‘They’re still in flower’ he remarked confidently yesterday afternoon as he scanned the dark fists of rock on the northern slopes of Cader Idris. This was the eighth time this year that Rhys Gwynn, the local National Park warden, had…
Spring awakening in Laugharne
Summertime began, officially, on March 30th this year. The run up had been quiet, misty. The gardens at Llanerchaeron still felt sleepy during that last week in March, although the National Trust volunteers were busily preparing for Easter, between their…
Trefor Quarry; the curling connection
And so the curling finals are over at the Sochi Winter Olympics. It was mesmerising while it lasted; the smooth, low glide of the competitors as they released their stones into a slow waltz, the back-of- the-mouth grind of granite…
Cefn Ila – a place of mist and memories
Middle Banky Meadow, the Rookery, Old Camp, Parsons Batch, William White’s Wood, The Warrants, Kiln Meadow, Fir Tree Field….. The Cefn Ila estate, just to the west of Usk, has been chopped about and continually changed hands since the early…
December storms and Rhyl’s battered defences
It’s Christmas Eve morning and the raging gales and lashing rain are finally calming down. But the cushions of ivy on the old sycamore stumps outside the window are gleaming bright lime against a dark bruise of a sky and…
The John Muir Trust steps out and into Wales
This morning, Sunday, December 1st 2013, broke into a dull swathe of rusts and ochres against a grey sky. Calm though. Dead, dead calm. I’d hoped for a bit more of a sparkle in the weather, as I thought I’d…
Late Autumn in Poor Man’s Wood, Llandovery
It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at the entrance to Poor Man’s Wood, on the outskirts of Llandovery. It had been a bleary autumn day that hadn’t quite woken up and it was rapidly retreating into a…