Nearly 100 photos later . . .

 

My birthday this year was, again, in Lockdown and so I decided to defer my Birthday Day Out until later in the year.  I was beginning to think it would be forgotten, when K and I decided we needed a day out, and Tam was away at a friend's wedding (with her young man).  We booked to go to Plas Newydd at Llangollen in Denbighshire. It's about 2 hours' drive from here. It's somewhere I've always wanted to go - in fact, since I was in my 20s, so it's only taken me nearly 50 years to get there!  K and I had lunch there too - cheese and ham toasties which more than filled us up until teatime.  They have a little cafe in the old stables and stable-yard.

As you may have guessed, the new header photo is Plas Newydd in its beautiful setting, and up above it on the hill, is Castle Dinas Bran.  Plas Newydd is famous for being where the Two Ladies of Llangollen lived.  They were very close friends who escaped from a boring family life - Coflein says they "eloped together" but apparently there is no evidence that they were actually lesbians and it was something they vigorously denied when someone suggested it in later years.

Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler began renting what started out as a fairly ordinary Welsh 2 story Welsh cottage called Pen-y-Maes in 1778, and over the years improved it by getting a craze for the Gothic and embellishing almost every surface with carvings from churches and old furniture, which was available when churches were demolished or fell down from lack of maintenance.   Many of the carvings were gifts from visitors and friends, but they were also able to buy cartloads of them cheaply and a local handyman put them together as best he could fit them.  

This door was put together and like all the outside pieces, weatherproofed by painting black.

In some areas, painted leather had been used for decoration.  I've seen this at Hellens, an old house at Much Marcle which were visited on another birthday outing some 15 years or so back now.

You know when these carvings are bestiary beasts, as they have forked tongues. These look like Maned Slugs with Attitude!

I loved this engraving.  I think it may be a bear on the left (but don't quote me on it) but I stupidly got in too close so didn't get the entire panel.  On the right is a Lion.  When this was carved, I think there was a verbal instruction, "OK, I want a Lion.  Yes, I know you've never seen one, but just imagine a very big pussy cat with a cross face, and lots of hair on its neck and shoulders."  I just love its expression - it looks like it's seen a ghost!

Part of another Lion, and beautiful carvings up the staircase.

A Wainscot type chair completely made from carvings.  I like the fierce face at the top of the back beneath the canopy.

Another beastie with a forked tongue.  There were quite a few in various guises through the house.

This was the stained glass insert in the window of the Ladies' bedroom.   Fragments (some of them early Medieval) were used throughout the house, and the photo at the top of the page here, was taken up in the attic bedroom of their servant, Mary Caryll, who had helped them escape from Ireland and was loyal to the end. She is buried with them.

A Satyre I believe.

A pair of matching solid Walnut chairs in the Ladies' bedroom.  Keith loved these (work  in solid Walnut is SO rare - there must have been a fallen tree someone put to good use).  He was even measuring them up and saying, "They work just as well in Oak" - and we happen to have some big oak planking here . . .

Finally, for today, a painting of the Ladies towards the end of their lives.

Weekend with guests

 

Our son D visited on Saturday - staying slightly longer than planned after his train back got cancelled, so he had to catch a later one.  This gave us time a get a good walk in, down to the wee church, which he'd not yet seen.  This is one of the stained glass windows.  The lights either side are the original gas lights from Victorian times.  No electricity here!

The sun was bright through this window but if you look carefully at the top roundel between the angels, you can just see an almost photographic image of Winifred who, poor girl, died when she was only 13.  Next time I go there I will try and get a close up - this was with D's phone.  That left hand window glass has buckled at the bottom and is slipping down so I am hoping that the generous collection recently will help a little way towards the repair on this.

Three young men from the parish, who died during WW1. Lt.-Cpl. Davies was local (I often walk past the house) and died of wounds aged just 20 on 4th December 1917 in El Quahira, Cairo.  He was in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.  His father was a local farmer and he was one of 8 children (they all survived to be adults).  

Alban Davy Crompton was a Cardi (Cardiganshire) boy.

It looks like he was a Rifleman, and he's mentioned as dieing, aged just 18 (SO young) 12 April 1918.  He is buried at Vielle-Chappel.  He must have been working at Pantyblodau farm when he joined up, though the 1911 census still places him near Newcastle Emlyn.

Private Hughes didn't die until 1921 -I am wondering was this of wounds or mental problems? (P.S.  My husband said it could have been the effects of the mustard gas).I was intrigued, and decided to research him.  He was one of a big family.  Through the 1911 census, I found out his mother had given birth to 13 living children, but 3 had died prior to 1911.  She was born at St Harmons, well before the short time that the Rev. Kilvert spent there though. Her husband had been a Farm Bailiff in the 1901 census and they lived in a nearby farm, the track to which is where I always stop to draw breath after slogging up the nearby hill.  Two of his sisters, Catherine and Mabel Jessie, became school teachers, presumably at the little village school which was closed around 1964. By 1911 she was widowed, and reduced to earning her living as a Charwoman and had two children named William Gilbert under her roof - one her son, who was 13, and the other was a boarder, surname Jones and born in Merthyr.  He was only 9 mths old and I wonder if he was her (illegitimate?) grandson . . .  The duplicity of names surely means a blood relationship.  Anyway, I have wittered on long enough on that topic.
 

