September 23 Cwmdu Walk September 23, 2016

Another Friday, another walk with Walking Well….another adventure!

An unexpected return to Cwmdu,  just a week later after the Bike Show, for the start of our walk  was a very pleasant surprise. We set off at a brisk pace through the village  and  took one of the tracks  to head uphill passing a delightful old garage…just  another  subject …maybe…for a painting!!

Just then the heavens opened and we all ran for shelter under  a large tree, next to a pretty stream and an even prettier cottage. It always amazes me how many surprises one can have on a walk in Wales!

The  hedgerows were glistening with the rain  and covered in every kind of lichen, liverwort and moss- heaven knows how many creepy crawlies too- but they stayed covered away from the rain.

We crossed a rather modern  bridge  over a tumbling stream which had recently replaced a characterful one.

Another bull! A fiercely, handsome chappy with magnificent horns. Thankfully, we didn’t have to cross  his field and we continued up the track.

 

More picturesque,  derelict properties to the left and right. Such a shame to think of happier days in the farmhouse and mill  when they would have been buzzing with life and activity- now all was quiet except for the robin singing in the trees.

The track led us further up the hill passed other lovely buildings and homes.

Crossing  a field with two horses grazing quietly in a corner  seemed to pose no problems at all until half the group reached the exit gate and the other half…   my half… were  still some way from escaping the field. The horses decided  to have a game of tag and a frolicking match with a bit of high jinks thrown in!!!

All’s well that ends well  and soon we were all one group again and patting the horses on their noses with the gate in between us!

Soon we had returned to a track and continued back into Cwmdu, just in time to catch the post, and  where we enjoyed a coffee in the pub  and put the world to rights with a bit of chat!

 

 

September 19 Cwmdu Charity Bike Show September 19, 2016

Lots of splendid, shiny bikes sitting in the sunshine  in the pretty village of Cwmdu last Saturday as everyone gathered for  the annual Charity Bike Show. The Show  raises  a great deal of money for local charities and this year they were supporting the Stroke Rehabilitation Equipment on the Gwenllian Ward at our local   General Hospital  in Glangwili.It was a lovely afternoon out for all  with   great music to listen to, delicious food to eat  and  all those multi coloured bikes  to admire. Part of the fun is also people watching!

 

                                              There was even a bike for Batman and Robin!

 

Jim had a great afternoon chatting to  a pal from our village and admiring a bike named after him!!

A hugely enjoyable afternoon ending with the sound of the bikes roaring off  for a scoot around the lanes!

 

 

September 11 Walk Llandeilo Garden Home September 11, 2016

Time to set off again on another Walking Well  Walk…the 3 W’s …add a fourth  and fifth this time With Wellies! It was dry when we set off from Llandeilo station across the swing bridge but the clouds did open later to give us all a bit of a soaking. After the downpours we’ve had lately the ground was particularly soggy but the walk as usual was hugely enjoyable.

 

Over the swing bridge, which  crosses the river Towy,   it actually swings quite a lot!

I was delighted he didn’t want to accompany us on our walk! He did make me walk much faster though through the field!

Lots of interesting things to see  on our walk. Hope the Post Office never modernise the old post boxes especially these Victorian ones! We continued  through the fields up a couple of fairly steep hills and joined Tregib Woods where we descended through a wonderful ‘proper’ woodland until we had completed our circular  trek back to the swing bridge.

Of course every good walk should end with a coffee and cake! This was our first visit to The Yard in Llandeilo , where we received a very warm welcome  and enjoyed some very tasty veggie eats and yummy cakes and coffee. We’ll definitely be back!

To keep the weight off after eating all those tasty dishes a spot of gardening was called for  and after watching the farmer remove the hay off  our field I started cutting back the summer growth to make the garden less jungle like!

Our new back door and ‘old’ front door.

The crab apples are looking beautiful and ripening up nicely for the birds to eat!

Under our niger bird feeder there’s the usual soggy mess of wasted seed  but every year some of the seed germinates and  the loveliest of yellow flowers bloom on 7foot high plants!

Rufus was very cautious approaching the hay bales and wondered where they had suddenly appeared from!

All the visitors to Lletty Cottage this summer have been a pleasure to meet   and we  have enjoyed their company but this was a totally unexpected visitor  last weekend when we were preparing the cottage!  It flew in through the door and knocked over all the items on the table as it tried to escape through the window. Jim was very brave and captured  it in his hands before he let it fly away.  Easiest bird photo I’ve taken in ages!!

 

David Cowdry Aberglasney Exhibition and Outings! August 29, 2016

 

Really enjoyed visiting Aberglasney to see David Cowdry’s new exhibition. It was wonderful as usual  and there were  many paintings that I just wanted to tuck under my arm and bring home!

                                                           Jim’s favourite painting.

I didn’t  have a chance to photograph my favourite painting  as David was busy chatting to friends in the doorway  to the room where the beautiful woodland scene and owl was on display. Never mind , I’m going back to see the exhibition again  before the end of the week as it’s too good to miss!

It was time again for another walk with Walk Well Carmarthenshire. The walk was around Carmel Woods where there was a whole meadow, purple with field scabious. It was a delightful walk in the august sunshine  with interesting folk, who explained some of the history of the site, including use of the lime kilns.

Lime kiln

We’ve had the family staying for a holiday and our grandson likes to visit the seaside….so do I!

Llanstephan is the place to go. There’s a beautiful beach, with perfect sand castle building sand, a castle, a tea room and a fish and chip wagon….what’s not to like!

The castle also has amazing views over the estuary and the best roly poly hill in the world…so says the grandson!

Next stop was a day walking around Garn Goch- an iron age hill fort- just 20 minutes drive from home.

