howies®

Some people stand out in a crowd. There could be a hundred reasons why. For example this lady would be easy to spot in a crowd (she’s big and blue)…

This is Paul!

A lot of people I know would say that he definitely stands out of a crowd. Can you find him? (Comment on the bottom if you can find him. If you don’t want to cheat don’t look at the comments…)

I’ll add another one soon…

We have been very lucky recently in Cardigan. We have had our River and food festival last Saturday. This Saturday we have had our 900th year celebration. So during the sleepy hours of the night Maggie, Tracy and myself (Scott), Started sorting the shop for yet another Sample sale.

From Kev displaying his hand built boats, to climbing walls,

It was the river and Food festival but much bigger…

Saturday was the day of the River & Food festival, and I started my working day with a giant tipi and the smell of freshly made stone baked pizza.

Without saying too much it was a day full of sample sales,

beer,

and Cardigan’s very own Presley from Preseli.

and the day was finished off with a Canoe Vs Dragon showdown on the river by the bridge.

There is a lot more to come next Saturday (21/08/10).

Well It’s that time of year again, the sun is out (some of the time), and everyone seems to be looking for time to go for a paddle. It’s the perfect time to get the gang together and go to the Bitches. For those who don’t know what the bitches is, it’s a place off the coast of St David’s, It was given it’s name because of the amount of ships it has caught out and sunk, it’s in the sea and it’s not just a case of paddling a mile off the coast and finding it, you need the tide to be perfect. It’s definitely not a place for beginner paddlers. There are many risks on the way and even more on the way back.

 But once you get there, you have perfect standing waves and holes (a bit like a weir). It’s almost the perfect play spot for kayakers. I remember the first time I went and I saw the sea change in front of me. It’s so strange to see it go from a perfect flat to seeing a standing wave in the middle of calm(ish) waters. Brilliant!

Recently cardigan shop has been bit of a crazy place. It all started with a few chalkboards, the next thing I know Pete and Davie are sticking stuff to the walls and helping me put some new a-frames in the store…

 Well, to cut a long story short, new a-frames meant we needed more stock. So I went to see Kim and Robin and discovered that they had a hidden stash of merino, not only that but we also found lots of stock from summer 2009. So we filled the biggest box we could find and took it to the shop. Topped with the summer sale it’s definitely worth having a look…

It was a normal morning in Cardigan shop, the 25 local swans where terrorising the fish. When, all of a sudden some nice people and I heard a crash. We looked out the window to see a bus stopped having redesigned our sign and the wall it’s connected to…

It’s ok though because after closing we did some technical testing and discovered it’s safe to open… now where is Simon the carpenter when you need him…?

It’s the bank holiday and things seem to be getting to look a bit more like summer, there are more Canoeists on the river and more people seem to be smiling in general. To help make that grin a little bigger, Cardigan shop has an extra 20% off everything until Tuesday lunch time. That includes sample items and stuff that is already on sale.

 Blimey…

 So come have a look, who knows what you’ll find!?

It was my day off on Monday so I decided that the best thing to do on such a sunny day is to go for a walk. So I put my off-road flip-flops on and I walked to a local village called Cilgerran (that’s where I grew up). I’ve walked this walk thousands of times, and I’ve always know that it’s a nice walk but I’ve never paid attention to it. So as I looked up from the dusty path I paid attention to what I saw. It’s amazing what you don’t see even when you walk past it every day.

After I closed the shop on Friday I was told by Lydia that tomorrow (Saturday) I may be getting some visitors, who have been cycling through the early hours of the morning from Manchester to Cardigan.

This is the journey in their words:

The alarm went off at 5am and we were on the road by 6.15am. We made good steady progress through to Chester where a breakfast stop was needed. Fully refuelled and back on the road the miles began to roll by as we passed through Llandegla and along to Y Bala before continuing on the A494 alongside the shores of Llyn Tegid. The next section of road down to Dolgellau was beautiful in the afternoon sun and among some of the best road riding we’d experienced.

Soon we arrived at Machynlleth where another box of energy bars were consumed and a phone call to howies to let them know we were running late but my phone ran out of credit….great! Off again on the leg to Aberystwyth which had some of the hardest climbs of the day…or so we thought. We arrived in Aberystwyth around 5.30 pm for a strong coffee and a quick rest. There were a lot of students in town dressed up for prom celebrations, meanwhile we were stood there smelling of sweat and road grime while everyone else smelt of perfume and soap…nice.

The final leg from Aberystwyth to Cardigan was to be the hardest of the day, not just due to tiredness but also as we decided to buy food along the way. This was a mistake as we soon discovered that there were no chip shops open and had to buy snacks to finish the final leg.

The bike ride was fantastic journey and one to do again in the future, any advice?!  Make sure you have a banquet at Aberystwyth to get you over those never ending hills!

These guys did this for two main reasons:

1. To make a comparison between their journey and that of a same day delivery service.
2. How hard could it be? (Famous last words…)

It’s amazing to see what people will do to prove a point, and I think they proved it well… I mean after a distance of 162 miles, a max of 43.8 mph and an ascent of 3000 meters they saved 58.6 Kg on carbon emissions. Plus it’s an awesome excuse to fill up on cake ready for the 41 mile cycle to the nearest train station…

If you would like to find out more about what they are doing and all about, have a look at their websites: www.bikeright.co.uk www.thecarboncycle.co.uk

It was lunch time at Cardigan shop, and I decided it was a good time to sort through some of my water safety kit. As I’m counting through first aid stuff and sorting through clips etc, I hear: ‘Scott we need a hand. Got any rope?’ I turn to find local star and hero Charlie.

 To turn a long story into a short one, it’s a shame to say but for some reason more and more rubbish is being found in our river, from shopping bags to bikes, and unfortunately this is becoming more obvious. 

So using Robbie as an example, Charlie had found this bike in the river and had decided to fish it out. Any Rope I had wasn’t long enough, so we resorted to asking Patsy from fforest and their shop full of rope. We connected a bungee with hooks to some rope and went fishing. 

What started with 3 people trying to get a bike out of the river ended with all sorts of people old any young alike in an effort to get this bike out from its premature watery grave. All of a sudden it became a community thing although it’s not much I like to think we have started something, and the river looks a bit better for it too…  Chris from the blog told me that…