As D was staying for lunch, I put some bread on a dough mix in the breadmaker, took the dough out, and made 3 breadrolls with half of it and a quick tear-and-share type loaf with Cheese and Pesto.  It was SO tasty.  D took the rest of it home with him along with half the Chocolate Blackberry Brownies, pictured below.  They are SO nice and I just nipped across our lane to pick the last few blackberries on the bushes there (the rain had done for many of them.) I need to go further afield to pick some more for the freezer, though there's not a lot of room in there as it's just the top half of the fridge-freezer.

For the loaf - standard white loaf mix dough, roll it out, spread with some pesto, sprinkle with grated cheese (I used about 4 ounces (115 g) of Cheddar) and roll up and tie in a knot, then glaze with egg or milk and stick in a hot oven for about 25 mins.

These are the little free Mirabelle plums I foraged in Brecon on Monday, stewed up to go with some Plum Muffins I made yesterday.  These turned out a little sad-looking - they didn't rise much as I only had 2 eggs and the recipe called for 3, so I added some stewed apple to replace the egg and was over-generous with the apple!  They taste fine though.

Insects LOVE this Actaea simplex.  It will grow considerably over the next few years so I will have happy insects - the entire garden seems geared towards them.

Yesterday I had a visit from a friend and her son, who called to collect the big Gas cannister we no longer had a use for - I can't use the little CI gas stove in the kitchen due to my asthma (plus it was somewhat condemned by a workman here who knew it and said it sooted up rapidly).  We had a good natter, tea and cake and showed them round the house and garden.  They reckon we have a lovely house here.  We agree!

Right, better get on with my day.  Have a good one.

Weekend miscellany

Himself (Little Whale of course), ensconced very happily on our bed this morning.  Fortunately he hadn't been out so didn't have muddy paws (it has been raining for the past couple of days, just what the garden needed).
 

Drat - cannot think of the name of this so will have to check it out later. Update: It is Acaea simple (Atropurpurea) "Brunette". Must write that on a label for it now. Anyway, it doesn't need a moist spot as original advice on line said and is happy enough in this planter.

One of two Japanese anemones I bought recently - this one has made it to a pot. They were only £3.99 each at Aldi and I wish I'd bought more now.

This weekend's reading.  I love the photography in this magazine and there are always interesting articles and recipes of the sort I would make.

For several years this little Gwili pottery lamp has been my bedside lamp.  Now it's migrated downstairs and I can see to make a cup of tea in the mornings.

In its place upstairs is this lamp, which is a nod to a g.g. aunty of mine who was the schoolmistress in Widecombe in the 1860s or 70s.  I think she was my g.g. aunt - I need to check out that branch of the family tree again.  We had to replace the fitting for the bulb and I took the old trim off the shade and put a fresh one on, but it gives a better and taller light to read by.  I know it's not many people's taste but I am old-fashioned and sentimental when it comes to anything Devon . . .  Hence the plate below, which cost me all of £1 on Sunday at the Antiques Fair/Fleamarket.  When I turned it over and saw the Bovey Pottery stamp on the back, tears pricked my eyes - dad grew up in Bovey Tracey and there is a long family connection to Hennock, up the hill from Bovey. (It's pronounced "Buvvy" by the way, and not "Bovey" as in bovine.)

Tam has sensible and healthy breakfasts - this is a veggie hash and Free Range egg. She and her boyfriend are at a wedding in Morecombe this weekend and having a little autumn break.  I am envious, but I have got my Birthday Outing booked (FINALLY - it was my birthday in April!, during Lockdown).  Keith and I are off to Plas Newydd, near Llangollen, famous for its "Ladies of Llangollen".  Can't wait.

FINALLY . . .

This morning we had a phone call from the last plumber who we asked to come and quote for fitting the new bathroom (delivered in June!)  His price was acceptable and we wanted him to do the job as he knows this house and the peculiarities of its plumbing.  Having had to dump the plumber who wanted the price of a small car to do the job, we were starting to run out of local plumbers and thinking of having to bribe our plumber from Carmarthenshire to come and do the job for us.

After we had done the shopping in Brecon on Monday, Tam and I came back "over the top" which is just my favourite place locally, almost my favourite ever place - it's up towards the top of the list. Enjoy.  (That's spray dye on the sheep by the way.  There are some on the Eppynt road to Brecon which have been sprayed bright pink all over!  Easy to find if they've strayed.)

The bracken has been cut and in some places baled.  I don't know if it is used for bedding at all, but I can remember reading it is carcinogenic so perhaps not.

