Personally, I don’t do much with seaweed, but I’ve been given a couple of good ideas in Dinas. The first suggestion came from a man who was pushing a wheel barrow full of seaweed up from Aberfforest beach. He told me that it was just the thing for his asparagus beds.

Handmade in the Shade with seaweed from Pwllgwaelod beach

The second suggestion came at this year’s Dinas Christmas fair at the old school (Yr Hen Ysgol) on the ‘Hand-made in the Shade’ stall where I saw this beautiful lampshade, decorated with seaweed from Pwllgwaelod. I just love the red colour.

Anny Carson-Clash sells these lampshades at Fishguard’s market every Thursday and also features her crafts on her Facebook page. These shades diffuse the light, hide ugly light-bulbs and provide a lovely warm glow in the room.

I have since found a fellow blogger who has helped me identify this red seaweed as Rhodymenia palmata or dulse. In a usefully illustrated post he explains how to collect it, clean it, dry it and then eat it.