Wool Fest

Well it's been a lazy year where my BLOG has been concerned and for that I apologise. I have promised myself that I will write something every week, like a diary and who knows, in years to come I may be put in print ' The secret writings of a boring 21st century ordinary person'!
Dream on Marilyn!!

Well I'm back again with the few notes I've made throughout the year and what a year it's been, 7 weeks in Orkney, two more trips to Wales and an aborted trip to Spurn point. We were lucky with the Orcadian weather, cold but dry and beatifully sunny, that was while England soaked again and you were all sharing the roads and paths with the ducks.

So I'm going to get back into the swing of things and start this posting with the second trip to Wales in April where we visited the Woolfest at Builth Wells and oh I did enjoy it.

A week after the cold, cold abandoned trip to Anglesey we were again on our way to wonderful Wales. It was still cold but not quite so bitter and we were laden down with maps for The Gower Peninsula, the coast around Cardiff and the coast either side of Swansea. This turned out to be very optimistic, you see we were looking for two new coats, quiet, cotton and green. I'd found a shop in Congresbury 7 miles South of Bristol, where the scruffy little oik, Bill Oddie buys his birding gear. So to save postage (yes we never learn) we decided to visit my brother and sister-in-law near Bristol before getting the coats.

First I'd got my Wool Fest at Builth Wells to visit.


It was great, we both enjoyed it and I've always been facinated by the big weaving looms, the kind where you have to use your feet to lift the warps and you can weave all sorts of intricate patterns, herringbone and tweed and such like. Trouble is they are all so big, like a dining room table. Well, we saw one being used that really was a table top loom. It had four levers on top for lifting the warps in various patterns and you used your hands to operate them instead of your feet! I think it would sit very nicely in our living room but Pat wasn't going to be persuaded, anyway not enough room in the van to get it home. Never mind I've got the web address!


The stalls were so varied, some selling, some demonstrating, some just happy to talk about ideas. A lady from Australia had come up with a nice idea and she'd got lots of knitters to knit a small flower or leaf, a circle, a square, embroidered knitting, different shapes and sizes, in fact anything you can think of and then she had joined them all together to make a coat. It was beautiful, very colourful and individual. I couldn't resist it, I bought the book with instructions and ideas for bags. It'll be one hell of a challenge but I look forward to it.


The temptation I was under was great, there were so many different wools, yarns and fleece, silk, you name it and it was there but I was very very good. You see, I've still got a couple of sheep in the spare room to spin, as well as a wardrobe full of yarn. I must not buy any more wool until I've knitted up my stash.

We met up with Janet from The Threshing Barn and I was chuffed to see my knitted bunting was hung along the back of her stall. 24 knitted triangles all a different pattern, it looked good.


Anyway we had a quick chat, she was doing well and enjoying herself and then she put us to work, tidying up the books which were selling like hotcakes. I must admit I'm a sucker for books and I came away with two new ones.

I stood watching a lady spinning, she was using 'long draw' it looks really easy but it's something I've not yet mastered. You need a good fleece that's been carded lightly and then you hold it loosely in one hand and let the wheel tension draw out the fibres. I don't understand why it doesn't break, one day I'll master it.

Pat is also going to make me some giant knitting needles, just look at the size, a jumper can be made in minutes! This particular lady was using the trim off the edges of commercially made cloth. It's about an inch wide and you can make bags, scarves, rugs and anything your imagination turns up. It made everyone smile and most of us just had to have a go, it was fun but not the sort of knitting to do while watching telly.



I just loved this little pegloom, it's made from wood collected from the hedgerow and I'm sure I'll have one some time in the near future. I've seen the giant looms the Navahoe make from branches and I'm sure one would look good in the garden but this is one that I could actually use and produce something.


After our third footsore circuit we decided to call it a day and went to Tal Y Bont forest. It's a lovely area with some good walks along the forest rides. The birdsong was very distant so again no recording. By the law of averages we've got to get close to some birdsong soon, it's nearly May and the height of the Dawn Chorus, now all we've got to do is get up at 3 am!

We'd parked in a forest ride pull in and watched a gang of people in wellingtons and overalls with hard hats and torches stagger up the field along a gulley. Being the nosey type we later checked out the field. The concrete areas and few sleepers still around suggested a rail line with some buildings. A little further down the gulley it seemed to be a canal but the bank had collapsed blocking the waterway. That evening a local family arrived and explained that it was in fact a railway. The line came up from the valley through a tunnel and the bank had been collapsed on purpose to flood the tunnel making it impassible to the casual walker. At least we now understood the wellingtons. It seems that a 'bloody Englishman' (who says the Welsh haven't got a sense of humour) has bought the land and intends to open the railway as a tourist attraction. Let's hope he succeeds.