The dark bits like bushy eyebrows, centre, are some of the small pine plantings beloved of the Army, up on the further ranges of the Eppynt.

I have had a busy day, though I did sit down and watch Vera, whilst polishing the very tarnished metalwork on a Victorian writing box.  Another thing we have No Room For.

I got some weeding done in the garden too, clearing some of the dozens of wild strawberries which grow on the bank - I was clearing the bottom part, so I can get some bulbs tomorrow and get them planted. A whole wheelbarrow full of weeds came out! I put a plant whose nametag has been lost into a pot (taken me weeks to get around to this!) - it has nearly-black leaves and a tall flower spike with tiny white flowers.  Just flowering now.  I'll take a photo tomorrow.

I have also had a good tidy-up in the kitchen and brought down my little Gwili Pottery lamp to go on the counter by the kettle.  I bought a new lamp for my bedside -not everyone's taste as it's a 1950s? ceramic base lamp with Uncle Tom Cobley on it.  A link with my g.g. aunt who was a schoolmistress at Widecombe School in Victorian times.  I just happened to find a matching plate at the Fair at the weekend and that's on display there now too.  I know - I'm a lost cause.  Old-fashioned and sentimental to the core.

When Tam and I were parked up here, drinking in the view, there was a car in front and the chap was clearly a professional photographer, looking at his camera and huge lens.  Anyway, we fell into conversation and had a really lovely chat about wildlife.  Like us, he couldn't believe how beautiful it was around here and he was saying he had about 5,000 + photos of the scenery and wildlife.  He lived locally.

Talking of wildlife, we have heart a cock pheasant in the locale again so I am guessing Henry VIII is back on patrol (though we've not seen him yet.)  Two more nests of Swallows fledged at the weekend and were doing laps of the yard and house and then by Monday, had headed South.  Hard to imagine how difficult it must be - just learned to fly and you have to fly thousands of miles.  We still have young being fed in one nest, and two House Martin families are still feeding youngsters, but the skies are so quiet now, after being busy with them all summer long.  How I will miss them.

A walk along Brecon Canal

 Yesterday was far too nice a day not to take advantage of the sunshine and go for a walk.  Once we had unpacked from the Fair, Tam and I set off to Brecon to do the shopping there for a change.  We normally go once a month.  We parked near to the Canal and walked beside it for about a mile and a half, up as far as the A40.  On returning to the car I foraged a few tiny yellow Mirabelle plums which had fallen from a tree on the bank by the road, caught by tangles of ivy and long grass and so unbruised. There was a similar sized red one too, but I couldn't shake any down!

Purple Loosestrife was still in full bloom along the Canal.

We had been watching lots of small fish in the canal until this private narrowboat came along and muddied the waters!  This gentleman's good lady was sat in the front with her crochet.

The last smile of summer on these Meadow Cranesbill.

The fields looked sleepy in the heat haze.

This house was on the market last year, and still appears empty.  The people who lived there were great gardeners and always had a lovely show in their garden.  Sadly this year it was only the perennials in bloom.

The bridge we crossed back to the car.  If you carry on another mile or so you get to the Brecon Basin - end of the line.

Did we have a good Fair?  Yes, very, BUT it was exhausting.  We set up the Gazebo and tables on the Friday - put up the displays early Saturday morning, but then had to take the displays down at the end of the day as I didn't sleep on site.  Sunday was a repeat performance.  Saturday was extremely busy.

We had a lovely shady spot - this was the last grass pitch they had - they had suggested going by the wall of a building, but I wanted to try and tether the gazebo (a wise move as it got gusty on Saturday afternoon).  Lots of folk said what a lovely spot we had, and we didn't boil like the other outside folk in full sun.  On the Sunday we mopped up a few sales too as people who still had money left, came and shopped with us on the way out.  I sold my three lovely children's chairs to a Dealer friend so they will now be offered in her Narberth shop.

Of course, we had the idiots come by too.  One, who when I showed him the wear pattern on the legs of the little child's rocker, from where children had put their legs under to rock it, loftily announced, oh no, that was because the wood they used for the legs was square and they hadn't bothered finishing the leg off properly.  Hadn't he ever heard of turning a leg on a pole lathe?  Clearly not!!

Everyone was plagued by a Traveller invasion - the women and children all in their finery - the blokes with the same slicked-back haircuts and my goodness you had to have your wits around you when the lads were at your stall.  They were after knives, and of course, we had our antique ones.  3 or 4 would come in and pick things up, ask questions, try and confuse you - it was like a three card trick but I am used to their ways and watched them like a hawk.

I now have the money for a greenhouse (without dipping into our savings), which was my intention, so this morning I have been checking what is for sale out there and trying to work out whether glass or polycarbonate is best.  I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment as we face South, so need some protection for plants in the greenhouse.  What I'd really like is a Rhino greenhouse, but I didn't earn THAT much!!  We do have extra money to cover the rewiring or the bathroom fitting anyway, so it was well worth getting tired out!