Friday 5 March 2010

Over the hill to Brechfa

I was redecorating in the main bathroom yesterday. The blue and white china is mostly John Wood (Yuan pattern) along with some bits and pieces that just cost pennies from Dorchester market 30 years ago. The little bashed cow creamer came from The Dorset Button Shop in Lytchett Minster, and my children used to kiss it goodnight when they got ready for bed each night when they were little . . . The flash didn't go off for the picture below, but you will get the general picture - we have beams everywhere!

We had to pop up to Brechfa yesterday, late afternoon, to order some Jumbo Oats (we can buy them by the sack there) . . . and a bottle of wine to celebrate our eldest daughter getting two jobs! She has spent the last 8 mths endlessly applying and rarely even getting to the interview stage. Anyway, she now has a temporary job for 6 mths, working for a charity (on a Government-sponsored job creation scheme to help youngsters get work experience) and then a "proper" job to take up when a vacancy occurs (she has just been taken onto the waiting list . . .)

Above and below, looking towards the Towy Valley in the distance.

The latest wind farm - rotors barely moving on only one of the beasties . . .

Looking towards Black Mountain in the distance.

Looking across another bit of the Towy valley towards X-Hands behind the hills.


You can just see the snow still on Black Mountain.


Anyway, I made OH stop on the way back so I could quickly take some photos (the setting sun gave a beautiful light). The slightly squiffy ones were taken as we drove home down the hill, so the bumpy road made them a bit shaky. You will get the idea anyway. There was still snow on Black Mountain and though it doesn't show up in the photo, I could just make out the twin snow-capped peaks of Pen-y-Fan behind. They are flat and squarish and so easy to recognize at a distance.

Looking towards the hills between us and Ammanford/Brynamman, with Grongar Hill (tree-topped) mid picture.




9 comments:

  1. Nice photos. I especially like the light on the hedgerow shots. It looks like a beautiful part of the country.

    Are the oats for Brechfa-st?

    Sorry.....

    regards.....Al.

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  2. Clever clogs!!! Soort of thing my husband would come out with : )

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  3. i am part welsh and have always wanted to visit there. beautiful pics. what a wonderful place to live!

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  4. Your high hedged lanes are SO narrow! Beautiful photos again. It still looks cold and in the grip of winter.

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  5. DW - you soon learn to reverse on OUR lanes! I used to hate riding up and down that particular lane with Fahly as there are lots of bends and not many places where you could get off the lane if you met traffic.

    Jaz - just left a comment on your blog. Hope you will come and visit again.

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  6. i have no idea where my family was from in wales. i sure wish i knew though. i've spent lots of time in ireland but none at all in scotland or wales. i love gloomy dark wet weather so i guess it is in my genes.

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  7. Your photo of the wind farm shows the wind "machines" such as use the kind of blades we spotted being hauled by tractor trailer. [Dreadful sentence, but hopefully you know I'm referring to my own blog photo of the wind blade on trailer.]
    Ignorant query, but why are "lanes" in UK sunk so deeply between high banks? Is it to do with antiquity--so many 100's of years of travel over hte same roads?

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  8. jaz - what a shame. Is there a VERY Welsh name connected to your family then - Jones, Williams, Evans, Davies, etc? My husband has a "Mary Williams, born Wales" in his genealogy - this one moved to Manchester for work. With a name that common, NO chance of finding her.

    MM - I should support wind farms as alternative energy, and I would IF they were the least bit efficient and IF they didn't pollute and desicrate the landscape when being put in and everafter . . . The lanes here (like those in Devon), are partly that way because of useage pre-tarmacing - water runs off the fields and steep banks and so scours them and a few hundred years of use would have had them low by the time they were properly surfaced. I think! If anyone knows any differently, shout out. They are not hollow-ways in the way of some of the ancient tracks I have photographed, which are that way through footfall of man and beast, I think it is mainly the weather. The sides of the lanes now get scoured in heavy rain - we have flash floods down the lanes regularly, and quite big stones and lots of earth deposited on the surface.

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  9. I LOVE the pics of your bathroom with the beautiful china! What an awesome idea. I especially love that you took pics on your travels about...wonderful scenery! Makes me want to hop on the next plane out. I wish! I hope you're having a great day...or you've had a great day since you're several hours ahead.

    Blessings,
    Dianne

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