The Real Wales

Last week I visited the lovely Pembrokeshire town of Narberth, not only to browse around the delightful shops and to lunch with friends, but to see the progress being made on the restoration of Narberth Museum.

Renovation underway

For the last 8 years, the Curator of the Museum and volunteers have worked tirelessly to find a suitable property to house the collection and have secured funding to ensure this project could proceed.

Now building work is forging ahead at the derelict Bonded Stores, Church Street, which will become the permanent home for the 15,000 item collection.

Solar Panels will be installed

The building is a 100-year-old industrial warehouse where whisky was blended and bottled by the proprietor, James Williams.

At the moment the collection is housed in nearby Scolton Manor but items like the staircase, bottling equipment and old signs, are kindly being housed by the Church, in their stores.

Whisky Galore...

The museum will exhibit collections on loan from other museums, offer facilities for research and education along with a gift and coffee shop.

The overriding enthusiasm and passion is evident from all those involved, without which the whole process of re-housing this important link to Narberth’s past would not have been possible.

Without which...

Volunteers play a huge role by offering their experience, skills and commitment to restore tools, furniture and artefacts along with scanning thousands of photos and undertaking numerous other time-consuming activities, working tirelessly to ensure the museum opens this summer.

I will keep our blog updated with progress of work and look forward in anticipation to completion of this mammoth undertaking!

We’d love to hear what you did on St David’s Day on 1 March!

A haunting melody

We spent the day at The National Botanic Garden and celebrated  by listening to the most beautiful harp playing by Shelley Fairplay before walking up to the Great Glasshouse,

The great glasshouse

Hellebores in abundance and banks of crocuses and narcissus…

Spring on the outside and a glorious Mediterranean landscape within!  Wow, what a fantastic collection of plants!

Amongst this luscious foliage and floral display,  duo ‘Fiddlebox’ played a repertoire of Welsh folk music.  This was followed by a traditional bowl of warming Cawl in the restaurant.

Fiddlebox

Cawl is a broth of diced lamb, swede, parsnips, potatoes, carrots and leeks – the recipe can be adapted to suit – just add anything you have or anything you prefer! Slowly cooked the day before eating and heated up the next day allows all the flavours to mingle and the broth to become more flavourful.

It is always a treat to visit the gardens and their events schedule is full of interesting activities.

Looking for a way to celebrate St David’s Day tomorrow in West Wales? Here are just three of the many events planned to mark St David’s Day on 1 March 2012.

The St David’s Day celebrations will start in St Davids itself, the smallest city in Britain, at St David’s Stone, Oriel y Parc. This stone has been inscribed by a verse by former Archdruid James Nicholas. The verse is a ‘Pilgrim’s Prayer’ translated into English by the poet as:

St Davids Cathedral & Bishop's Palace

‘O God, You gave to St Davids a light which to us is a mystery;
in Your turn, O grant her a dream for Tomorrow.’

Hopefully the sun will be shining on the morning, when a shaft of sunlight will pierce the hole in the centre of the stone.

From here the St David’s Day procession will make its way to Cross Square where the pealing of bells will ring out prior to the Blessing by the Bishop,  then on to the Cathedral for the 12.30 pm Choral Eucharist.

Between 2 pm and 5 pm there will be open-air celebrations at Oriel y Parc and also a traditional Welsh Fair, with stalls of local crafts and goods, in the City Hall – something for everyone!  This special day of celebration finishes with Choral Evensong in the Cathedral at 6pm.

Away from Pembrokeshire to Carmarthenshire where there is free admission on St David’s Day to the National Botanic Garden of Wales.  Here you will find a special musical theme running throughout the day in the Great Glasshouse.  Visitors are invited to bring their musical instruments along, no matter how well or badly they play!

Note the 'pineapple' on top of the roof!

This is the launch of a special Welsh music-making project to encourage people to learn Welsh folk songs and dancing.  There is a free ‘taster’ session open to all, when players will learn a few tunes by ear.  Singers, players and just ‘listeners’ are all welcome!

Even if you don’t wish to take part, there will be rousing singing from Cardigan Male Voice Choir, beautiful harp playing and lively duo ‘Fiddlebox’ on accordion and fiddle!

There will also be the opportunity to watch wood-turning and love-spoon carving as craftsmen create original and beautiful gifts for St David’s Day.

If you would rather spend the day more quietly,  pop along to Aberglasney for their Daffodil Festival which begins on St David’s Day and runs until the end of March.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to see for the first year the flowering of the Narcissus Walk.  Last autumn the gardeners planted over 20,000 bulbs to create this wonderful display. 

Walk amongst the drifts of delicate flowers and enjoy the sweet scent of this beautiful national flower.  There are also carpets of Crocus, Scilla and Fritillaries – an opportunity to welcome in spring… and St David’s Day.

So, there are just three ideas of things to do tomorrow. How will you celebrate St David’s Day this year?

