Ewenny and a Special Cat

Today I had an unexpected day off as my friend Buster is not very well and Professor Gadget is tending to his ills. Taking advantage of the clement weather, OH and myself visited Ewenny Priory, a heavily fortified former Benedictine monastery. It seems they were fierce chaps those 12th century monks. They were filming on site, apparently a murder mystery with undisclosed actors starring, but still we were free to wander. On this warm, early summer morning, it was a peaceful place with more than a hint of dilapidation, a little like myself on a good day. The grounds had wonderful mature trees, beeches both purple and green, yews of course and even a lightning tree. There were dandy peacocks and flighty house martins, fallen walls, gargoyles, a pet cemetery, curious locked doors and barred gateways through which I peered to nature-claimed gardens, thigh deep in vegetation with a half collapsed/half standing (whichever your point of view might be) glasshouse in the distance.

In the beautiful associated church, alongside the wide girthed columns and ancient gravestones, was a pew much longer than the others. At one end, carved in wood, was a dog chewing a bone, at the other a cat enjoying a mouse feast. It reminded me of my poorly pal. Get well soon, Buster, there are more mice to be stalked!