The Welsh leek has a flower much like a daffodil (which is quite a bit easier to find around the world in March), so many use daffodils instead.

That’s just one of many stories about Saint David — no one’s quite sure if it’s true.  

There are many other stories about the man.  It is also said that he once rose a youth from death, and milestones during his life were marked by the appearance of springs of water.

Later in life, David was made Archbishop.  The story of that day is that when the decision was being made as to whether David was to be Archbishop, a great crowd gathered.   When David stood up to speak, one of the congregation shouted, ‘We won’t be able to see or hear him.  At that instant the ground rose till everyone could see and hear David.

Over this special weekend we will be serving a traditional welsh ‘cawl’ ( a thick meat and vegetable broth with plenty of leeks) and welsh lamb for Sunday lunch on St Davids Day to celebrate this milestone in the Welsh Calender.

We won’t refer to Wales coming second at all this weekend but those of us who managed to see the rugby or are lucky enough to have Sky+, we know they played their hearts out! I wonder how many boys born in 2009 will be named after Lee Byrne or Shane Williams?

As Cerys sings; “Every day when I wake up I thank the Lord I am Welsh!”

Would anyone like to see a bilingual blog entry? Please leave a comment!

Hwyl!

 Ian

A few days ago our beautiful, female muskovy duck went missing. Wendy put a note up in our Menu Board outside and she also arranged for notes to be posted through all letterboxes in the lower part of Narberth town.

Last night we had many telephone calls and, after a bit of chasing, eventually we were reunited with our duck.

Thank you to everyone involved for helping us out. We are very, very grateful.

Ian&Wend x x

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”

If you decide to parachute from a plane, the excitement and adrenalin build up before you jump is evenly matched by the serenity and calmness felt as you leave the plane.

Last Sunday, Carreg Crew Chefs, Jethro and Matt decided to parachute jump at Swansea to raise money for cancer research. They said that the built up, nervous feeling was replaced by euphoria immediately upon leaving the plane. In fact, as soon as you had finished, they said, you felt like doing the whole thing again!

This was a fantastic way to spend your day off guys, well done!

Ian

When I was in my mid twenties I was involved in a terrible car accident which left me in a wheelchair for a long while. Nevertheless, within two years I was not only walking but competing to an international standard in the Surf Kayak World Championships in Rio. That year I was awarded the honour of being’Disabled Sportsperson of the Year’ for Carmarthenshire.

In order to achieve this I had to operate outside my comfort zone, against and beyond my pain barrier. Sandy Buttle was the president of the Welsh Canoeing Association and he introduced me back into canoeing and kayaking after the accident. Sandy taught me how to push against the walls and get out there and achieve things in paddling.

Unfortunately Sandy died on the 4th February and I was privileged to attend a Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving in his honour today. Alfred Buttle (aka Sandy; aka Skip) had had an interesting life from his days in the forces and being a prisoner of war to his tireless work with children, whether as a youth leader, a scout/ cub scout leader or as an outdoor activities leader. I cannot list everything this wonderful, kind, remarkable man achieved as the list is so very extensive.

One thing is for sure, many areas of life will be poorer without Sandy’s presence and influence.

Farewell Skip! We will miss you!

We have had a couple of incidents of late where the ducks are getting stressed in the Tranquillity Garden and this is probably due to the fact that they are now laying again. As we have male and female ducks we can understand that they are protecting their nests and their fertilised eggs.

We have had to build a fence along the end of The Carreg Courtyard to ensure the ducks have complete privacy and peace so please bear with us on this, as the health and happiness of our pets is of paramount importance to us.

We have also placed a clutch of eggs in an incubator so hopefully we will have some ducklings along in a while! We will definately keep you updated on this blog! Perhaps we will get some videos of the animals on the blog too…

Stay Happy!

Ian

We chose the name ‘Carreg’ because it is the Welsh word for stone, or rock. The main reason for this is obvious, as our unique selling point is our volcanic rock cooking system. Also, we thought it a very beautiful, strong name with a fantastic Celtic connection. We have always loved the name.

Tonight we met a beautiful little boy who has been named Carreg by his parents! They thought it a beautiful name too, and when they heard of our restaurant they were drawn to the place! If Carreg’s parents are reading this would you please e-mail us a picture of young Carreg and allow us permission to show it on our website? That would mean so much to us!

We so look forward to hearing from you!

Ian & Wendy

If you go to our website home page you will now see a little blue “facebook” logo on the first picture. Click on it and it will take you to our facebook site. If you have a facebook profile, you can then join The Carreg group and see updates and pictures of what we and other Carreg group members are up to, which makes me smile! Another example of Social Inclusion!

Ian

Sunday evenings are great. I look forward to the big sigh of relief we can let out before we tackle another week. Last evening we watched the Baftas on television. After winning an award, the actor Noel Clarke referred to the difficulty they had in the film project they made and then held his award up and said “Yes we can!” This obviously implied that, despite the difficulties, they were still able to pull through and win the award.

