Laugharne Literary and Music Festival 15th - 17th April 2011 Weekend, Carmarthenshire, West Wales.

 The Boat House, Laugharne Dylan and Caitlin Thomas House

This timeless, mild, beguiling island of a town with its seven public houses, one chapel in action, one church, one factory, two billiard tables, one St. Bernard (without brandy), one policeman, three rivers, a visiting sea, one Rolls-Royce selling fish and chips, one cannon (cast-iron), one chancellor (flesh and blood), one portreeve, one Danny Raye, and a multitude of mixed birds, here we just are, and there is nowhere like it anywhere at all.'   Dylan Thomas.


Hi Everyone,

 Laugharne is a beautiful town situated on the Taf river with a Castle that dates back to 12th Century but the main street has a number of elegant Georgian houses.On a really foul, miserable day last week I went to Laugharne in order to see where this year's literary and music festival  is going to be held.  Brown's Hotel was looking very sorry for itself which is a great shame as it was a favourite haunt of Dylan and Caitlin Thomas.

I then decided to go for a ramble towards Dylan Thomas's Boat House and his studio/garage.  Having not been there for a while I had forgotten that the house had not got a similar front window view  to his  writing garage. I thought i would take a photograph from the shoreline looking up to this non existent front window at the Boat House.  In pursuit of this picture I then waded through estuary mud in swede baseball boots only to discover it was not how i had imagined and had to abandon the idea squelching back to the footpath!!!  All is okay with the boots they had a quick wash at home!

It is not Caitlin's ghost in the reflection but yours truly sorry to disappoint you all!   I thought it was a very atmospheric writing shed, a little gem of a place.    Onto the main topic I slightly digressed from, the Laugharne Literary Festival a small little intimate festival gaining a great following from those in the know!!!  Here are just a few highlights for this year's festival John Cooper Clark, Owen Sheers and Carol Ann Duffy will be performing poetry.   The actor Micheal Sheen,  Dom Jolly,  the painter Molly Parkin and Howard Marks will be holding talks.  Mark Billington who writes crime fiction and the young author Rachel Trezise will be discussing books.  I have actually heard Rachel Trezise discuss her acclaimed short story book "Fresh Apples" about life in the valleys which she won the prestigious Dylan Thomas Award for in 2005 when i went to the Winter Festival at Hay on Wye in 2006.  It was great to hear her read from her short stories which were a combination of bitter sweet and funny.
There will the Laugharne players performing "Under Milk Wood", by Dylan Thomas in the Tin Shed.

There is a great music line up which to highlight a few includes Cate Le Bon, Sweet Baboo, and  the acclaimed Fernhill who  have played at Womad and internationally, with their blend of folk and welsh traditional music.  It will be a memorable weekend to be a part of so book your tickets and hope for fine weather to put the final icing on the cake!!! http://thelaugharneweekend.com/

The 12th Century Castle at Laugharne.

West Wales National Association of Decorative Fine Art Society(WWNADFAS)Pembrokeshire.

Hi everyone,
On Tuesday it was the monthly  West Wales NADFAS lecture in Narbeth " The Duke of Wellington and the Treasures of Apsley House".  The Queen's Hall was packed out with eager people.  For those that read my blog last month you will know I had to miss most of the lecture on Irish country Houses to come to the aid of a gentleman who became extremely ill.   Good news he was at this months lecture very much alive, and true to form asked the first question as usual!!  Still it was not without what could have proved a major technical computer glitch.  The computer and power point did not want to talk to the slide projector.  We were on the verge of having a lecture without being able to see paintings and his treasures but at the eleventh hour a lady came forward with her laptop and all was rectified!!
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/apsley-house/
It seemed to me that as grateful thanks from his time in India, Spain and Portugal he received endless exquisite dinner services.  The Portuguese gave him an 1000 piece silver dinner service as grateful thanks for driving the french out of their country during the Peninsula Campaign.  Somehow he ended up having eighty eight masterpieces from the Spanish Royal collection which he offered to return.  The present British Embassy in Paris belonged to Bonaparte's sister and was given to the Duke of Wellington as well as a rare Sevres china  Egyptian Service  which he gave to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  The Austrians gave him Meisen china Vienna dinner service and following the Battle of Waterloo the King of Prussia amongst other gifts gave him the Prussian dinner service.
I had no idea  that Waterloo was a village close to the Belgium border or that he was called the Iron Duke because of the iron shutters at Apsley House.  It was an extremely interesting and stimulating lecture.

