Saturday 31 August 2024

Why We Moved to Wales Part IV





A photo of the Cothi in spate.  I think you get the general idea . . .



"I can still recall our last night in our old house in Dorset, left with just a mattress and bedding to sleep on, a cot for little T, breakfast and a kettle.  Scary.  We were going to live in what was basically another country, as although we hadn't realized it at the time, Welsh was the primary language spoken in Carmarthenshire.

The journey seemed to take forever.  There was none of this "Collect the key from the agent at X o'clock" - we just picked up the key from the Farmer at his house.  We were there sooner than the two removal vans - neither of which could fit across the narrow bridge over the river, and one of which promptly broke down on the spot at the thought of it!  That was still there the next morning, when it finally got fixed and brought in another way.

Needless to say, dusk falls early in March, and so we found ourselves unloading furniture and belongings in the dark.  Only the barest basics were sorted that first night - T's cot put up (in the little room where I type this) and our bed in the larger of the two front bedrooms, next door.  At some time in the past, someone had put up a shelf on the wall in this bedroom, using 6 inch nails and not much else.  There was a carrier bag on it.  We were beyond noticing the niceties by this point and fell into bed, exhausted.  In the wee small hours I was woken by the sound of a carrier bag rustling.  Well, more than rustling, something was making quite a racket.  Somehow a mouse had scaled the wall into the carrier bag (or perhaps it had set up home there) and was doing a Jane Fonda style workout. Keith finally lobbed a shoe at the wall and silence descended again.

Next morning, Keith and Tamzin fed, I set off up the hill to give my old dog Tara a walk.  I can still remember reaching the top and looking at the view across the Cothi valley, towards Black Mountain in the distance.  It quite took my breath away - and still lifts my spirits today.

So we set about getting the essentials sorted.  We had a Rodent Problem in our new house.  One night that first week I was sat in the very green bath in the very green bathroom and a mouse came out of a hole in the wall and began a wash and brush up.  If it was aware of me, it wasn't the least bit bothered - talk about bold as brass!  Oh, and those baked bean tin lids on the skirting boards?  That was to stop the rats coming out into the room!!!  Sadly, all the cats we had in Dorset had died on the main road in front of the house. I might add, all those cats came unbidden to us (much as they do here in fact) - I would never have chosen to have cats on such a busy road.

So we went on a visit to one of the many rescue centres in our area, Ty Agored Animal Sanctuary near Cribyn.  We picked out a - very pregnant - black tortoiseshell queen that we called Blackberry. The Sanctuary said that they would rehome the kittens for us, and subsequently did so.  Whilst we were there, looking at cats and trying to make up our minds, we were aware of a very loud purring from a box which turned out to be coming from a small scruffy hairy black and white cat.  "Oh that's Grandma" one of the helpers said, laughingly, and later told us she had been with them a week or so and because she wasn't a pretty - or young - cat they expected to have her forever.  Instead, she came home with us, and with Blackberry.

Above, Blackberry and below, dear old Tatty.





One of the first things we did in the house was to reinstate the bricked-in fireplace in the kitchen.  We always call it an inglenook, although really it isn't wide enough.  Anyway, it took a lot of work digging it out and finding a replacement bressamer beam.  That was it being excavated anyway. (Apologies for sideways photo).


Anyway, this was a year or so on from moving in, and I know that because Blackberry's gorgeous big ginger son, Bumble, was curled up in front of it.  The Hergom stove was multi-fuel then and we burned anthracite and big logs in it, to run the central heating, but boy, did it gobble up wood and Keith found he was forever cutting up logs for it.  After a few years we had it converted to oil (it seemed like a good idea at the time . . .)



What we HADN'T realized until we got here was that the weather was quite a bit different to Dorset.  There was a bit more rain for starters . . .


This is the lane in front of our house, and what happens when it rains so hard that the run-off from the fields turns it into a fast-flowing stream . . .  It doesn't happen very often, and soon abates, but it looks dreadful at the time.


Sorry about the glare from the window in these, but I think you can get the gist.  Below is the river far right, with the run-off water a foot or more deep, hurtling into the river at the bottom of the hill.


Below - this is flooding further downstream at Pontargothi.


Yes.  We were beginning to find that life here was quite . . . different!"

