Killing Time with Autumn

What a beautiful way to be sidetracked Hywel, your photographs are wonderful, is your village the type that everyone knows everyone one else? Its lovely to have countryside on your doorstep like that isn't it!

All the villages around here used to be like that Dido - including the one where I grew up. (a different one a few miles away) These days people seem to live more for themselves, and have an isolated existance - sad I think, but that's how it is :o(

I remember hills like that from my childhood we used to visit South Wales a lot - my step father was from Wales (New Tredegar) the hills were amazing, the valleys were too, I walked for miles up and down those mountains with my cousins. Your village looks very very pretty loved looking and reading your blog pleased that you made your appointment on time. Thanks for the photographs. I enjoyed the walk.

Yes I agree Hywel I live in a small village, well it used to be, its grown quite a bit since my childhood, but when I first got married, there were quite a few older people that lived in the same street as us and their stories were wonderful to listen to, our doors were always open in the summer time, we would help them in the garden or whatever, and they told the stories, a great trade off !! lol Its a shame its not like that anymore..

Oh! Good morning Oliveoil

Morning Dido, hope you are well in South Yorkshire - not much sun around us is there. Fine today after lots of water yesterday

I'm fine thank you, hope you ok too, yes its a lovely day here crisp and sunny
lets hope it lasts!!

Still lots of water here lol but it wasn't too bad yesterday.

I don't know Tredegar Oliveoil. I think it's in the east somewhere. It sounds a lovely place.

We used to know everyones names when we were children in our village. Now its gone very posh. Relatives tell me there is someone off TV everytime they shop in the village. Usually Coronation Street actors. They live in big houses where the old approved school used to be in large grounds. All those parts where we walked with mum and watched the threshing machine are built over. As Hywel says 'that's how it is'. However we do have friends who live on a modern estate in Melksham who have an open door policy, if warm enough.....seems to be OK.

Hywel, Lovely views of a lovely area.

Ref the changing countryside, Maggie Holland's song "A place called England" (I know it's Wales but the sentiment's the same) says it far more eloquently than I could....

"Couldn't find the old flood meadow
Or the house that I once knew
No trace of the little river
Or the garden where I grew"

When I was young we could walk from Wimborne to Bournemouth beach without much use of roads. Canford Heath, Turbary Common, Bourne Valley, have all but disappeared....houses, houses, houses.

You used your time well, Hywel....the expanse of beautiful scenery was very nice to look upon in your photos. As I keep saying....you live in a beautiful part of our world. :)

Lovely pics Hywel. I live on a newish estate but it has a village feel to it as we are remote from town and on a hill. We all get on very well in our close and have had some great street parties, people from all over the estate come to them. Xmas is a lovely time with such good neighbours :-))

lovely blog & photos....beautiful views

How lucky are you Hywel to live in such a beautiful place.

A lovely place to live Hywel...those views are gorgeous :-))

Lovely blackberries (brambles). We had ground frost here last week so maybe the berries are ready now. My daughters thornless bush was loaded and they rarely saw a plate, so easy to pick and eat. I have just cut back all the flowering fruiting canes and tied in new branches for next year. There were lots of babies so I will pot them up and see if they fruit next year. They have come true by leaf so hopefully they will do well. Thank you for this new view of where you live. We have oil shale bings near our home in Scotland and they have been listed as part of our national heritage. Others are being ground down to provide bottoming for roads etc. It is amazing to think of the work that went on below ground to raise these heaps to the height they are. You have certainly widened our knowledge of your part of Wales again. look after yourself and Blodyn.