There are two forts at Garn Goch and the remains of the walls are still to be seen and they are breathtaking!

Even after all this hill walking , the grandson still had energy to run all the way round our field and back again!

Just a reminder to visit David’s exhibition.

 

 

 

 

 

August 21 Busy Times! August 21, 2016

It’s Summer and that means getting out and about  and enjoying  all the events and visits before autumn creeps in!

A week ago I joined the Walking Well Group for Carmarthenshire http://www.walkingwellcarmarthenshire.org.uk/ to keep fit ( as well as  all my gardening)  whilst Jim’s knee gets stronger! We met at Llandeilo railway station and walked up to Dinefwr Castle , back through the water meadows  and returned to the station via The Vintage Café  for a coffee and cake! It was a thoroughly enjoyable walk with lovely companions so I’m looking forward to the next walk this Friday.

 

Dinefwr Castle Llandeilo

My legs started to ache on the last hill up through Llandeilo!

Later in the week, we spent a very enjoyable time on a visit to a friend’s house, where plants were for sale and  delicious nibbles and drinks on offer. She  will be opening her  plant nursery here next year so it was  lovely to visit her home and cross the  river  into her beautiful garden via a bridge ! There were no trolls under it!

 

Visiting another pal, Jayne Russell,  at her wonderful exhibition in Aberglasney Gardens http://aberglasney.org/exhibitions/  was another  delightful excursion out.

  

With the damp weather the grass keeps growing and the plants need extra tending but another trip out was on our agenda….to Birmingham…don’t ask!

The high point was the amazing new station – it really was magnificent!

 

Unexpectedly, we discovered a Welsh chapel in the centre of Birmingham!

This week it was Show Time! Llansadwrn Show is a jolly affair  when the community gathers together   to share their interests and to enter items for   judging in many different categories.

Photos, paintings and  plants were some of my entries  as  the other categories are too hard for me! There are some very talented cooks,  florists, vegetable growers, stick makers, jam makers , needle women and more in our village so  it is  great to wander around the marquee and enjoy  everyone’ s  entries.

  

As expected in a country show there were a number of horses and sheep around!

As well as visiting places we’ve welcomed some lovely visitors to the cottage. It’s such a pleasure to meet new and ‘old’ visitors. The visitors last week have been coming to the cottage for eight  or is it nine years…who can tell when you are having fun!

         

This week our family are staying  and our first port of call today was the Botanic Gardens of Wales. There was a Woodcraft exhibition on  in the dome and some truly amazing wood carvings  on display. The borders were a delight to see.

    

The Great Glasshouse was as magnificent as ever but the highlight for our grandson was the visit to the Butterfly House. He loved it ….as  did we!

 

Visit to Llanfair Art Exhibition August 11th-14th August 11, 2016

 

Another outing for Gelli Aur Painters today to visit Llanfair Art Exhibition in the delightful village of Llanfair Clydogau. The exhibition is part of the Taith Celf Ceredigion Art Trail 30 July- 29  August . There are 63 artist/ venue/ groups  to visit  which should keep us all busy!

 

Llanfair Clydogau is an historic parish within the former county of Cardiganshire (now Ceredigion), in west Wales. The word Llanfair means parish of Mary and the second word Clydogau refers to the three rivers Clywedog (the Upper, Middle and Lower). Hence, Llanfair, as it is popularly known, is the parish of Mary on the banks of the three Clywedog rivers which flow off the eastern uplands of the Cambrian Mountains and into the larger River Teifi.  copied from the village website: http://llanfairclydogau.com/

The church hall was the perfect setting for the wonderful exhibition  of  art works displayed inside.

There were so many  paintings in different media and  ceramics, felts , etchings and collage by many  artists to enjoy in the  lovely hall.

                                     

We were spoilt for choice with the  wide selection of cards to buy.

We were all fascinated by the amazing felt work pictures and many wanted to have -a -go- watch this space!

After our obligatory  coffee and delicious cake we set off down the road to see the bridge that had been damaged in the winter storms but had now been mended . The closure of the bridge had meant many months of  difficulty for the village  which had been split in two  and had meant a long 8 mile detour  for anyone wanting to get to the other side of the river! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-35770742

Following on from our walk we drove into Lampeter where we all enjoyed  a very tasty lunch at the Town Hall Café Deli. The Welsh Quilt Centre  http://www.welshquilts.com/ was our next stop  where we enjoyed a look at another exhibition  of felting! It’s all the rage!

We ended our day out in the amazing Calico Kate  fabric shop.http://www.calicokate.co.uk/ It truly is an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of fabric. There must be at least a dozen rooms filled with fabric and wool- it just makes one want to make something!

A great day out  again with lovely friends. Special thanks to Lyn, who lent me her camera, as I’d left mine on the kitchen table! She has also emailed me all the photos which would have taken her ages- many thanks Lyn!

Looking forward to our next art visit out in September! Please note that  no mention of sketching or painting is referred to in this blog as we didn’t do any! We just opened our eyes and enjoyed the moment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 25 Open Garden at Gelli Mydog July 25, 2016

It doesn’t seem long ago since I was writing about the first NGS  Open Garden Day  at Gelli Mydog , near Myddfai. This time the sun wasn’t  shining all afternoon but that didn’t stop the beauty of the  garden  sparkling  through  for the many visitors to enjoy all that the garden offers.

 

 

Keith and Moira  from Cilgwyn Lodge were also at the garden selling their wonderful plants.

One of the special features in the garden are the lawns- even on a cloudy , damp day the  grass was perfectly mown with  stripes which sets the borders off perfectly.

As previously the teas on offer were delicious and there were many hands to help out.

Another lovely day out at an interesting, developing and beautiful garden. Looking forward to returning there next year to see  how the garden has blossomed!