Waterfalls, tree art and mooching

That's a good word - mooching - onomatopoeic I think. Anyway, I suggested a short wander further up the valley to OH yesterday afternoon, so we drove up to the swing bridge (well, it used to be 60 years ago, but now its a static one). Then we strolled on for another half mile or so, picking up some useful logs for firewood (you can never have too much wood).



View upstream and downstream from the bridge.


A neighbour's sheep delighted to be on fresh pasture.


We came across some tree art by the track leading up to a hippy homestead. So I thought I'd share it with you. This is my favourite as it looks rather like a fungus!

A burned and upturned stump makes a wonderful chair if you don't mind charcoal trousers!

Not sure if the colouring worked on this stump, but it certainly stood out.

The hill of Darren Fawr.

A treetop field above my friend's smallholding.

A recent felling of pine trees has revealed the waterfall in all its glory. I loved standing beside it and feeling the energy from the water.





Today I had anger to burn off so I walked 4 miles in 66 minutes, going absolutely flat out all the way on the outward journey. I didn't ake my camera, because I wanted to get into a good rhythm. At the hilltop in sight of Wern, I turned round and had a one minute piece-of-chocolate stop. Now I am full of endorphines and my anger shelved for the moment, but I am still worried about our eldest daughter and that worry (and the associated murderous! feelings towards the young man concerned) look like being constants for a good while yet.

I find walking so VERY therapeutic, for worry, stress and anxiety, and for problem-solving, and burning up anger, and on other occasions, just for relaxing and "touching base" with the natural world. I'd love to be walking up in the Brecon Beacons but with fuel the price it is, that's not a wish I can indulge. It has to be along the lanes at the moment - all the lanes I used to ride along with Fahly. I could have done with him this morning (though he had a VERY dim opinion on emotional women) as I felt like I just wanted to gallop flat out.

I'm now going to make some bread as I need to punch some dough!

Straight into Autumn

View along the beach from the headland at Pendine. We sat here for a while, looking out to sea and just totally relaxing.


I'm finally going to write about our lovely afternoon out at Pendine today. It was only last Thursday, but it already seems a lifetime away! This morning I was woken around 4 a.m. by a gale roaring around the house, heavy rain and the thrashing of the trees along the edge of the paddock. I lay in bed for a while, hoping I might get back to sleep, but I'd come to bed early and already slept for nearly 7 hours and sleep evaded me.

I got up to let the refugees in from the storm - WHY do cats go out on such a horrid night? And as it IS so horrid, why do they not come back IN through the cat flap? Lucky is under the impression that it is one-way (out only) but all three boys are more than familiar with using it to come back in the house. They all told me they were starving, and the storms make you REALLY hungry, so now they are fed and have taken to the chairs. Note to self: cushion covers really DO need changing today . . .

Having been under the impression that I was finally MENDED following course after course of anti-biotics, ending in a double dose of anti-biotics combined with a heavy course of steroids, you can imagine my dismay after just two weeks being "healthy", at finding I had chest pains which pointed to another chest infection brewing. I wasn't coughing (yet) but my breathing was compromised. I noticed this on Thursday as we climbed the steps from the beach up over the headland at Pendine, and I was having to stop every couple of steps to pause for breath. At the time I thought it was because we had recently had lunch and my tummy was pressing on my lungs, but on Saturday night I was up half the night with breathing problems and Sunday saw me at A&E. ALL DAY! They were very busy with people limping or holding their arms from injury from contact sports and children who had fallen off their bikes and one poor man who had fallen face-first (I really DON'T recommend trying that one at home, he was a real mess.)

I had an X-ray to check for infection showing (clear), and then found the diagnosis was moving towards Angina and possible heart attack! Blimey! I had bloods taken for testing and an ECG . . . then more waiting. I was very glad I had bought a book with me to read (Philippa Gregory's "The Constant Princess" about Catherine of Aragon) but my poor husband must have been bored witless once he'd read every section of the Sunday Telegraph. Fortunately the tests proved I didn't have heart problems and so the diagnosis swung back to chest infection brewing and I have very strong anti-biotics again, but I can see myself back down to the Doc today as I am having a side-effect which means "contact your Dr straight away". . . (UPDATE: I've just got back from the Doctor's, and since he knows all the details, he listened to my chest, checked my peak-flow (both OK) and said to stop taking the Antibiotics, as he thinks that I am still suffering from stress - from all the problems our eldest daughter has had these past 18 months, culminating in her boyfriend walking out on her for another girl. So, meditation and walking and relaxing with a good book or ten . . . Knowing our daughter was happy again would make all he difference though. I can only hope and pray.)

