FINALLY - Part 1 of Llanarchaeron House

 

This was from a month ago, when my friend Gay was staying.  Sorry there's no photo of the outside, but there was a gaggle of folk in the way, talking.  HERE  is the National Trust link that shows you how the manor house looks.

It was originally a farmhouse, but was then radically extended and changed.  The old part of the house was from the doors at the back of the staircase backwards, and the grander squarer rooms lead off the main entrance.

This looks to be in a later style than the other rooms - 30s perhaps- with a stuffed otter - a very blonde one.

A Cobra with stuffing problems!

There were four beautifully curved corners to this room and the mahogany furniture had clearly been made to measure and suit.  However, only two pieces survive.

I hope you can at least read some of the description and history below on this beautifully embroidered child's bodice.

And now to the best bits.  Kitchen today, and the yard with all its other appurtenances, over the weekend.

I love the simplicity of this.  In the corner is, I believe, the old Copper, for wash days.  Mum had one, but hers was free-standing and ran on gas.  It started with very hot water for the white wash - sheets.  Then gradually going through the clothes as the water cooled and ending up with blankets - in high summer, so you could dry them on the line.

Quite a well-stocked pantry.  Jams and pickles needed though!  The old meat safe on the cool floor, though on a scorching day like today, I still think any meat would soon be on the turn.

Sorry this is so dark.  I didn't use the flash.

Such a homely comforting room.

I still use a clothes horse like this (actually I have three, from when I sold more textiles at Fairs).  One was from Keith's family and one from mine.  They are for airing clothes but I use them in the yard for drying them ever since the rotary dryer fell foul of he flying polytunnel and all ended up in the pond . . .

Two more parts to come - the court yard of buildings which dealt with laundry, dairy, brewing, bread making etc.   Then a bit one of the kitchen gardens.

Enjoy your weekend.

How exciting - sorting through cupboards

 It has to be done.  In fact, you can tell it has never been done since we arrived, as I've just found an unpacked box of small pictures at the back hall cupboard.  So those have been there since 2020!  Several of them are Dorset scene x-stitches so will go up with the other sewn pictures half way up the stairs wall.

Self-explanatory titles.  Many happy hours sewing Corfe Castle.  Gold Hill was done by my Dorset friend Gay if I remember rightly.

    I have already managed to lose the little box with a roll of tape in it for fixing on the dressing on my wrist. How is this possible? I only bought it a matter of hours ago. I have found the two boxes of dressings, neatly put away.  Now to look for the tape, which could be anywhere from the fridge to the bathroom!

Sturminster Mill was one of mine.  Thomas Hardy's Cottage was one I bought to remind me of one of my favourite authors.  It had a companion when I bought it, Ann Hathaway's cottage, but I sold that.

    I have to go to Brecon with Pam again today. Update: In the event, the company wanting her loan car back didn't phone to arrange the pick-up so it's tomorrow now.  I had mistakenly thought she had to go and drop it back but couldn't remember the way so wanted me to guide her in!

    Keith, having finally been badgered (e.g. nagged) into drinking a bit more, is more mobile and did two lengths of the top hall this morning without even a walking stick.  His speech is SO much better too - in recent weeks I could barely understand anything he said.  Frustrating for us both.

    Nearly the weekend - enjoy it. I have Danny visiting, with his girlfriend's little girl here.  He will do some jobs for me and "I" and I will bake, and I found her a lovely dinosaur colouring chart this morning at Penelope Primrose in town (lovely shop).  I even tracked down a set of colouring pencils. I'm sure I can keep her amused.

Back into a routine again - oh and update: Elephant hawkmoth caterpillars (at end).

 Wonderful sunshine here again today and not as oppressive as it's been the past couple of days as there is a good breeze blowing.  I stripped the beds first thing, and intend to do four lots of washing to get it out and dried before we are back to rain again.  I have a loaf in the breadmaker, have put the rubbish out, emptied the compost bin and been down to town for the paper.  I also got a walk in early, down on the Groe and fell into conversation with a lovely Irishmen who bred Section A ponies.  Now I must make the beds before I forget and it's bedtime and I'm staring at a bare mattress, which has happened before!

    On the Sunday at the Fair, I met some really lovely people, and had great conversations and of course, saw old friends.  THAT is what keeps me going - meeting like-minded people.  One lady bought both the Gwili bowls from me (her husband treated her to the 2nd) and told me she was SO happy to have them, and I was delighted for her. It also boosts my ego to be told by customers and especially by fellow dealers, that I have some lovely stock. I will see where we are in the spring, as Tam and Jon will happily come and help out, but it depends on the state of play with Keith's health.  Buying a few bits here and there keeps us both going, even though Keith finds it hard to get to the Fairs now, but we are hopeful he will be a bit perkier for Carmarthen Flea in a couple of weeks' time.

    A few photos from Builth Fair for you now.  Enjoy.

This chap had come all the way down from Scotland!

