Pics of the last production - haven't got the production page on the main website up yet, but hopefully that'll be done later in the week. Or when I get round to it.

from our holiday in south-west Wales.

...in the National Botanic Gardens

Colby Woodland Garden, near Amroth in Pembrokeshire. Flowers!

From the Apothecaries' Hall in the National Botanic Garden of Wales

This is the remainder of the pictures from Saturday night's Life of Brian screening up at the Arts Centre. It was a fantastic occasion - Messrs. Palin and Jones were fine gentlemen, and seemed genuinely happy to be there, taking a lot of time to chat to people about anything. I remember Terry Jones talking to some lad for about 20 minutes on (I think) the Wars of the Roses. It was organised as a champagne reception beforehand, which also became a bit of a signing session - but there was plenty of time to chat; then the film - I'd forgotten quite how good it was, and it was excellent to see it on the big screen; then a half-hour Q&A, which only stopped when Sue Jones-Davies decided that Palin and Jones really ought to get some dinner! Really, really wonderful night.

And Road is done; a fantastic show it was too. And a fantastic aftershow party too, for the first time in a while. It's good having some young people in the company! There are more pics on the Castaway website.

of our trip to Shrewsbury, excepting the young ladies Catrin met on the Friday night. I should really write that up here.

A fancy dress party - the theme (courtesy of my lovely wife) being the year 1978.

Including obligatory Hat Shots!

Should have mentioned this oooh, ages ago, but there are now pictures of Return to Albion. I've put them into a Flickr set, too:

And we saw:

• KotoGo - Japanese koto playing in a jazz idiom, but to be honest we could have done with less of the guitar.
• Brigyn - lovely little gig, and an awesome version of Cohen's Hallelueia in Welsh.
• Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog - good, but better last year - Mrs Glaw works better at speed.. Odd to see Gwyneth Glyn rocking out with them.
• Ember - lovely many-tinted folk from this Welsh/American duo and their Dutch percussionist.
• 9Bach - bloody excellent daring interpretations of classic melancholy Welsh ballads, fronted by the ethereally lovely Lisa Jên Brown.
• Johnny Dickinson - fine slide guitar blues from Northumbria

As usual, we didn't spend much time on the Marian itself.

Places like this inspired Tolkien's Mordor:

"The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands about. High mounds of crushed and powdered rock, great cones of earth fire-blasted and poison-stained, stood like an obscene graveyard in endless rows."