Distyll Y Trai

I said goodbye to my favorite dog this afternoon by posing with Casey in Distyll Y Trai, which is beached for good in Ceridwen's barn yard. I've come to love the little guy and I've seen him go from young to old since I first met him. No finer pooch has ever wagged tail or fetched stick.

The old boat's name is Welsh for "low water/low tide." When I first visited six years ago it was taking up a section of the barn, full of torn-up carpeting and old timbers. I suggested it become a garden feature, so we dragged it out and I scraped the top board and painted it up a bit. Its earlier life is not known, but being only a kilometer from the sea, it must have had one. The planted pots normally stay on board, and the chickens have come to eat some grain and liven up the shot.

Every inch of this image bears memory for me. Goodbye for now, Casey, my friend, my First Mate.