Meanwhile, Pendine? Well, I forgot to take my camera, so you will have to make do with photos taken on a previous visit. After a pretty grey miserable and often wet August, the sudden appearance of a bright sunny SUMMER day at the very start of September was too good an opportunity to miss. I knew we couldn't afford to go to the Antiques Fair at Builth at the weekend, so we had a local day out instead.

Pendine is best known for being the venue for various land speed record attempts, as its 7 mile stretch of sands from Gilman Point to Laugharne offered the perfect place (a minimum of 5 miles was needed, and the beach was much better than any roads at the time, and what's more, straight and empty . . .) Sir Malcolm Campbell set the land speed record in Blue Bird on 25th September 1924, reaching 146.16 mph. This was subsequently beaten by Parry-Thomas in his car Babs. Over the next four years the two men raised the speed bar to 174.22 mph, achieved by Campbell in February 1927. The following month (3 March) Parry-Thomas set out to beat this record. After practice runs, Parry-Thomas and Babs hit 170 mph when catastrophe struck and the exposed drive-chain broke, killing Parry-Thomas. The wrecked car was buried in sand dunes by Pendine village. It lay there until 1969, when Owen Wyn Owen, an engineering lecturer from Bangor Technical College, was given permission to excavate and restore it. Babs is there now, in the Museum of Speed by the beach. I visit each time, and each time I can feel a tremendous, a HUGE presence in that room. Babs is not "just" a car, and believe me, Babs is NOT alone.

The view eastwards, looking towards the Gower Peninsula.

When our children were small, you were allowed to bring your car down onto the beach and right around the headland. I can remember taking our big red Renault van down and parking more or less where that little stripey tent is. Then they banned cars from the beach totally, and now they allow them again, but place cones in the sand which you must not drive beyond. Unless you are the tractor that cleans the beach, or the coastguard.


Caldy Island (Ynys Byr in Welsh) in the distance. HERE is a link to the web page about the island, and its monks, monastery, perfume-making, retreats et al. Geograph gives over a thousand photos of the island and surrounding area. That should keep you all quiet for a bit.


Cloud masses here in this photo, but last week there was not a cloud in the sky and it was HOT.

You can just see the square shape of the Museum of Speed (housing Babs and a couple of motorbikes which also raced here). The actual village is mostly hidden behind the headland.


Above and below - a squence of caves hacked out by the sea. Perfect for hiding pirates and treasure!

At the seaside

It's just as well we enjoyed our Summer in April and May this year, as since St Swithun's Day the weather has provided a drop or more of rain on most days. We managed a seaside glimpse last Wednesday when we drove down to visit our middle daughter G in Swansea, where she now works and lives. With little money for "goodies" this month, she asked me to do some baking and so I made double batches of Cornish Fairing biscuits (gingernuts, basically) and Nig Nogs which have oats, dessicated coconut and syrup in. So I got those baked before breakfast. I also cooked up some more Damsons and these are now made into puree and incorporated in Damson Ice Cream . . . We had a bread and cheese style lunch and chatted. It was so good to see her again and catch up on all her news.

Anyway, after visiting the excellent Charity Shop just down the road from her house, where I got a circular knitting needle in a size I needed, and about 2 metres of Aida material for x-stitch in white, cream and a small piece of blue (£1), we bid her farewell and had a little drive around Swansea Bay to the Mumbles. We stopped at Bracelet Bay (the far end, beyond the lighthouse) for 5 minutes, just to take photos, before heading back to home.

We had a proper breath of sea air at Pendine the next day, but I shall write that up later.

Cornish Fairings.

Nig Nogs.

The blue smudge is the North Devon coastline.

Mumbles Pier.

Several views across Swansea Bay looking back towards the city. Our daughter lives vaguely somewhere in the middle, towards the front! Vaguely . . .

The more industrial end of Swansea Bay. If you have ever read Iris Gower's "Copper Kingdom" you will know how dire it was there in the Industrial Age.

Two views of the little lighthouse beyond Mumbles Pier.

Serendipity and Spinning

When I returned to volunteering at the "Big House" (Newton House at Dinefwr Park) on Monday I was delighted to discover that the Tawe Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers had a display of textiles which their members had made, as well as offering the public a chance to spin or weave. Visiting children especially loved to try their hands at this.

