St Briavel's & Wales

Sign
Originally uploaded by Hells Bells.

I drove down (across?) to Wales with Mum and Dad on Friday. The hottest day London has seen this century (or something like that – bloody hot anyway…and no aircon in the car). Needless to say tempers were slightly frayed after the 5 hour car trip (only took 3 to get back –bank holiday traffic for ya). But once we arrived at the Corner Cottage in a lovely corner of the Wye Valley we were soothed by the green country visas. We went for a walk starting in the field behind the cottage in the lovely evening light. Yay for long summer evenings!

We walked through a field of cows who barely registered our presence, an empty field except for the bobbing tails of dozens of rabbits that quickly disappeared down their burrows as we approached and a field of very friendly horses gently nudging us for snacks.

There was a big hoo-ha about “rambling” last year prompted by Madonna complaining about plebs traipsing across her paddocks. I think people are basically allowed to ramble in the countryside where ever they want to and the laws have recently been widened. In any case we didn’t see another person on our little stroll through fields and over stiles.

On Saturday we drove to the village of Hay-on-Wye. It is a small untouched village of streets winding around the castle and filled with bookstores – 39 of them. It was packed with people as the Hay book festival is on at the moment. Mum found a really old book on Leather making in the Bermondsey area of London. An odd purchase perhaps, but is related to her family history research – one of the family convicts was a leather maker from the area (before he found himself transported to the colonies for the term of his natural life!). Mum just asked at one of the stores on a whim if they had anything and the shop assistant had a bit of a think then went off and found a book about 40 years old on the exact topic!!

I’ll tell you about my exciting find tomorrow.