Vale of Glamorgan - 24th March

The plan was to post these yesterday just after the car. Family business intervened - sorry about that. So yes, even after kicking off with the previous sketch I posted of the old Austin car, which was just 4 streets away - even after that I did get as far as the Vale of Glamorgan.

Why the Vale of Glamorgan? Well, this time last year I was suffering from clinical depression. Actually saying it like that gives the idea that I'm cured. I'm not free of it yet - maybe I never will be. Still, back then I was off work and trying to come to terms with it. Now, at least, I'm still in work, and trying to keep myself on an even keel for most of the time. So, anyway, with weeks of free time that I've never had since I started work 30 years ago, I took to taking some days out, going for drives to places I'd never been before, getting fresh air, and trying to make sense of things. One of the places I went was Llantwit, and it struck me as rather a nice little town, still laid out on its narrow and winding medieval street plan.

I started off with this page in my book.

As usual, my scanner hasn't quite picked out the colours accurately, but there we are. The largest building to the right is the 15th century Town Hall. There's a free car park behind it - always an appreciated facility on a sketchcrawl.

Time was getting on, and my stomach was rumbling. I was pleased with the car sketch and this one as a morning's effort, so I got back in the car and headed back towards the A48. However, as I was going, a few miles down the road I saw a heritage sign advertising the presence of a 12th century Prior Church not far off. Thinking that this might well be a good way of bringing the sketchcrawl to a conclusion, I turned off the main road, and a couple of minutes later came to Ewenny Priory.

I was tempted to go inside the church, which was open, but then I find it very easy to spend a good hour nosing around a church, and so I decided to save that for another day.

This illustrates something about one of the things I really like when I'm sketching. I like planning an expedition. I like working out where I want to go , and how and when I'm going to do it. But I love just noticing something, which I never knew was there in the first place, and sketching it there and then.