Husb and I went to The Vojon for a curry earlier this evening and felt a bit portly afterwards, so as it’s a rather lovely evening we went for a long walk along the beach. Swansea Bay is now a lovely golden sweep, very different from the murky, polluted beach of our youth. I stopped to draw some of the fishermen who were strung out along the shoreline in little knots of two and three. On the horizon are the twin islands of Mumbles, a little fishing village at the western end of Swansea Bay [and where Catherine Zeta Jones lives when she’s in town]. Legend has it that in the dim and distant past, French matelots sailing into the Bay saw the islands and exclaimed ‘Mamelles! Mamelles!’ [Breasts! Breasts!]. The name Mumbles is supposed to have come from this. I’ll leave it to you to decide how bosomy the islands are.
Pêcheurs, Matelots et Mamelles
Posted byRosie ScribblahPosted inout and about, People watchingTags:art, Catherine Zeta Jones, curry, drawing, fishing, mamelles, Mumbles, sketchbooks, Swansea Bay
Published by Rosie Scribblah
I'm an artist / printmaker / scribbler. I love drawing and all the geeky stuff associated with printmaking, working in a figurative style. I live in Wales with husband and demented cats. And my real name is Rose Davies :D View more posts

It’s a beautiful area… the mumbly breasts!!
hehehe it is indeed gorgeous, especially on a day like today. I have an allotment there, underneath the castle and I’ll be there all afternoon. Lucky me 🙂
What a great place for an allotment!! lucky you indeed.. 😀
hard work though. Spent three hours working on it today and hurt all over! 🙂
Love the simplicity of that sketch.
Guessing the French matelots sailing into the bay had not seen any women in a while, makes me think that the story is most likely true 🙂