Our next call was to friends in Pontypool. Bev and Dan Leigh who design and sell Kites. This time we were after a kite for high winds. We've got kites for light winds but recently the winds have been quite strong, I bet from now on there won't be any wind! We had a lovely morning discussing anything and everything. They were impressed with my knitting and weaving and Dan showed me a book they'd bought in a trading post in Canada. The Navajo weaving patterns were stunning.

We left Dan and Bev to the rest of their evening and took a pleasant drive across to The Royal Forest of Dean. It's a lovely area with plenty of trees and birds so next morning we walked along a forest ride but everything had gone mike shy! We did manage to get the song of a Blackbird, I love the Blackbird it's such a beautiful mellow sound and always makes me feel good. The woodland this time of year is that gorgeous yellow green, the leaves so fresh and edible looking. Actually young Beech leaves and Hawthorn leaves can be used in salad.

There were the usual Spring flowers Violets, Celandines, Daisies, Bluebells in bud with the occasional Wood Anemone, just so colourful and pretty to look at in the wild.

We crossed over the River Severn to see Fred and Janet, we always go West to East 'cos it's free, the English charge a Toll! We spent a lovely morning catching up on family news and swapping holiday stories. They're both retired as well and living life to the full, travelling all over and having some fantastic experiences. Staying at home doesn't seem to be in any of our vocabularies.

We left Fred hanging new doors and went to try on our scruffy little oik coats. They are great, cotton so they feel friendly, the right colour and best of all quiet. The shop had a special offer, spend a certain sum and get a free shoulder pouch worth £20. This was too good an offer to resist so we each bought our own coat and got our pouch. They're a bit like a bum bag really but you hang them on a shoulder.

We were ready for anything now and needed somewhere to test the coats. I'd looked at the map and found a Reservoir that looked promising, Blagdon Lake . After 30 miles we'd driven right around the reservoir and not found a place to get close to the water so we turned our back on it in disgust and headed for Salisbury Plain.

We sat in the van that evening when the heavens opened. The noise on the van was deafening, 12mm hail stones. We even got a recording. The ground was white over for at least 20 minutes and later on during a walk up one of the Downs (sounds a bit double dutch that) there were still pockets of ice in the grass. It was exciting to be sat warm, dry and cosy watching the heavens pelt us with balls of ice, I really can't think what we'd done to deserve it.

On our way home we passed this sign. A World War 1 airfield which became a permanent camp with Radar and Radio training facilities before becoming an important airfield again in World War 2. It was finally closed in the 1960's and has been returned to farmland except for a small area which is used for Microlites. At weekends the club offer pleasure flights and we both feel inclined to return. It would be great to see the Avebury Henge and Stonehenge from the air.



I'm now going to get out my Orkney notes and start reliving a fantastic 7 week adventure especially the day it was warm enough to go swimming in the sea!

Aborted Trip

It was time to get on the move so we packed the van and headed for Millers Dale, Derbyshire. A nice walk along the River and plenty of sounds for Pat to try out his new recorder. He's been looking for a new recording machine for about 6 weeks, that will record Birdsong, coastal sounds, speech, just about anything in the natural world really and finally found the right item in Middlesex. This was one time where we definitely were not going to save post and packing!

After more searching he located one in Nottingham and we called to collect it, we sat in the lobby on red leatherette couches, were given a cup of tea and generally looked after extremely well. The trouble was, it didn't work so next day we were back, another cup of tea and the engineer kept the recorder and our Microphones to check the whole system out. A third trip on Monday, no tea this time but welcomed liked one of the family. Disappointingly he couldn't find anything wrong so we had a refund. It was a pleasure to deal with such a friendly company where the customer is important even though we'd not bought anything.

After a few days searching the net, Pat found the answer to the problem, it was our microphone and without getting too technical it needed more than phantom power, No I don't understand it either.

So a fourth trip to Nottingham, by this time the receptionist was getting suspicious
and shouted through the locked door that she wasn't going to let us in, you see it was in an old area of the city and the door was on an electrical latch, the kind where you have to speak into the intercom. We finally got in and re ordered the recorder. Pat checked it out in the lobby while we waited for the engineer to come and talk to us. That was the mistake because we left without taking the box and leads with us. We were back at Hucknall before we realised and had to do a U turn to get straight back. This was getting embarrassing and we were hoping that our friendly receptionist had gone for lunch. It was not our lucky day, she sat waving her arms at us 'go away' she shouted. With a great deal of hilarity she let us in, only to then remonstrate with us about our mobile phone being turned off! With the box safely tucked under his arm we left her grinning like a Cheshire cat, well we're entitled to be daft, we're retired.

Where was I? oh yes Millers Dale, it was too windy for recording and too dull for photography and we weren't in a walking mood so went straight past and onto Anglesey. I seem to think we've done this before!


