When I moved to Aberdovey in July 2018, I had been visiting Aberdovey for over 16 years at all times of year.  The village and its surrounding area have been a constant source of delight.  When I decided to leave London, Aberdovey was the first place that came to mind, and before I knew it, I had arrived.

Prior to moving here, I lived in an area called Surrey Quays in London for nearly 25 years, and for the last 10 of those years wrote a blog like this one about the local heritage, natural history, local activities and events, and occasional news items of local interest.  It was both fun and educational to learn about the local area and take photographs of what I was learning about and seeing, in case others were also interested.  When I moved here it seemed like a very good idea to start a new blog focused on similar themes in and around Aberdovey.  This is it.  I do hope you enjoy it.  Please get in touch if you would like to comment or contribute information, photographs or anything else you think would help – it would be great to hear from you.

I should probably mention that I was trained as an archaeologist and my research skills are all about raw materials left in arid desert landscapes (if you are feeling reckless, my PhD thesis about prehistoric  livelihoods in today’s deserts of Egypt has been organized as a website, which you can find here).  I am not, however, a historian and my historical posts are all based on secondary research (work done by others from original or secondary sources).  I have researched in as much detail as possible, but if you are here for a serious research purpose, please check my sources, and then check their sources.

The Black Book of Carmarthen

A blog is organized by date, like a diary.  In many ways it is not an ideal format for what is essentially magazine content.  A list of labels at the right of each page and post will help you to find topics of interest, but under each of the page headings along the top (Heritage, Nature, Food, Living) you will find a sample of the main posts (articles/stories) listed for ease of navigation.

I should add a note on languages.  In spite of a maternal grandmother from south Wales and paternal great grandfather from Anglesey I do not speak Welsh.  I thought about whether I should call this blog “Aberdovey Londoner” or “Aberdyfi Londoner” and in the end I opted for the former, because it was a more honest reflection of my origins.

If you choose to follow the blog by clicking on the Follow button just underneath the Search field on the home page, you will receive an email whenever I post anything (thank you if you do!).  Please be reassured that you will receive no other emails, just a notification when I have posted something new.

I moved away from Aberdovey in 2021.  It was a difficult but necessary decision. I will continue to update the site when I visit, and the site will be maintained as a resource.  For anyone interested, my new blog, which is based on my new location, is at www.basedinchurton.co.uk.

Oh, and to avoid the frequent confusion caused by my name, I should mention that I am female.

All the best

Andie