I had a lovely chat with the chap who had this gorgeous quilt for sale (£365 or so).  His stock in trade was beautiful old Persian rugs.  This was double-sided - imagine the work!

Neighbours, stand-wise, who bought a few pieces off me. We had similar tastes.

This stand always has hundreds of bits of china and glass. Oh my goodness, the setting up and putting away - it would drive me MAD! I filmed it through a net curtain they had up, hence the blurring.

As you can see, people have all sorts.

Right, I'd best go and make the beds now.  Keith is manouvering with a walking stick today but by 6 ish is really tired and it's still hard work getting him to bed a few hours later.

Here is Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar - one which I found beside the front path the other day and rescued to the Rosebay Willowherb plantation.  This afternoon, as I was reading my book, Pippi bought another one in and laid it on the carpet!  I promptly rescued that, and as I was coming back down to the yard, she had found another.  Well, all rescued and hopefully as she seems to have a soft mouth like a Retriever, they are none the worse for their experience.  Shows that the Elephant Hawk Moths have been busy in our garden anyway.  The first year we had much less wildlife as the last owners used chemical sprays everywhere.  I only remember bees on the Lavender.

I survived - just!

 

Top table.

No lyrical words or poetry tonight - I am too tired.  It's amazing that I survived yesterday at all as I had just 3 hours' sleep and by mid afternoon I could cheerfully have laid down on the bare concrete floor for a nap, I was so tired.   But it's surprising what the human body can stand.  However, I saw old friends and made new ones, including a lovely lady (waving to you Beryl Read) and Tam and Jon came and helped, which made a big difference.  I was next to the lovely Neil again, and he's great company.  Everyone in our shed in the immediate vicinity are friendly.  

There were very few people through the gate, especially today, but that said the folk that did come were there to buy and I had a good fair.  Not everyone did, and there were more low value type stalls than there had been in the past. Fortunately I sold some BIG things - difficult to pack, heavy, odd shapes etc.  I was VERY relieved to get rid of the  lovely old Lancashire bobbin back chair as it had come with us from Ynyswen where we had double the room than we have here.  I also got new homes for two lovely Gwili Pottery bowls, the French yellow bowl on the left of this photo,  and lots of interest in a platter that I have had ages and no-one took any interest in before. That said, I still have it!  Thank heavens I sold the big carved eagle I regretted buying as it and its box took up a chunk of room in the Utility.

Keith's side of things and I am delighted to say he made it along to the Fair today, courtesy of Tam and Jon, who managed to get the mobility scooter into the back of his vehicle.  Keith didn't see the entire Fair - his neck had seized up and was very painful, and so we just went and chatted to a couple of his mates who were selling there, and looked around a couple of the sheds, and he bought something from my next-door neighbour, so was pleased to have a bit of a deal.  He was glad to get back home though.  He's been watching a series about terrorists in the Middle East on tv.  Not very restful viewing of an evening, but if it keeps him happy, who I am to complain.  T&J are here overnight again, and Tam will be working from home tomorrow, so they didn't have to rush around tonight.

I bought absolutely nothing - tbh, there were very few things that attracted me.  I didn't manage to get into the best stalls in A1 building I think it is.  That's where some really nice antiques are, the sort of furniture we like especially.

Back tomorrow with some more photos from the Fair.  Hoping you all had a good weekend.

Lime Green

 Here's the other poem I found.

LIME GREEN

The trees on the hillfort lean away from the gale

Like greyhounds escaping from the leash.

Their leaves combed from the whipping branches

By a callous hand.  Strewn in tousled heaps,

They fetch up against the hedge-roots,

Jittering like nervous lovers, then forcing themselves

Through bare branches like water through a colander.

Gleaming puddles lie on the sullen ploughed fields,

Their surface ruffled by the wind into irritated shivers,

Reflecting the lemon lollipops of the last hazel leaves

Which prance in the stripped hedgerows.

A gleam of lime green on Merlin's Hill  

Is wiped out by a fist of clouds, which

Scud along the valley and as I look behind me, others

Drag their tattered petticoats across Black Mountain and beyond.

Right - all packed, the first car load anyway.  I'll take some furniture in the morning (chairs and a couple of small tables).  The last thing to go at the back of the carload was Keith's wheelchair.  Tam will bring him down this afternoon to have a look around. We'll go round together, and then I'll set up, but have to stay there until 7 p.m. tonight, which is when they shut and lock the back sheds where I am.

Once upon a time, I had words

THANKYOU for all your kind comments.  I will try and reply personally in the morning.  Meanwhile - Sarah - you're on.  I will try and jot some more words on paper and would love to write to you.  Lizzy D (and anyone who wants to copy this poem) feel free.  I am humbled you should want to do so.

As an alternative to this morning's doom and gloom, I found two poems I had completely forgotten about, whilst tidying up a bookcase and hoiking out old books to go to the Fair.  I also found a pile of Manx family history notes, so will look at those next week.