                                       *              *                *
I'm just off to bed now, but I had a reasonable day today, despite the tears.  I did a little housework;  painted one of my display shelves which desperately needed it; picked a few blackberries to freeze; cooked a big enough main meal to make two more for the freezer - just mince/veg/rice and a good helping of curry powder for flavour; I did some more tidy-up gardening, this time the other side of the house.  I need to be out there days at a time though.  I've researched some of Keith's wall muskets, which need to be sold.  

I baked the Rhubarb and Custard cake first thing and it looks really good.


Now I'm more than ready for bed.

11 comments:

  1. Gosh darn! You just reminded me, palaver though it is by the time I negotiate everything with my rollator walker I meant to pick me a bowlful of blackberries this rare sunny afternoon.
    I am really enjoying reading your story, which you weave with the most magical sense of occasion.
    The Rhubarb cake looks amazingly delicious indeed.

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  2. I'm enjoying the retro posts of your house hunting and moving, although I am reminded that such ventures seldom are a smooth transition. Revisiting the past is a mixed bag, isn't it--memories tumble out. Some have been sweetened by time or we see humor in a situation that wasn't at all funny when it was happening. Most wrenching of all, are the recollections of those who were part of our journey and are no longer here with us.

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  3. Your cake looks wonderful.

    Your descriptions of the new life you ended up leading draws wonderful pictures in my head.

    God bless.

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  4. The first thing which struck me was the full and interesting life you shared with Keith. So many things to look back on with laughter and pride. It's as if he has left you with a wonderful present of memories. 2nd thought was you were just as crazy as us! We moved countries twice, once with a 2yr old and a newborn baby. Oh the optimism of youth.

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  5. It's lovely reading about your earlier life in Wales. The cake looks delicious x
    Alison in Wales x

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  6. Hoping you’ll put up the recipe for the delicious- looking cake which I can imagine tastes lush. The river Cothi still runs through you I think. How far are you from the nearest river now I wonder. Little and often is definitely the best way to garden, especially as we get older. Today I am going to sow a row of Tamar organic rocket seed, move a compost heap as I want the bottom half for prepping my autumn-planting Rose Wight garlic bed and give all my woodland edge shrubs that flower in the spring (azalea, witch hazel, deutzia, philadelphus, magnolia Stellata) a big can of comfrey tea feed each followed by a deep wide mulch of half-rotted grass mowings. August has been so dry here and we have another heatwave forecast and the golden leaves are already starting to fall. Which reminds me my two crab apple trees and the new greengage tree planted in open sunny spots are all looking very sorry for themselves which is strange as the three domestic eating apple trees are looking well and strong and the newest tiny crab apple tree planted in June (I bought it from a local fete for £2!) at the bottom of the meadow is also very happy. Right time to do my half hour while S sorts the recycling and before elevenses in the garden! Sarah x

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    1. I just wanted to say, Sarah, that I enjoy your comments very much...they're like a 'bonus' post in addition to BBs own blog. ~Melanie :)

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  7. Wales seemed such an exciting, and wild, country to move to. But it is very different from England. it must have been a real adventure moving and you can look back on those memories with love but probably quite happy to think house moving is over now.

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  8. Having stayed with you at Ynyswen I can vouch for its magical ness x Hooefully one day I’ll ‘pop’ to your current one too! And then I can eat some delicious cake hehehe x x Onwards and upwards J , take each day as it comes, tears and smiles, it’s all part of life’s rich tapestry as they say xx Danette

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  9. When my husband and I were traveling every year to Florida with the racehorses we rented houses in various states. There was no Air BnB type 'catalogues' of houses so we literally went from newspaper ads we found online. One year, we rented a lovely little house with a Cockroach Problem. We had just arrived and had picked up a pizza for our dinner...well, in the span of time it took to eat a slice and then go back to the kitchen for another, it was crawling with cockroaches. I know. I spent a lot of time scrubbing and cleaning that first week...and there was a job lot of roach traps bought from the local drugstore. As awful as that was, I think I'd fare less well with a Rodent Problem :). I'm really enjoying this...thank you so much for taking the time to share it. ~ Melanie xo

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  10. It's nice looking back isn't it, that fast flowing water must have been very alarming for as people new to that area. We also never even considered that the area we moved to had Welsh as the first language. We bought off an English family and only visited Llandudno, where so most speak English, before we actually moved in properly. Llanrwst shops were a surprise. :-)

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