I got chatting to the ladies and mentioned that "I used to spin" - although there has been so much happening in the last couple of years I haven't touched my wheel and this summer I really didn't have the heart to do ANY crafts. Anyway, I was soon assured that there was no such thing as "used to spin" and I was invited to bring along my wheel the next morning. I said yes before my brain had a chance to back off and think no!

I was SO GLAD that I took up this serendipitous opportunity as I was soon back in the swing of things, though I still need to work on my techniques. As someone said, it is half an hour or so to learn the basic technique and then the next 20 years perfecting it! There's hope for me yet then. Much chatting was done, both between ourselves and the various visitors to the house. One visitor from Sunderland was involved in Anglo-Saxon re-enactments and her speciality was spinning wool on a drop spindle and also Anglo-Saxon embroidery.

I forgot to take my camera on Tuesday so I popped back yesterday to take some photos of the exhibition. There was such a lot to see and all of it absolutely beautiful - be it woven, felted, knitted, hand-spun, hand-dyed or combinations of these.

This is what interests me more than anything. I have always been interested in using natural dyes, although my efforts thus far have only involved the commonest dyestuffs such as onion skins, elderberries, blackberries etc., using alum as a mordant.


You should be able to read what the dyestuffs are if you click on these pictures to enlarge them, and turn your head skew-whiff a few times!


Isn't this gorgeous? I'd love to learn how it was done. Wet-felted?

The narrow strips of weaving were done on an Inkle loom. The colourful piece below the book was made on a peg loom, and made my hands itch to do something on my tiny peg loom, just to see what I can create.

This was the loom set up to show visitors the techniques and they were offered the chance to have a go themselves .

This is Lindsey, who was setting up one of the bigger Inkle-type looms.

Another display of members' work. The light-coloured bedspread just behind the chair was AMAZING. As soft and light as a spider's web, mohair wool had been used to create this heirloom piece.

The Tawe Guild has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and the Chairman's Challenge this year was items incorporating the themes of Pearls and Sweetpeas. As the following photographs show, members rose to the challenge and created some wonderful items in many different ways. The colours were so beautiful.





Last but not least, this display was along a seaside theme. The stripey bag is made from lengths of Inkle weaving sewn together, with a woven rug behind - lovely sea colours - and needle-felted "pebbles". I'm longing to have a go at one of those. Watch this space.

Needless to say I am keen to become a member of the Guild and very much look forward to the meeting after the AGM this month.

The Exhibition will be at Newton House today and tomorrow, so if you get the chance, go along and visit it. You won't be disappointed.

Sunday's car boot treasures

The weather was a little threatening on Sunday morning - this is looking out across Next Door's farmyard first thing - but I'm glad to say that when we got to the Car Boot Sale it had brightened up a bit and although there was one very heavy shower, that was when we were under cover in the main shed. We kept our promise to only buy what we NEEDED, ahem, with the exception of £2 spent on books . . . But I did NEED that horsey book! I even found the right size frame/glass for a little x-stitch picture I got recently, so I shall have to set to and get it mounted and framed. That was 50p.

These lampshades ay be a little dated now, but there were 3 of them, at £1 each, and we needed three more open lampshades for our bottom hallway, and these let a lot more light through now, and can be left as part of the fixtures and fittings of the house when we FINALLY get a buyer.

I couldn't believe my luck when I found this weighty tome for just £1. It was a reprint of a Victorian horse book dating from about 1880, and is an excellent addition to my Library.

OH couldn't resist these two books at just 50p each.


Isn't this gorgeous? I collect green glass anyway, but this will be going to one of my daughters at Christmas, with a display of felt biscuits from the latest Mollie Makes magazine.


I just couldn't resist these curtains, although I was trying to think which window I could hang them at as they were for a long narrow window and ours tend to be wide. As they were only £1 the pair including the top valence, I threw caution to the winds and hope they will fit somewhere in our next house!


I think I must have conveyed a cosmic order to the Universe for curtains last weekend, as when we went to the Car Boot Sale almost every other stall had curtains of some description. I was on the look out for a pair of heavyweight winter curtains for the kitchen. I didn't find those, but I did get this pair of pale blue cotton curtains, which are a perfect fit, and which I intend to back with woollen material (I have an entire roll of it). They were just £2 and the denim blue colour matches the kitchen tiles and deeper blue paintwork of the kitchen.