dying bees

We neglect our environment at our own peril and all on this Earth

Twmbarlwm meeting

Cymdeithas Twmbarlwm Society held a public meeting last night.
We held it in the largest room in Crosskeys Rugby Club and it was reasonably full.

Present were CTS society members, at least half a dozen Commoners, local police (including the officer who is now the direct link for matters on the Mountain) councillors from the main two councils in the area, the landowners' representative, Ancient Cwmbran Society members, Environment Agency....and most important, more local people.

Add to this a representative from the group that is making a difference to the area from Blaenafon across the Commons of the Heads of the Valleys, stopping offroad damage, dealing with flytipping and raising the awareness of their locals to the value of what is there.

So much talk about the problems we have AND what has begun to be done by all parties.

We need to find out exactly what is there too- Gwent is the only county without a proper archaeological survey. Yet as a border area for millenia it is stuffed full of evidence!! One excuse has been the industrial development of the area. Now that itself is archaeology.
Look at the remains of quarries and mines and farming on the mountain, all fast being lost.
We are at the point too of losing the people who can give eye-witness accounts of all this.

So, much to do and heartening to see action.

pony walk

I spoke to Mountain Man on the phone as usual this morning, thinking that he'd be in his home, having his Farmer's Breakfast ! ie the second one at 10am..the first is just a break fast at daybreak. He was miles away, looking over Cwmbran, having been walking since 6,30 am. By then he hadn't seen even one pony.
I beat the housework into submission, adjusted the position of the burners on the kiln and was about to go to the garden when he phoned...could I meet him at our usual parking place near Twmbarlwm to give him lift down?

It was a good thing that I'd taken a warm gilet..when I phoned to say I'd arrived he said...want to go up Twmbarlwm to check?!!
Welsh Black Cattle also graze the Common Ground
The motocross and 4x4 vandals have been busy


It is a bit steep...

A nice boggy bit, with more wheeled damage to the ecosystem
The foot of Twmbarlwm!! With the fence cut to the side of the stile
There he is!!
On his way up!! We both did the tump for a change!!
Looking down on the Nantcarn and Graig parts of Cwmcarn, the Spitefull in the distance on the left and the roof of the Forest Drive Centre just visible above the trees in the middle
Spotted them!!!!

This one was last year's runt and it had been expected that he wouldn't survive the winter.
He still isn't that big, but he has come on well. (I've tried to find the picture with him in, from last Autumn. Failed! He was a fairly dark grey colour then, and much smaller than all the other foals)

It was lovely to be up on the mountain again together in the sun, despite the chilly wind, listening to the birds and checking the ponies. He saw well over half of them and we have a good idea of where the others are!!