On the loose

Coffee wasn't my highest priority as I awoke from a deep slumber of about three hours duration: IBUPROFEN was the first necessary fix of the day! The legs were fine after the first day's walk but my shoulders and back were loudly protesting after my night spent on the rocks. There were also quite a few insects buzzing nearby and at least one of them was a mosquito! In addition, a heavy dew had drenched everything! 'Camp Chaos' was living up to its reputation: but it didn't take long to brew some coffee, make some instant porridge and hang everything on a nearby fence to drip dry. I was away by 6 am, continuing along the narrow path through woodland that was slowly climbing out of the valley around Rushock Hill. I rested for a while on a log bench that told me to "Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better." There was a lovely view down in to the next valley and I had a pretty good look but I still didn't really understand why I was...

  Day 1-2 Friday evening found me driving towards Brecon in my faithful van, "Trusty Rusty", having spent the day in London at the Stonehenge Exhibition. Fran was off to Somerset for a few days of grandkid sitting and I was escaping to the hills! The plan is to walk the southern portion of Offa's Dyke but first I had to find a suitable location to spend the evening which would be my first in my recently modified vehicle. I had even purchased a new airbed for the sleeping platform and the previous evening I had pumped it firmly up, using its internal pump. I was tired after a day in the big smoke and I was looking forward to a great night's sleep before commencing my five day walk in Knighton next morning. I pulled into a concealed rest area and climbed into the back of the van. The air bed was as flat as a pancake! Luckily I had a foot pump but the connecting tube was too short. I had to half balance the airbed out of the van to re-inflate it and the c...

  SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU HAVE READ MY NOVEL "THE BELL THAT NEVER RANG" AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT MARIE, DO NOT READ THIS BLOG! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY ORDER A COPY FROM AMAZON NOW, BEFORE READING THE BELOW! https://www.amazon.com/Bell-That-Never-Rang/dp/0473615150/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SV1R4H9MB4SN&keywords=The+Bell+That+Never+Rang&qid=1657187184&sprefix=the+bell+that+never+rang%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1 IF YOU DECIDE TO READ ON YOU MAY WELL END UP KNOWING TOO MUCH! But in defence of this post, many people have asked about the character Marie!  Is she real? Did Jim really fall in love with her? Did theYoungs ever farm at Barry's Bay?   I can now real that Marie is a totally fictitious character. I knew I wanted a love interest to hold the second part of the book together but I had no idea who she was or where she came from. Just after the first lockdown lifted in New Zealand (June 2020) I escaped to Christchurch and was ...

Bristol Airport was crowded, mainly because no-one had managed to take off for about sixteen hours. We were patiently waiting to check in our baggage when a smiling lady told us that they had to pause for a while: they had to move all the bags that were already checked in. And they did! The ladies with clipboards discarded them and began shifting luggage. I think I could see the pilot in the distance, loading bags onto the trolley! Later the ladies returns and picked up their clipboards and check in recommenced. Within three hours we were sitting hopefully in the departure lounge, waiting for a Gate number to replace the "Delayed" entry on the departures board. I heard a rumble of jet engines in the distance, a ripple of elation buzzed through the crowd: a plane had taken off! After six hours, which included a 40 minute wait at the bar for essential supplies, we are told to report to gate 8:  "You're flight has been cancelled." smiled the charming lady. "Go...

  Spring is in full flow at Roose Ferry, with surging sap levels and surging prices! The lane leading to the house is a mass of greenery, with the Beech trees in particular being a beautiful vivid green that sadly, soon fades to a darker glossy shade. The bluebells are in full flower and there is wild garlic for soups and salads but it remains cold; there is a nasty little easterly that never really leaves us. A decent day's rain last week has delayed what was almost a Spring drought, something virtually unknown in this corner of Wales. There is now some steady growth in the vegetable garden. The courgettes are shivering under a cloche, my carrots are up but only the broad beans are really thriving - and some of them have been growing through the winter. But is not only the sap that is rising: inflation is now a certainty! And for once the U.K. is taking a leadership role in a world phenomenon. The current estimates are around 8% with the Bank of England (which really could be rena...

                                First dawn at Roose Ferry - I guess there are worse places to be? New Zealand's summer is over and once again, swallow-like, I found myself migrating between two hemispheres, leaving behind the blue skies and green hills of Banks Peninsula, to arrive back in Wales, where somewhat surprisingly, I was greeted by blue skies and that intense burst of  April  greenery. The New Zealand Summer has been a little unsettled, a strong "La Nina" event was playing out in the Pacific but that did mean that the water temperature was higher than normal and the weekly showers kept the grass green. My lawn, thanks to the kind attentions of Mr Mark Walls and his little bag of nitrogen, could have produced four cuts of high quality silage. This kept me busy with the a weekly mowing and him very amused! Christchurch airport was quite busy as I departed; New Zeala...

RS Thomas (Photo credit Wikipaedia) If you have already read my debut novel, "The Bell That Never Rang" you will have encountered fragments of RS Thomas's poetry, as I used them as quotes at the beginning to each major chapter. He was one of Wales's foremost poets (he died in 2000 at the ripe old age of 87) but it is quite likely that many of you reading this blog have never heard of him!  Of course you have all heard of "The Other Thomas!"  Ronald Stuart Thomas was once "world famous in Wales" but sadly in recent years his profile has faded.  Until now that is! Just before I left Wales I had the great pleasure of being invited as a guest on Pippa Davies's Poetry Pause Podcast. (There's a link at the bottom of this blog, or search for it on your usual podcast supplier):  It proved to be a very enjoyable conversation as we explored the great man's work and I managed to shamelessly plug my book as well! (I'm getting quite god at that...