We camped close to the Newborough Forest and next morning we donned winter coats, windproof trousers, walking shoes, hats, gloves and scarves ready to tackle the footpath we'd seen a few yards down the track. We thought it might stay amongst the trees rather than lead us out onto the exposed beach. One thing for certain was it was less windy and warmer than the beach! It led us straight to a bird watching hide and we must have walked about 300 yards. It had taken us 15 minutes to ready ourselves for this epic trip and in the end looked like to overdressed pumpkins! I insisted on at least looking through my binoculars while we were there and was curious to see two Shovellers milling around in a circle and at intervals putting their heads under the water both at the same time. We think it must be a courting display of some kind but what are they doing when their heads are under the water?

We left the suicidal Shovellers and drove across the island to Cemlyn Bay. Today we had it to ourselves, it was so cold and windy, about 35 mph but we were determined to walk a little way. The bay is backed by a shingle bank about 35 feet high which protects the small fresh water lake from the sea. There is the ever present sign telling you not to walk on the shingle bank but in this case it's to protect nesting birds and as it's the nesting season we were very good and walked along the beach. It was so cold and windy that it was not really a pleasure even though the rocks that we had to scramble over made it interesting. We made our way back to a building that turned out to be from the 16 century with 18 century extensions but I couldn't find any more interesting facts about it. With it's 20 feet high brick seaward wall it looked like an old fort.

The outhouses which were closer to the beach looked derelict but the first floor rooms, reached by way of an outside staircase, had good solid wooden floors and all the muck had been swept to one end. Not sure whether it was for a legitimate cause or other wise!

We didn't stay too long here because the car park apparently had a nasty habit of flooding at high tide and today there was a good on shore wind!!



The Anglesey coastline must be one of the prettiest in the country, it's rugged, rocky with sandy bays. The cliffs aren't the highest in the land but let's face it on 200feet high cliffs all you can see is the sea, here on the 20 to 50 feet high cliffs you can scramble down to the waters edge every 50 feet or so and quite safely walk along the rocks without any fear of being cut off by the tide.

Where rocks give way to farmland it's a gentle change, the turf is cropped short by grazing animals (one of the fields we crossed suggested cows with a bull, thankfully we didn't see him or hers) leaving plenty of opportunity for spring flowers. We found the Spring Sqill, a short spiked plant with small globular, purple flowers covering it's stem, there were violets, daisies and Celandines which make a beautiful contrast with the grey outcrops of rock The rocks in turn are covered with lichen, beautiful bright yellows and rust red with a touch of grey/green all topped off with Stonecrop. This trip the Stonecrop was still in bud giving the whole thing a maroony haze but a few days of warm weather and it will be a dazzling white. Sadly I don't think we're going to see it this time. The Gorse this year is plentiful and in full bloom. The golden yellow is clean and vibrant and on a good day would give the sun a run for it's money!

That night we found a lovely quiet place to park up, it was a dead end road with a only two cars parked. They were fishermen and we saw them fishing from the rocks, hidden from the wind I might add. It was still bitter and we got really cold on our evening walk to the cliff tops. Needless to say it was a short walk. about 10 o'clock, Pat opened the door for a last look around, the fishermen's cars had been replaced by one with a big sign on top that read 'POLICE'. We decided to go out and show them that we weren't dangerous but they had already checked us out. They'd got our names, address and decided we were harmless and wished us a pleasant evening. We slept soundly, well it's not every night you get tucked in by the local constabulary! When we checked next morning we were about 200 yards from the back of the Nuclear Power Station!

Friday was still as windy and cold so we went into Holyhead to try and hide from it and find some knitting needles. I'd brought a handbag pattern that suggested a circular needle but I'd ended up with about 15 small skeins of wool hanging and forming one unholy mess and the nylon kept twirling itself in knots, so a pair of ordinary needles were needed.

The RSPCA shop assistant was really impressed with our Tilly hats and asked if we were twins (same coloured coats), she had a good laugh with us and apologised for the cold weather, apparently it was the coldest it's been all winter oh and she thought we were the same age, I wanted to cry but Pat was delighted.

We parked at the fish docks where the swell in the harbour was enough to upset my stomach and while we were there a huge catamaran, Stenna Line, reversed in! Now this van is 6' 6'' at the wing mirrors and our drive is 7 feet wide and I still manage to zap the drainpipe. The catamaran is about 65 feet wide with a 75 feet harbour entrance and the Captain reversed it in at 3 times the speed I reverse and I couldn't see any wing mirrors to help and I bet he's not got a reversing mirror, his brakes won't be as instant as mine but he's not got any drainpipes to worry about. I still think I'll stick to the van though!


It was still cold, cold, cold with no end in sight and we'd about had enough so after lunch we stowed everything in it's place and headed home back to the warmth of the midlands. No problem, there's a wool fest I'd like to visit in a weeks time, it's at Builth Wells so as the saying goes 'We'll be back'.