St David’s Day (1st March) is nearly upon us and it’s time to make some celebratory Welsh Cakes (pice bach, cacen gri, pice ar y maen).  Traditionally Welsh Cakes were cooked on a bakestone or cast iron griddle (a planc or maen in Welsh)  and they are sometimes referred to as ‘bakestones’.  The bakestone or planc was heated on the open fire and used as a cooking surface.

Freshly made Welsh Cakes

Recipes vary from region to region and within families a favourite recipe is often handed down from generation to generation – ask a local person what makes the best Welsh Cake and the debate could last for hours!

There are lots of  alternative Welsh Cake flavours available now and in some areas they are popular split and filled with jam.

Usually the cakes are made with flour, butter, sugar and raisins or sultanas/currants, sometimes a little cinnamon, spice or nutmeg is added.   Some recipes use lard instead of butter.  Welsh cakes are normally served plain, sometimes they are buttered or dusted with sugar but they are nearly always served with a good cup of tea.

The recipe below is adapted from several different versions and is my personal favourite:

8oz(225g) self raising flour

Welsh Cakes and Tea

4oz(110g) Welsh butter

3oz(75g) sultanas or raisins

3oz(75g) caster sugar

1/4 tsp mixed spice and 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

one egg – beaten

Rub the butter into the flour and spices, add the fruit and then stir in the beaten egg to form a dough.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1cm thick and cut into rounds about 6cm across.

Lightly grease a heavy based frying pan or a griddle (if you have one) with lard and cook the Welsh Cakes for about 3 minutes on each side till golden brown and cooked through.  Put the kettle on, put your feet up and enjoy your Welsh Cakes.

Traditionally a Welsh bride carries a bouquet containing myrtle leaves, signifying love in life.  She gives her bridesmaids a cutting to plant and if it blossoms, the girl will soon marry.

Welsh brides believed that it was lucky to be woken by birdsong on the morning of their wedding.

The wedding party walks to the church together in a procession with a flower girl sprinkling petals along the road symbolising a happy route in life for the newly weds.

A couple would place a shovel on top of the fire and put on it two grains of wheat. As the shovel grew hotter the grains would pop off the shovel: if they jumped off together the couple could expect to jump into matrimony; if they jumped separately the couple would lead separate lives.

Traditionally, the bride’s family kidnapped the bride on her wedding day, just before the ceremony took place. The groom and his family would rescue the bride and whoever freed her would themselves be married within the year.

Gypsy Cwtch

Many of the Welsh wedding customs have disappeared but some have evolved and are still in use today.  We can ensure their survival by remembering them, if not practising them, on 29 February.

The charming Gypsy Cwtch offers a perfect romantic break where you can enjoy the peace and listen to the birdsong…

Farm ruins at Bryn Ambor, near Nant Gwernog, Ceredigion ©

Tŷ Unnos (plural Tai Unnos) means ‘one night house’ in Welsh and is an old Welsh tradition dating back to the period between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries.

It was believed that if a person could build a house on common land in one night, the land then belonged to them.  The test was to have a fire burning in the hearth by the following morning, then the land around the house could be extended by the distance they could throw an axe from the four corners of the house.

Most Tai Unnos were originally made of turf and soil, with a roughly thatched roof.  Once built, the walls could be replaced with clay and stone.  The settlers usually worked in local quarries and mines and built smallholdings which they farmed.

Ruins at Bryn Ambor, Cwm Pysgotwr Fawr, Ceredigion ©

The original Tai Unnos have now disappeared, but it explains why there are so many isolated cottages dotted across areas of North and West Wales, many being rebuilds of former Tai Unnos.

One of West Wales Holiday Cottages, Maes y Bryn, was built on the site of a Tŷ Unnos on common land claimed from land forming the Preseli hills, although the grounds stretch further than the distance thrown by an axe!

Maes y Bryn

Even today, the owners pay the princely sum of 20p per year to the ancient Baronry for the cottage grounds and rights still exist for commoners to graze pigs and collect acorns on the land!

© Copyright Roger Kidd and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Balwen Ram Lamb

Balwen Lambs

Driving along a lane near our smallholding in West Wales, we stopped on occasions to admire a small group of black and brown sheep grazing in the valley.  The sheep were very striking, with white socks, white faces and very distinctive white tails.  Asking around (a risky thing to do if you are a smallholder) we found out they were Balwen sheep; one thing led to another and before you could say Bo Peep, we owned two Balwen ewes and their two ewe lambs.

Balwen Welsh Mountain Sheep (Balwen means white blaze in Welsh) come from one small area of Wales, the Tywi Valley.  During a severe winter in 1947 when the area was snowbound for months, the breed almost died out and it is still listed as ‘at risk’ with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Fortunately numbers have steadily increased since the 1950’s and the breed now has the support of the Balwen Welsh Mountain Sheep Society.

The arrival of our Balwen sheep provided great amusement to our sheep farming neighbours; ‘they are mountain sheep, they’ll be forever escaping’, ‘you’ll never keep them in!’ they said.  In fact they are easy to manage, hardy and healthy.  The ewes have proved to be excellent mothers, usually having one lamb in the first season and twins in following years.  Our lambs are usually born in April and it is always a pleasure to see the little jet black characters with spotless white socks and tails bouncing around the fields.  Adult rams carry a fine set of curled black horns, well worth avoiding!

