s grey weather with  gales and rainfall that Friday proved to be mild and sunny with a blue sky. It was a day when three generations of my family met and once again enjoyed the magic of a day on Marloes Sands – that vast and magnificently scenic west-facing beach with its mile long golden sands for walks, sea bathing and surf.

My own role was small as I am now 80 years old and not well and no longer can walk the two mile distance to the Marloes beach and back.  But I hosted some of our children and grandchildren. They had both travelled here by car to see their grandad and to visit our beaches. Our oldest son Peter arrived with his wife Anna and their son Charlie. They were joined by our youngest daughter Alice with her two children Isobel (‘Issy’) and George. It was a time of mingling of the parts of the family now living in Wales, Canterbury, Kent and Edinburgh. The grandchildren were delighted to meet again – their last meeting was at the family Christmas gathering in Kent.

The grandchildren after many visits to Pembrokeshire had a wish list although only here for 3 days. Top priority was catching crabs on the footbridge of Sandy Haven carried out successfully in calm but grey weather. Next day despite the rain was a visit to Broad Haven to eat chips with cheese sauce and milkshakes in as local restaurant, followed by as walk on the beach. Then the magic day arrived and of course was Marloes Sands with its free winter car parking. It is a magical beach which my family have long enjoyed. I first took the lady who would be my wife there in 1962 and we to enjoy the first of many visits.  Now some 62 years later it is the time of the children and grandchildren. Happily Alice took photographs and Peter went for a long walk with the boys to the south end of the breach and made a short video.  These tell the story here of a magical day in a magical place better than written words.

With the sun shining, everyone went sea bathing and my daughter and her daughter distinguished themselves by spending an hour and a half together in the sea without wetsuits.  The two cars returned home for supper and all slept like logs after the long day in the sea air.