What I really enjoyed was that a phrase made popular by Bob the builder was included in an acceptance speech by a fantastic actor! And what a fantastically positive message that is! “Can we build it? Yes we can!”

Since St Raphael left the Stables, that unit has been left empty and we have thought (and been asked a lot!) about what to do with it. After much discussion and loads of ‘buts’ and ‘what ifs’ Wendy has decided to open another shop in this empty stable unit. The working title for this new venture is ‘I dream of…..Pretty Lovely lingerie.’ As you may know, Wendy already has the Surf wear shop across the road from The Carreg called ‘I dream of…Surfing’ or ‘Idos.’ This new venture will have more emphasis on ‘Pretty Lovely’ and will stock luxurious lingerie, swim wear and nightwear for ladies. Once again this will be a first for Narberth and a fantastic addition to The Carreg Courtyard shopping. It is arguable that there is already plenty on our plate, but as Bob says “Can we build it?” Wendy is firmly echoing Noel Clarke by answering “Yes we can!”

The plan is to open this new venture on 1st March which doesn’t give us that much time but, hey, if it was easy it would be ever so boring! I hope all our friends, family, Carregulars, locals, patrons who enjoy The Carreg Experience, everyone who appreciates quality and good value, and everyone else on this brilliant planet we live on takes the time to visit this superb new venture my wonderful wife is undertaking.

Nineteen days and counting!

Have a great week!

Ian

On Tuesday afternoon we braved the snow, crossed the Preselis turned right at Cardigan and carried on going until Aberaeron. We have had a busy, non-stop spell for quite a while and so we thought it would be nice to escape for an evening. If you catch Rhod Gilbert’s (I can’t find Rhod Gilbert’s website! Help? Catch him on Radio wales on Saturdays!) TV ad promoting Wales which is on at the moment, you will know the Harbour Master at Aberaeron www.harbour-master.com. It really is a magical place. A fantastic building, luxurious rooms, a delicious restaurant and an open, friendly bar area, perfect for keeping out the cold (Where has all this snow come from? This is Pembrokeshire coastline, near enough; It never snows!)  All in all, we had a lovely break and talking to Menna, the owner, it was gratifying to hear she had visited The Carreg and had some equally nice things to say about her Carreg experience! It is nice to hear someone who has such high standards in her own establishment, say such a positive message about The Carreg.

After we had finished our meal in the restaurant, we took a seat in the bar area and shortly after a chap came in and sat on the opposite side of the bar to us. I turned to Wendy and whispered “I am sure that is my cousin, Dafydd.” And it was! And I hadn’t seen him for 17 years! We had an excellent evening with Dafydd and his mate, Owain chatting until the early hours enjoying the superb wine and Mojitos (Gareth, the bar tender, really makes the best Mojitos) and just thoroughly enjoying a fantastic night off. I would encourage Carregulars and anyone who enjoys The Carreg Experience to visit this idyllic place.

Dafydd’s mate, Owain now runs The Welsh Mustard Company, which makes the famous red mustard, as well as his butchers shop. Owain was discussing what he needs to tweak to make his fantastic red mustard even better, and we talked about the possibility of launching this tweaked version at The Carreg. Owain has obviously put a lot of effort into his product and believes in the same things that we hold dear at The Carreg, which are:- using fresh produce and keeping preservatives as natural as possible, using them sparingly.

It would be fantastic to launch Owain’s product at The Carreg. I just hope he remembers discussing it as we did drink an awful lot of Mojitos!

Thanks to everyone at The Harbour Master who made our stay so enjoyable, we are sorry we kept some of you up so late by keeping the bar open!

Iechyd Da!

Ian

Scarlets played their official opening match on Saturday against Barbarians, beating them 40-24! There was a fantastic ceremony with Scarlets captain, Simon Esterby collecting the trophy and a fantastic firework display to end on.  Also, Superbowl 2009 was played last night and what a game that was! Pittsburgh Steelers clinched a victory of 27-23 against Arizona Cardinals but the US celebrations were most significant at half time. Bruce Springsteen and the legendary E-Street Band www.brucespringsteen.net played a few of their best known tracks and the title track of his latest album-Working on a dream. It is sad that Danny Fiedrici (keyboards and accordion- E-Street Band) didn’t survive his cancer to be on stage with the guys but I truly believe that his spirit lives on through the music.

We are keeping the Pink Ribbon fundraising account open to raise as much money as we can to fight cancer any way we can. It is a sad, almost foregone fact, that somebody close will suffer it. We will fight against it all we can.

We will always set our stall for quality fresh, food also. At The Carreg we use as fresh ingredients as possible, avoiding processed stuff as much as we can (because it really isn’t healthy) in order that we can deliver on our promise to provide quality dining which will promote good health.

Let us all enjoy a lifestyle that will keep all the nasty diseases as far as possible away from us.

Kind  thoughts

Ian