Balwen Ewe

If you are travelling around West Wales have a look out for these delightful and distinctive sheep, you never know, if you get talking to a smallholder…….

Newport, South Wales - No more time...

A sentiment we hold dearly here in West Wales as the Welsh poet, William Henry Davies, expresses in the above couplet from the poem ‘Leisure’.   We found the time on this day to stand and stare and appreciate what is on our doorstep…

On our way to Melin Tregwynt we came across the delightful church of St Catherine’s, in Granston, where clumps of snowdrops decorated the ancient gravestones and the rooks ‘cawed’ high in the trees.

Ancient gravestones

Named after St Catherine of Alexandria, who was condemned to death for not renouncing her faith, she was put on a spiked wheel, which thereafter became known as the Catherine wheel. When the wheel broke, she was beheaded. She is the patron saint of philosophers and preachers and her voice was one of those allegedly heard by St Joan of Arc.

The church dates to 1877 but the site dates back to the early 12^th century. St Catherine’s is one of the churches that appear on the modern Pembrokeshire pilgrimages trails, and a leaflet with a map of this trail may be found in the church.

Simplicity

The embroideries on the altar and pulpit are based on the woollen cloth woven at Melin Tregwynt, which was our next stop.

Melin Tregwynt dates from the 18^th century, although originally a corn mill in the 17^th. Local farmers would bring their fleeces to be spun into yarn and woven into blankets. This is one of the very few woollen mills still in operation in Wales, weaving beautiful fabrics that are popular all over the world.  We started our tour of the mill with an essential cappuccino in the lovely coffee shop!  Then, suitably refreshed, we wandered into the weaving shed to watch one of the looms being threaded prior to weaving, which was fascinating. Then into the shop to see the end product… 

Oh sumptuous, delicious fabrics, beautiful jackets, cushions, throws, scarves, bags and more… it was like being in a sweet shop with all the rich colours, simply spoilt for choice!

That built up an appetite so we drove on to St Davids for lunch and a little light shopping!  What a fantastic day we had – one of the joys of living in West Wales at this time of year where there are so many wonderful places to visit out of season, when there is time to chat and enjoy the moment… and simply ‘stand and stare’…

See holiday cottages near St Davids

To say ‘I love you’ in Welsh on St Valentine’s Day is ‘dwi’n dy garu di’ and if that seems a bit tricky, why not give a unique and romantic Welsh Love Spoon instead?  The hand-carved Celtic Love Spoon has a heart to symbolise love and Celtic knot work representing two lives intertwined.

This 17^th century tradition is believed to have originated in Wales and may have evolved from decorating wooden utensils with various symbols.  It is thought that sailors used to make love spoons as a way of filling their time aboard ship, whittling away to make a spoon for their sweetheart.  Many of the young carvers were shy and unwilling to show their emotions and this was how they could convey their true feelings.  It is also thought that Welsh girls would collect love spoons, and as such, leave a trail of broken hearts behind them before settling down.

A twist in a love spoon means binding and growing together
a heart symbolises the giving of one’s true love
a chain is a wish to be together forever
a lock symbolises security
Celtic knot work represents eternal love
a dragon offers protection.

For an extra romantic touch, give your loved one an engraved love spoon from the beautiful selection at Cadwyn Gifts whilst staying in one of our romantic cottages for two here in beautiful West Wales.

The Great Glass House has landed!

What a wonderful day out we had on a crisp and sunny morning in January when we went to the Food Fair at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales.  There is always something exciting to see and do here, whatever the time of year, in beautiful West Wales!

Amazing colour of the Cornus with snowdrops

Walking up to the great glass house there were carpets of snowdrops and aconites under the trees and even some daffodils in flower.  The dazzling colour of the Cornus against the brilliant blue sky was stunning.

The Orchid House - warm and peaty

What a treat to step into the Orchid House to soak up some warmth in the steamy atmosphere, where luscious palms and ferns overhung the path and the smell of damp, warm peat hung on the air…

Then off to the great glass house to sample some delicious treats from the food fair:

Real Bread

mouth-watering home made breads from Caroline’s Real Bread Company, Brecon (will deliver anywhere!), jams, marmalades and chutneys from Sarah Cooks, beautiful meats from Carn Edward in the Gwaun Valley and lots more – not forgetting the ready-to-cook squirrel!

We sat on a bench in the sun eating a delicious picnic we had bought, feeding crumbs to a robin who also enjoyed pumpkin seeds from our pumpkin and stilton scones!

We’re now looking forward to days out this month and with St Valentine’s Day just around the corner maybe it’s a good idea to spend a few days away? It’s a great time for some bracing walks along the cliffs or beaches, over the moorland and rolling hills.  If you’re lucky enough to be able to get away now, there are some real holiday cottage bargains to be found.  Many owners are happy to offer special discounts for short breaks too.  Browse our cottage collection to find the right one for you.