Filming Under Milk Wood, Tie Dye and the Blue Lagoon

For our final day in Wales we were lucky enough to see the filming of the new adaption of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, a drama in which an omniscient narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of a fictional small Welsh fishing village Llareggub, which backwards spells bugger all.

The little town of Solva where the director had chosen to set this particular adaptation was really lovely. Passed rows of colorful houses, we parked next to an estuary full of miniature fishing boats. We walked along the waters edge and gazed at the reflection of the hills in the still water. The scenes which we witnessed were being filmed in a specially built stone chapel over looking the river. Fake anchors, a majestic owl, crabbing cages, wooden boats and all sorts of various props lay strewn around the set.

Suddenly after a lot of waiting there was a cry of “Action!” after which a torrent of water was released and gushed through the chapel full of children in costumes. The scene was surreal as in a dream and limbs, including hands and feet hung from the ceiling. A gaunt, white faced “dead corpse” was later carried out and after the scene was concluded the woman was unlaced and her little head bobbed up and down. There was a lot of waiting and I thought how fake everything was. I like to think that what I am watching is real and I have a bitter sweat relationship in this way with romantic comedies (everything in my life must surely be as fun!), horror movies (if I don’t turn my bed side light on within the next 3 seconds I WILL die) and so all this forensic cutting and stopping and waiting, make-up and lines could only be compared with coming face to face with the Television Grinch.

For my time on set I wore my white skorts, a long tie dye top, which I love to wear in the summer. I am really loving Kimonos at the moment so I have decided to turn my beach sarong, which has some great geometric shapes and colors into one.   I have found that sarongs are often really vibrant colors and great patterns and are sufficiently long for this. In fact they look a lot better than most Kimonos which are sold in the shops which are made of flimsy material and have rubbish flower patterns or thin tassels on the bottom. For shoes I wore my Top Shop ankle boots, a stylish/festival alternative to trainers and mountain boots.

After seeing the filming, we went back to the sea and walked along another stretch of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. This walk is particularly picturesque and even though the evening had started to cloud over it was the one that I liked the most during our stay. The destination is a large deep lagoon, which once was a mine shaft. When the mine was finally closed, instead of leave a large chasm in the side of the mountain, one of the side walls was blown out which enable sea water to flow into the crevasse, fill it up and blend it into its natural surroundings. It is extremely deep and the water is icy blue and very cold. I loved how the hewn rock was so ragged and the blown out hole really created some great relief in the cliff face. A little stone turret loomed up in the distance and the whole thing really reminded me of a scene from  Game of Thrones.

WEARING

TIE DYE TOP – ZARA

ANKLE BOOTS – TOP SHOP (sold out)

WHITE SHORTS – ALI EXPRESS

KIMONO BEACH SARONG – Collioure, France

Once we had reached over the top of the cliffs and had looked down upon the lagoon, the abandoned castle and the many little rock islands that protruded from the sea we turned back and drove to the little town of Porthgain. This has a little harbor and a great view of the processing plant which used to connect to the mine. This is built into the cliff face and large slabs of rusty metal adorn the rock. It is very impressive. It was here, at the Shed, a boutique little restaurant that we had the best fish and chips that we had ever tasted. With a range of different fresh fish, if you come to this part of the world, you should definitely eat here. We had the lime and coconut cheesecake with lemon sorbet and the Tia Maria chocolate tart with coffee ice cream and I could not recommend these enough.

An absolutely great last day and all I can say is that I hope to see Wales in such fine form next time we come 🙂