Lovely blog Hywel,and great scenery.I f you hadn't gone to the doctors, we may never have seen these pics.Lol.When are you going shopping? you could take some more lovely views.:o))

Nice to see the views of the village where you live, Hywel! Hope the visit to the doctor's wasn't for anything serious.

oh my - I left the UK when I was seven and my parents used to take us for walks every day - and this makes me feel home sick 44 years later LOL - wonderful pictures - thank you =)

Thank you all for reading my blog. I'm happy you liked the views :o)

Oh Hywel! The Brecons! What memories you've brought back to me of climbing Pen-y-fan, Fan-y-big and Crybyn. It was a huge decision to decide precisely where we wanted to spend the rest of our lives - our mountain in Spain won, but the close contender was the Brecon Beacons. What fabulous views of them from your walk. I know you're not a 'foodie' but I picked blackberries here last week and made a lovely crumble-topped pie with them - LOVE blackberries! I bet Blodyn would have enjoyed that walk with you? :o)

Thank you Nariz.
We're a long way from Pen y Fan and those others here, right on the western edge in Carmarthenshire. The mountains are not so high here. Brecon Beacons is rather a decieving name really. We are nowhere near Brecon here. It's about 45 - 50 miles away.

You chosed the best place weatherwise probably - although I enjoy the rain myself lol

I'm not so much a big fan of all the rain Hywel but it does definitely keep everything green! great views and blog!
Did you get to Gower Fuchsias before they closed for the winter? they were selling off some stunners halfprice~now all I have to do is get them through the winter........

No I didn't go this year.
I hope you're able to keep the fuchsias.
When we went in the summer they had very little there. I was rather disappointed.

I love the rain. It's very heavy now and I am enjoying it :o))

~ during late August and September they put all the stock plants on display so that you can go and see what you want to order for the following year~absolutely lovely display~should have taken pics!
~ outside along the main greenhouse area they had plants for sale including 1 litre sizes.
I was talking to the owner and he was saying what a late year they had~said the temperatures were down to -10 earlier this year and that some of the fuchsias were only flowering now, some were still in bud ~and that they supply the Duchy of Cornwall with their fuchsias someone apparently come up and chooses which ones they want~doubtless not HRH!

I've been to their displays before, and made a list of the ones I want. They have some beautiful varieties. But this year I didn't go.
I'm on their mailimg list and get a catalogue every year. I'm going to send for some in January.

Great blog Hywel. I particularly liked the blackberries ;))

With all the rain we have had of late the blackberries down on the allotment have got a lot of Grey Mould (Botrytis). The blackberry season is over for us!

You may like the rain, Hywel, but it caused the Ryder Cup to be suspended today. The golf course looked more like a marsh than a golf course! Yet in an interview I saw on the news at 7am today the owner said they had put in an enormous amount of drainage. Play was continued for an hour or so from 5pm but they will have to continue on Monday - for the 1st time in the history of the Ryder Cup!

Thanks Karen, David.
I thought the blackberries were rather small in comparison to the ones we used to pick, and not many black ones either. I haven't picked any for years now. I do like them though.
Sorry to hear yours have Botrytis David.
My mother wouldn't eat them if they were picked after October 1st. Apparently her grandmother used to say the Goblins had them then lol. Maybe it was because of Botrytis at this time of year when it's damp.
It's been damp since July here this year lol. Well for the past few years really.

I couldn't care less about the rider cup. I preffer to watch the rain :o))

Don't think that because I'm in Spain I get nothing but sun, Hywel - we get rain like I've never seen before in my life! I thought I knew what 'stair-rods' looked like until I moved here. That's what makes this area 'Green Spain.' :o)

I hope the rain doesn't spoil it too much for you Nariz. I do like it though, but we have had rather too much this summer. I preffer it in the winter really, because I find it better than cold frosty weather, which I am unable to cope with.

We like the rain and cooler days for gardening here at GF's as the garden is on slopes and walking up and down in the heat is not so much fun, but the terraces make for a lovely scene from above....lol

Lovely pics Hywel...glad you found such a nice walk to take while you waited...it worked out well for all of us... :o)

I hope you're enjoying your stay in north Wales Cat :o) I seem to think GF lives somewhere near Snowdonia. There's some fantastic scenery there. I've been on holiday there a few times.

We've had a fantastic summer, Hywel, almost begging for rain! But I know when the rain starts during Winter it's going to be horrendous! We never seem to get our weather in little dribs and drabs here - we get full on blistering heat, weeks of heavy rain, gale-force winds or we get snowed in! I sometimes feel I'd like some weather in moderation!

