garden party

I managed to move awkwardly and slightly strained some tired muscles in my back, yesterday morning! Still, keeping moving is helping, as did a warm bath and embrocation!

So just light gardening, a few more potatoes lifted and shallotts brought in from the lunchtime rain, before going to the vicar's garden party..luckily the rain stopped!

Very nice garden, music, tea, lots of people talking....

I met a lady who was born in Rhyswg Fawr, of the Lewis family who farmed there before Col.
Col's father used to go and help shear their sheep and they would come down to help him in return.
She left the mountain fifty years ago when she married and has lived in the village since then.

I didn't recognise anyone else there, but I'd probably know some if I saw them on the street! I didn't stay long as I prefer mountains to crowds!

mountain ponies

I had felt that things were not as they were last week.

Only about ten ponies are left on the mountain, and unfortunately they aren't the best of Col's stock either.

I knew that something had to be sorted about them. Unfortunately it has been assumed that I was "not interested" and possibly that as I had no part in owning them, it was none of my business.

How could that be, when they have been such a part of my life for three years? Animals that came to me unbidden, even without food in the offing!

What is wrong, is misleading me, telling me that "the more you walk up there, the more you'll see"... and being told not to worry, that they are being looked after.


What was so difficult about telling me what had been done, when they know full well I am concerned for them?

mountain walk.

Now is the ivy holding the tree up, or the tree the ivy???

After steadily tidying and de-cluttering, by 3pm I'd had ENOUGH!!
So by 3.30 I was on my way, with bag packed with food and drink, map and coat...and an old ice cream box just in case I did a spot of fruit picking!!

Up past Maes Derwen, the usual footpath underneath Rhyswg Fawr farmhouse and along beside Col's fields at Rhyswg Fawr Farm Excuse the power cable in this picture!
Twmbarlwm from halfway up- and plenty of people on the path to the top on a lovely afternoon
Out past Rhyswg Fawr stables and Rhyswg Ganol's top gate to the mountain gate and Comin Mynydd Maen Common.

From above Craig Furnace to Hafod Owen with the pylons in the background
Where sheep have scraped away for a scratching place and a shelter, the soil profile is revealed
Above Hafod Owen. Hafod, the summer farm. Possibly Owen, a name, or Ywen, a Yew- sounds similar.

I couldn't find a trace of the old buildings, despite them being marked on the map. It looked as if something had been here... which is where Col and two fellow workers had parked their landrover, when they were planting trees over forty years ago. It was a hot, sunny, still day, and they left the doors open as they sat and eat their lunch sitting out on the grass....and then the doors both slammed shut!! Col just laughed, but the others insisted on leaving....fast!!
Looking back towards Hafod Owen in the middle
Hello!!!
A tidy dam and foal
The grey yearling on the right.
Those were the only ponies I saw today. It would have been good to see some of the others, but I had to turn to return to the village.

Ah, memories-we nearly got stuck in this one three years ago!!
Estate boundary marker.....this side...
and that side
Looking down from near the source of the Nant Carn to the Western slopes of Mynydd Henllys
The old road down towards Rhyswg Fach and Pen Pant (now ruins, the former an old dairy empty since 1954, the latter since the early 60s, afaik, and both demolished although not in bad condition, as soon as they were empty, by the Forestry Commission)
Pant Gwyn (now ruins) in the middle of the fields on the left, and car park two on the Forest Drive above in the middle, with the top of the Mountain Biking trail above that
Once a beech hedge....
logs from The Lappy
The Lappy.....or Craig Go fapi on the maps!! a new road built up and around then clear felled
An old road up to Rhyswg Ganol

That little walk took until 7.45pm!!

cefn rhyswg walk

A trip to the dentist,this morning, to start sorting the "grimbly" tooth. It had stopped hurting while I was with my Man in the hospital, and the swelling subsided. The dentist drained it today and said that it should have been still hurting...we came to the conclusion that the Mind and Body prioritise matters sometimes.
I decided to try and save the tooth. The dentist could not advise me either way, I had to make the decision myself...and I was relieved to find that I chose the right one!
No spare appointments for the next step until October. That's what you get for going to a good, popular, dentist!
Back to a soup lunch, unsurprisingly, with a slightly numb mouth!!

Getting my head round work is still not easy. The Oily One is not happy and not sleeping well. I decided to go for a walk and managed to bring him too.

We walked up the old road to Cefn Rhyswg, up to below the old barn by Rhyswg Fawr farmhouse, then along just below Rhyswg Fawr farm fields.
It was showery so we decided not to head for the mountain, but to go across over the ridge.
Looking back towards my Man's Stables, where the newly shorn sheep fill the fields.....
and the fleece lies wasted on the ground. It costs £1.20 to shear a sheep and you're lucky if you get much more than that, despite the rise in value. Although it was half that last year.

Along the lane that traverses Cefn Rhyswg to the cattle grid where the lane bears to the left to go past the other side of the Rhyswg Fawr farm fields.
The footgate has been left open again, but the latch doesn't work because the gate post has been knocked and bent in the past years.

Gate closed with the usual piece of wood.
Then down the hill again to Abercarn.


We're both feeling better for the hour and a half walk.

The Carpenter has gone out for a sixty mile bike ride, that will do him good too.
To sleep you need to balance mental and physical exertions!

checking ponies

Yesterday after firing the kiln I walked up Rhyswg Road which goes up the North face of Cefn Rhyswg, to take a little food and fresh drinking water to Mountain Man


We went out in his Landrover to check ponies, he stayed in and drove, I took photos with his camera and my phone.
Bogey Buster coming to greet me


We went to the Northern end, checked over Pen yr Heol from the police mast and above the old coal mine and quarries, went to the South where I walked up Twmbarlwm.
We saw about a third including a group we've been concerned about, not having seen them all Winter. They are all looking very well, having all been bred here or on higher mountains.

Then I walked down the old road that goes down from Rhyswg Fawr to Cwmcarn, on the South face of Cefn Rhyswg.






Through the last gate, onto "Lloydy's Fields" (called that since 1930)


Past the house where Mountain Man grew up.

The Winter has really taken it out of him. He is not well, and now I guess he has been hiding that from me for at least six months. He has strained his back again, too.