Taith Ffordd Cymru

In our never ending quest to find new and interesting places to go in the UK we decided to spend our first sunny weekend to take a road trip into Wales. Be warned that as we crossed into Wales, ‘w’s become vowels and double consonants are never pronounced like a single one. The Welsh border is only about 20 to 25 miles from the house and it’s only an hour long drive from the border to the central part of this commonwealth nation. The stopping point for our journey was Dinefwr Castle which was built sometime between 1155 and 1197.

Situated a few miles due west of the Brecon Beacons, Dinefwr castle stands upon a ridge overlooking rolling countryside in every direction and the Towy valley to the southwest. The most impressive views are those of the River Tywi as it meanders through the valley making as its way towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Amanda and I left Bristol around a little before noon and made it to the grounds at about 1:30 pm. After receiving a pamphlet from the park attendant we made our way up to Newton house were we enjoyed one of the best National Trust lunches we’ve ever had. I got a local bread and cheese board with a side of minestrone type soup containing large chunks of ham. For dessert we split a slice of cheesecake and each had a cup of tea. It was all really good.

After lunch we made our way through Newton house which was constructed around 1600 as the primary residence on the property with the castle keep becoming a summer house. As a separate home Newton house isn’t as impressive as Croft Castle or the Dyrham Park estate but it was still well worth the 45 minutes it takes to venture through the building.

The walk to the castle is one of the more strenuous treks up the side of a hill I’ve ever had to make. The path begins by meandering through the meadows and across a small tributary with views of the castle above us in the distance. Eventually the path comes to the base of the hill upon which the castle is constructed. Like every other hill in the UK Amanda and I have come across it appeared as if we would need mountain climbing gear to reach the top. After about fifteen minutes we finally managed to climb the steepest section of the hill and had just a short walk to the summit.

All that remains of Dinefwr castle are the outer battlements and the exterior of the keep. The top of the battlements are accessible by several stairways and provide spectacular views of the surrounding country side. As we walked around the castle I marveled at the design and construction of the defenses while Amanda took some great pictures of the scenery.

Given its location perched atop a nearly inaccessible ridge several hundred feet high on three sides with thick copses of trees and a man-made (ditch fifteen feet deep and twenty feet wide) on the fourth side, I couldn’t imagine anyone being crazy enough to attempt an assault on the castle. However, Owain Glyndwr apparently tried to be that man in 1403 when he unsuccessfully laid siege to the castle. More than 100 years after the siege the castle went through an extensive rebuild thanks to Sir Rhys ap Thomas and stood until the 18th Century when it was destroyed by fire. Not much else is none about Dinefwr castle but that hardly seems to matter when standing atop the walk walls gazing over the fields and pastures far below watching the sun set between the distant hills to the west.

For our return trip we decided to take the northern route around the Brecon Beacons so we could drop down through the center of this protected landscape as the sun made its way for the horizon. It was approaching dusk as we entered the Beacons, as they are known around here, made our way south again. The Beacons are essentially exceedingly high hills (Many are actually classified mountains) that remind me a lot of the Smokey Mountains in the southeast U.S. Covered in trees and shrubs they don’t really have the harsh, rocky appearance of say the Rocky Mountains or the Alps but are still enjoyable to drive through and when the weather gets warmer will be a good spot to hike as well. Plus the entrance to the Beacons is only 45 minutes from the house. So if you are planning on coming to visit us and you want to go hiking through the English countryside I’ve got a spot already picked out.

It's that time of the year...

Amanda goes into lock down in the office.

The dogs and I are on our own for meals and entertainment.

No exciting excursions or adventures to tell you about.

Still glad I married an accountant so I don't have to do our taxes...

(apparently, selling a house and two cars, quitting a job, rolling over a 401(k), moving internationally, getting paid in a different currency, and going back to school at a non-recognized US institution makes things complicated for her)

He huffed and he puffed

but he didn't blow the house down!

In a search for ways we could get out of the house, but not have to be outside (see the previous posts regarding the weather around here lately!), we found a coupon for a glass blowing class. I have always been fascinated by glass blowing & we have often watched the process on various vacations throughout the years. So, when I saw that we could actually get to do it ourselves and make a memento from the experience, I got very excited.


Bristol, according to the woman who was giving part of the demonstration, is known for their glass blowing and especially blue glass. Though nobody I’ve asked at work this week seemed to be aware of how famous their city is for this art. Thanks to the help of Google, I can tell you that in the early 18th century there were many potters around the Bristol area supplying pots and utensils to ships and traders in the then busy Bristol docks. One such Bristol merchant and potter making porcelain at that time was Richard Champion who was working with the chemist William Cookworthy making white porcelain with beautiful blue designs. In their search to find good quality Cobalt Oxide for this blue decoration they obtained exclusive rights to import Cobalt Oxide to Bristol. At some point, they decided to add it to the glass making process they did as a side job and, whala, Blue Glass was born.


At Bristol Blue Glass, they have three ovens, or crucibles, of molten glass (one blue, one clear, and one cranberry pink). They have to cover the small hole that you pull the starter bit, or gather, out of or else the oven temperature will drop from 2000*F to 1800* in near minutes. Needless to say at those temperatures, they didn’t let us actually do the gathering ourselves.


After withdrawing the gather the glass has to be constantly spun to keep from falling off the blowing iron. It also takes a much harder breath through the iron to inflate the glass than I thought it would. We decided to make simple Christmas ornaments out of the blue glass. Throughout our time, the glassmaker had to tell me several times to blow harder.




Once the artist was happy with the shape and size of the ornament (or bobble as he kept referring to it as), he took us over to what looked like a litter box filled with cork chips. He then scored around the top of the globe (where it was attached to the blowing iron) with an industrial diamond and told us to hit the iron with a piece of wood. This cracked off the ornament from the iron.


He then got a little more molten glass out of the crucible and with essentially a pair of needle-nose pliers created a loop on top to run a string or hook through so it could be hung from the tree.


At this point, it looks like it is finished and ready to take home, however it is apparently still about 900*. Luckily, he explained this before I tried to pick it up. It is then placed into a kiln to cool. It runs at 750* during the day, then is turned off when in the evening so that it slowly cools overnight. We picked up our final products this afternoon.



Strangely Adam’s is noticeably heavier than mine. I guess that will help us tell them apart!

I spoke too soon...

It got colder.


After four (long) days where the the temperature never got above freezing, we have finally gotten some moisture in the air to create snow.

Our first English snowfall!
(you'll have to forgive the quality & strange angles of the photos, I took them all out of the windows at the house as I wasn't brave enough to venture outside)

Daisy's outside time was so short this afternoon that I couldn't get a picture of her in the snow. Apparently the pupster gets cold too.

Burr!

It's bad enough that the car tells me that it's -2 outside, but does it have to add a snowflake to the display just to rub it in?