I've just taken out the boxes of stock which were in the cupboard under the stairs and they are ready to go into the car now.  TBH, I may gird my loins and load the bigger ones tonight, along with the tables and two folding chairs.  Then it won't be worrying me overnight.  Of course, Lulu managed to get out of where I had her shut away and shot into the cupboard under the stairs, where she promptly hid amongst the cobwebs and mouldy spiders under the bottom shelf, where no-one could reach her.  I have done a head count since, and they're all out here and no-one shut in!

ROAD TO BRECON

Pine boughs dangle limply like scarf-ends

Across the muddied verge, where 

Bundles of twigs from hedging lie like a bristling eyebrow

Beside the dark maw of the winter ditch.

A narrow carpet-runner of weary green races beside the car,

Punctuated by forgotten cords of logs, shaggy with moss and lichen.

A blade of sunshine highlights dead bracken and

A swaying of bramble boughs dance against   

A mausoleum of holly, black as a pirate's beard.

On the hillslope, a thicket of ill-planted ash and birch saplings

Jostle for company amongst a carpet of rotting leaves,  

Moss-mounds velvet smooth at their feet.

On the bare hill-top, stooped as a crabbit old man,

Stands a wind-blasted tree, leaning away from the winds.

The sun hangs low and brassy in the fading sky,

As shadows lengthen across the bleached grasses of damp hill pasture,

A densely-hedge lane gouges and field,

And dangles the hillside like a funeral ribbon.   

I used to ask Keith to jot things down on the newspaper as I drove along, and had a sudden flash of inspiration.  Then I would write these into my Commonplace book when we got home, and sometimes they were made into blank verse. I shall never be able to do that again.   Trish thought that poetry had to be de-dem, de-dum de-dum and rhyming.  I can remember her handing me back a poem I'd showed her, without a comment.  That still hurts.  She hadn't done poetry since school and never did any work on technically breaking down or understanding poetry.  I did some on my access course, and at the time was really torn between doing Eng. Lit. and Archaeology, but was advised by the English lecturer to do Archaeology as there was SO much reading involved with Eng. Lit, and I had young children. (She had 4 but they were all at Cathedral school and boarding.)

    I have pondered about putting this poem on as it looks like currying favour.  If you don't like it, just say.  It pleases me anyway.

Struggling - NOT a good day here. Plus Malvern pictures - warning clown heads at the end.

A faux Zebra - plastic?  Bet that went home with them!

I am tired and struggling to cope with this downturn in Keith's mobility as it doesn't look like improving.  It's 3 weeks until we see the Parkinson's Nurse next.  I hope we can struggle on until then.  Whilst we have not, in writing, had a clear diagnosis of MSA (Multiple Systems Atrophy) it would appear that is what he has - the Consultant said it was certainly not straight Parkinsons, but Parkinsonism. Keith has all the symptoms of MSA and this disease doesn't respond to the Parkinsons' drugs, or only marginally.  It is a very rare disease.  To have it in combination with the underactive Thyroid is even rarer.  Poor Keith - every night this week I have worried whether or not I will be able to get him up to bed. I have found (only this morning) that there is a special MSA site, and this has been very helpful. However, the "need to drink at least 2 litres of water a day" is not going to impress Keith.  I am struggling to get 2 pints down him these days!

Part if a stall which had some nice things, but they'd have done better displaying it on tables and stands . . .

There are other BIG family worries too, and those are hanging over us like a Sword of Damocles until they are resolved.  The timing couldn't have been worse and it may have huge repercussions.  I have no-one I can share these problems with either which is probably the worst thing of all.  If my best friend Trish had still been alive, I could have poured my heart out to her, but she died a few years ago now.  

Having ONLY one sort of thing always strikes me as a bad career move. OK, lots of people like Beswick figures, but not necessarily to buy all day long.  I guess it works for them, but I like diversity and the Unusual.

As I prepare for the Fair, I am seriously thinking this may be the last one.  I can manage a one-day Fair, but 2 1/2 full on days, where you have to be there at a specific time and aren't allowed to leave until a specific time are not really doable now.  I have Tam and Jon to help this weekend, but the writing is on the wall.  I started the day exhausted last year - how will I cope with getting Keith up to and into bed - this took nearly an hour last night.  Ah well, I will just have to cope and at least I can sit down during the day at the Fair.

I can only hope that the day improves - I've just burnt my toast and the thick cut back bacon I bought is inedible and so I will have to put it in soup or something. 

Oh, and to make matters better I can't even go for a good walk to shake off the blues as it's p'ing down with rain!  Right, at least I can do some sewing -I'm folding over the end on the blanket I bought, as both ends had lost much/all of the blanket stitching.  I'd blanket stitch them afresh but of course, I have lost the card with JUST the right cream wool to edge them . . .  Sorry to moan.  Off to Llandod for wool methinks . . .

I will be too busy/exhausted to post over the weekend, so don't worry if all goes quiet on here.