Sue-balwbi

Lumps of sea-smooth quartz are a routine adornment on the garden walls and gateposts of north Pembrokeshire; my nearest village is full of them. I've blipped them before and speculated that the eye-catching white stones enabled people to distinguish their homes on dark nights. Somewhere I learnt that these decorations were known as babalwbi (babaloobi) but the word seemed to be one that was only ever part of the oral vernacular, or a local dialect, and not in any dictionary. (If you search online most of the hits refer back to my photographs.) However a friend who wrote a blog about the village took up the challenge and proved a much better researcher than me, because she asked another blogger called Welshwaller and he confirmed that it was the name given to the white stones used to top walls in South Wales - although in his experience/area they were limestone.

Just over a year ago my friend - she was more an acquaintance really, I didn't know her well but we had common interests and I hoped to get better acquainted - invited me to go with her to explore a ruined chapel that had recently become accessible. (I blipped the expedition here and Sue's in one of the extras.) In the course of that afternoon she mentioned she'd recently had "a touch of cancer" which had slowed her up. That was all - she didn't dwell on it and the conversation passed on to other matters. But  a few months later I was shocked to receive the news that she had died. 

Now, when I see the white stone babalwbi gleaming on the walls they remind me of Sue who loved her ancestral village and who wrote so well about its history and its people. Thank you Sue-balwbi. 
This was her last post.