talking and walking

Today I went for a natter with the vicar! She is very nice, we get on well-and talk about everything except religion!
This is the derelict church in Abercarn, as you begin to walk up through Llanfach to the mountain
You can see how the last heavy rain washed leafmould and gravel down the road
Looking down to a new estate- a big new village in itself but only houses and flats, on the site of a coal mine. Newbridge (Trecelyn) in the middle distance
still going up!
Good sturdy new posts, old gates...and new binder twine holding it all together!

Around the corner, and we have a working quarry. On the right at the top you see a good field of grass...at its lefthand corner, is Hafod Fach...and the quarry is nibbling its way nearer and nearer...



Needless to say no-one lives there now.
What I call "liquorice cows"....Allsorts!!
The cattle grid and boundary of the Common...Comin Mynydd Maen
I turned right at the end of the trees on the right hand side of the road and followed an old road. Near the far end of that forest block is Ysgubor Wen (White Barn)..or what is left of it



Here is our whinberry picking site, looking down the Gwyddon valley which meets the Ebbw valley at Abercarn. About a fifth in from the right on the skyline are Rhyswg Fawr Farm fields. Just to one side of the middle is Rhyswg Ganol Farm
In the picture above, in the centre of the skyline is Colin's Tree. Then the picture below shows Whinberry bushes...two hours for lunch and picking still only yielded almost a litre boxfull. It was heaven to sit in peace on "our" corner, out of the breeze as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and kept me warm.

The site of one of last year's fires, whinberry bushes only two inches high and bracken taking over- but at least it will consolidate the ground and save it from being washed away.
Ponies!!


You called?!!
Now here is one I don't recognise...looks more like a Shetland pony stallion to me...and no-one else of the Commoners has ponies on the Common...
Looking back over to "our" corner...now you see why I went round instead of straight down and up again!!
Col's Tree again....Twmbarlwm on the left in the distance and Mynydd Machen on the right in the far distance
back on the old road

Colin's Tree..at last, a close up!. His ashes were to be scattered here... I hope they've kept their word to him and brought him back up his mountain where he always wanted to be.
An old road between Rhyswg Ganol and Rhyswg Fawr
Everything is still there...Penhwnllys Max grazing peacefully...everything except Col.
The old road down to Cwmcarn
I walked back down with Col's spirit around me, keeping me safe.