I'm glad I still live in Wales then lol :o)

Lovely blog Hywel, I much enjoyed the ramble. You are so lucky to have scenery like that. It's lucky you liking the rain, but I bet the 'new you' will be able to cope with anything that the weather throws at you:-))

Thanks BA.
Actually there isn't a new me lol. - just the real one who has the sun shining on him at last :o))

Lovely pics Hywel ... lucky you I say to live in Wales. :o)

A lovely place wher you live Hywel. I enjoyed your blog very much. I must make a blog of the countryside where I live as well.

Thanks Fluff. I could never live anywhere else, - although there is beauty everywhere really.

Thanks Rogi. And it would be interesting to see where you live aswell.

magic trip H, my kind of place/walk/day/camera subjects. My folks had a small hotel in Barmouth & memories of eating rainwashed blackberries straight off the wild brambles on the hills with a view of the Cadre Idris will never fade. Keep that camera clicking , you have shared something personal & we love it.

Thank you ..
I've never been to Barmouth. It's a long way from here . It sounds a nice place.

Had a marvellous crop of big fat blackberries off my Oregon Thornless blackberry this year. Waiting in the freezer to be made into jam. The time for cutting back the canes seems to fly around. My way to the doctors is through a small industrial estate. Over a culverted river......I did see a moorhen though. Along a busy main road with buses thundering by. Past a neglected pub with baskets of dead flowers all round it. Next visit Flu vaccination. Thats why pictures like yours are so uplifting Hywel. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for sharing your rural ramble. Your pix beautifully capture the lovely countryside and that end of summer/early autumn atmosphere which is such an appealing aspect of this time of year (at its best). It's easy to see why you love living in Wales and are such an advocate for a beautiful part of the UK.

Good luck with the jam making Dorjac. I haven't had blackberries on my cultivated one this year, but it's the first year for it. Hopefully there will be some next year.
Pitty your route to the doctor isn't through some nicer surroundings, but I think there is beauty everywhere if you look for it.
I can have a flu jab this year - I'm 60 now lol.

Kowhai I love living here. In my opinion it's the best part of Wales to be in lol but I am biased.
England is just as beautiful though, but I wouldn't want to live there, - nor in any other part of Wales if it comes to that - only around here :o)
Autumn is a lovely time - better than summer I think. It's not so disappointing.

Hywel Just returned from cornwall, lovely week, lots of sun, lovely to see your pictures, it looks just beautiful, you are very luckly.

what a lovely view from the top..... glad you had a nice walk....

Thanks Patricia. I'm glad you had a nice week in Cornwall. It's lovely there :o)

Thanks Holly :o))

I spent a lot of my childhood summers in Newport, and day trips to valleys and mining areas were a regular haunt. An elderly aunt and uncle had no idea what to do with a child of 6 - 10, so a trip to the country was a must. I loved it, even the boiled egg sandwiches every trip. Now I live in west wales and live in my own village, thankfully it's got a few of the old families left in it, (who remember the visitors to our house,) but sadly it has a few of those folks that build urban houses, some sell for a vast profit, but others just do things that are so urbanised and all have filled in a lot of spaces between the farms. I don't blame the farmers for selling the land, but the architects leave a lot to be desired. Our house was built in the 50's to replace a ramshackle cottage. Elizabeth Taylor used to visit our house as her son owned it. Don't go thinking it palacial. it's not. But when I created the garden, I never found one of Lizzies diamonds. Sad isn't it!

just like reading a novel, in a flash I could see me picking berries and as I stride, some tiny flowers are clinging to my feet. Nice blog Hywel, it could create wonderful imaginations.

Beautiful pictures Hywel.

Thanks for reading my blog :o)

nice blog Hywel,
I think I should recommend you to the Wales Tourist Board! You are waving the flag for West Wales certainly. I can understand why you would not wish to live anywhere else.

Thanks R . I enjoy showing local photos :o)