'Tis Live

 July 3, 2023

'Tis live!

A Fairwood Common Air-raid Shelter

June 29, 2023 

 After a bit of a downer of a workday in the office, I headed out to Fairwood Common on my final photoshoot for Explore-Gower's Remnants of War book. Found some old WW2 buildings but was disappointed to see some trees had smashed up the air-raid shelter there.

The brick entrance to the air-raid shelter

The crushed concrete roof of the shelter

Working with this one

June 27, 2023 

A day away from the office to edit Remnants of War. Bad hay fever again, so I am working from my bed with this one.

Spigot

June 26, 2023

Ok, 3.5 days to get this done. Popped down to Fabian Way after work to photograph the WW2 spigot remains there. For those who don't know what they are, I've attached a photo of one in operation.

Tight

June 25, 2023

With just 5 days to go before the publication of Explore Gower's Remnant's of War, I still have a little writing, a smidgen of editing and a couple of photoshoots to undertake. It's gonna be tight but it WILL be accomplished!

The Critic

 June 17, 2032

57 Today

June 15, 2023

Phew, what are scorcher. I am getting too old for traipsing through the countryside in this heat. But, a deadline is a deadline, and so, having acquired permission from the landowner, I travelled out to take some pics of the old RAF barracks hidden away in the private woods next to Swansea Airport . No writing tonight. Time to chill and enjoy being 57...

I think every single woodland has one of these hanging in them somewhere. Fairwood woodland was no different lol #blairwitch

A Night down Gower

June 14, 2023

With the deadline for Remnants of War looming, I nipped down to Gower and my old playground of Salthouse Point, Crofty and toddling around a few other sites I needed to photograph for the book.

Afterwards, we spent a good few hours down Oxwich Bay, hoping to spot the biolescence plankton that has been reported there lately. No show tonight though and our lighter broke trying to light a fire. But the weather was warm, the water cool and my phone managed to get some atmospheric pics thanks to Tata Steel's blast furnace kicking off in the distance. Venus and Mars looked beautiful and were in the sky a fair while too. We also saw something bigger than a dolphin splashing in the sea for a good few minutes and saw a large meteor explode in the early evening sky. It was over in a flash though, to quick for a foto :( . 'Twas a lovely night. And it's great to see so many people's fascination with nature keeping them up all night. Got home with soggy feet around three in the morning. 💗🙆

Mars and Jupiter

Me watching the planets from Oxwich Bay. Pic by Stell.

Bedridden

June 13, 2023

Bedridden with the worse hay fever of of my life. Still, a deadline is a deadline and I'm trying my best to work through the 😭 and🥺 and constant sneezing...

Remnants of War Reveal

 Saturday, June 3, 2023

Today's task is to make sense of all my research notes...

That done,  spent the evening with Photoshop, editing this image of a now destroyed WW2 building that was located near my old family home in Crofty.

And, busy bee as I have been of late, here's the reveal of the proposed cover for Remnants of War:

 June 2, 2023

Sabotage

June 1, 2023

A morning writing session sabotaged by fudjcat:

 

 

 

In the end I had to relocate outside away from furry intrusions lol:

Fairwood

 Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Took the day off work for a photo-shoot of my exploration of the land around Swansea Airport. Found numerous reminders of the old WW2 RAF base that was once situated here too. If you want details of what you are looking at, you will have to wait a month for the publication of Explore Gower - Remnants of War. Thank's to L8 for the company (and sorry about the bog I led us into). Oh, we also heard a cuckoo!

RoW Progress

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

 This week's shoot for RoW has now been completed. The introduction has also been written. I've also added more photographic content to the book. Gower WW2 remains covered in my new Gower book so far include those found at Clyne, Whiteford Sands, Swansea Bay and the watchtower out on the Burry Estuary near Weobley Castle. Oh, and I also finished another GNS book! I haven't yet decided on what the next book will be on this years GNSathon...

May Holiday, Day 2

Sunday, May 21, 2023

2/10. Well, day 1 of my holiday was lovely. It was my gorgeous wife's birthday and also our wedding anniversary. And the weather was glorious. I managed to get a lot of work done and should now be able to complete the second draft of ViC this evening. Meaning I can now do some planning and map out the north Gower WW2 anti-invasion sites I want to photograph tomorrow. Oh, how I love a holiday. The only sadness is that my meds warn that I have to keep out of the sun so I have to sit in the shade all day lol.

10 Days of Freedom!

May 20, 2023

1/10. I have been unable to put as much work into my project over the past few weeks as I would have liked. But, at the end of the day, I have to help keep a roof over our heads and food on our table, and training on my new day job has been quite demanding. But I now have ten clear days of holiday ahead of me and I am going to plough through my real work now with a vengeance. By the end of May I WILL have completed the second draft of ONB, which has now been retitled Vampires in Chains. I will have finished reading GNS' Water Rites and moved on to the next, as yet undecided, book. On the GNS front, my book detailing the joys and frustrations of collecting his and the addictive aspects of collecting is a GO and will form the main output of my project work next year. But, back to the here and now, and the next ten days in particular, I also need to photograph two separate Gower Peninsula sites for my third Gower book - Remnants of War, which I will be focussing on writing in June. With the weather looking generous for my holiday, I will also be spending some time working in the garden, so expect the Magickal Gardening website to kick back to life very soon. Well, that's me done with this update. Time to crack on...

Gower WW2 Remnants

June 27, 2022

I am already getting enthused with my latest Explore Gower project. I am already compiling a list of map co-ordinates to check on...

Remnants of War

June 26, 2022

I had x4 books planned for publishing in 2022:

* Sweyne's Eye - Swansea City Sunsets

* Solstice

* Avalon - The Glastonbury Zine

* A third book in my series of Gower guides

With the first three books now written, produced and available for sale, I can now introduce the final project I want to be completed and published by the close of this year:

I have a good five months to get this book sorted, so hopefully, I can pull something special together in this next book 🙂

Yours truly among the rubble of a WW2 pill box, Gower

As part of this 5-month project, I will be revamping my old www.explore-gower.co.uk website. This will include bringing my old Gower guidebooks under the umbrella of Explore Gower and I have already redesigned the cover of The Verry Volk and Gower Ghosts to evidence that:

So, as well as keeping an eye on www.pixie-led.co.uk, please remember to keep an eye on www.explore-gower.co.uk as there will be lots happening on there...