Talking of dinner services anyone interested in fine china and old patterns from Wedgewood, Royal Worcester, Crown Derby etc. should go along to the closing down sale of the fine china shop at the top end of Kings Street, Carmarthen as everything is half price.  The gentleman who runs the shop is giving up after fifty years in the business.  Sadly the Royal Worcester set I use at home which belonged to my mother was an extremely popular pattern but I did spot another design I liked so the man that runs it is going to track down some odd pieces from his Lampeter Shop.  Sadly very few people use fine bone china nowadays and it was fascinating listening to him and the care he took checking for cracks in the china a close friend bought.

On the topic of museums, paintings and artefact's you can now armchair travel your way into many of the main art galleries in the world by using google art project.  No airport queues, crowds, jet lag just sit down in the comfort of you own sitting room or office and off you go to the Museum of Modern Art in New York with a click of a button.  How good is that in reducing the carbon foot print and gaining green miles!!!!
http://www.googleartproject.com/

Pembrokeshire and Art

Hi Everyone,

Tomorrow night on BBC 2 Wales there is going to be a programme about Pembrokeshire and Pembrokeshire Art
.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007hzbc

I hope you all enjoy it I will certainly watch it or record it!  There is a gallery on Milford Marina called Pure Art that promotes welsh art.  There is an exhibition of Stan Rosenthal  paintings at present.  They have a number of original paintings and reasonably priced prints for sale by leading welsh artists.  It is a bright airy gallery with a nice coffee shop nearby on the marina.  It is well worth a visit!
http://www.artpure.co.uk/

Tenby Museum also has a number of excellent artists exhibiting this year and it is well worth a visit particularly since they have now completed the new extension for there permanent collection of Augustus and Gwen John work.  Funnily enough I actually worked in Hampshire and lived in a house where Augustus John had worked in a studio in the garden.

Lawrenny Quay, Pembrokeshire. The Guardian's Top Ten UK Winter Walks

Crocus Bank, Lawrenny Quay.

 Hi Everyone

Last weekend Daisy and I thought we would do the circular route around Lawrenny Quay and round Garron Pill along the Daugleddau estuary.  I was amazed to find that the Guardian had rated it as one of the top ten winter walks in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/dec/22/national-trust-uk-winter-walks-lawrenny.

I had never done this walk so we set of with the dogs minus a picnic as I half thought that the excellent Lawrenny Quay Tearoom may have opened, sadly we will have to wait a few more months.   You start off from the boat yard and then enter the four hundred year old ancient broad- leafed, mostly oak woodland.   It must look spectacular when the bluebells come out, or in the autumn when the rare service trees become a russet/red colour. A  service tree may also be called a chequer tree or a maple tree and apparently the berries were used as a treatment for dysentery hundreds of years ago. The views across the estuary are fantastic allow this stretch of the path.

Ancient Oak Woods, Lawrenny

You have walk for about a mile and a half and then join the walk along the estuary at Garron Pill.  The tide was out but there were plenty of curlew, oystercatcher's and shelduck on the water.  You get an excellent view across to Llangwym from  the Pill.  The dogs had an excellent time running across the mud but both Daisy and I did not share their enthusiasm in case we had to rescue one of them and we might have sunk into the mud which would have been no joke. Our combined outward bound skills would have been put to the test  and neither of us had retractable leads or rope.  Anyhow none of them got stuck so that was a big relief!

Garron Pill

Once you have returned to Lawrenny village you can then have different estuary views from the old site of Lawrenny Castle which was demolished in 1952.  During the second world war Lawrenny Quay was the home of 764 Squadron and its fleet of seaplanes.  These were moored on the river between Lawrenny and Coedcanlas and the officers stayed at Lawrenny Castle.

View from the site of Lawrenny Castle towards Coedcanlas and Cresselly

View from the site of Lawrenny Castle

Talking of ancient topics the debate is still going on as to whether the bluestone at Stonehenge came from the Presceli mountains or further north towards Cardigan.  It seems an incredible achievement to have somehow created various forms of  transport to take these huge stones to Salisbury and create Stonehenge.  Most people driving by on the A303 would have no idea these stones had travelled all the way from Pembrokeshire/Cardiganshire.   When they tried to recreate this journey many years ago the bluestone sank in the estuary I seem to remember.

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/archaeology/megaliths+and+prehistoric+archaeology/art348594

St.Davids Day and Pembrokeshire Food Festivals 2011

Hi everyone

Happy St.David's Day.  What a beautiful day it is spring is here after a truly miserable half term week.  Wales won against Italy at the weekend and so there is a lot of happy welsh people.  This weekend it is the St.David's Food Festival in Saundersfoot which has now turned into quite a big event with the annual challenge of who can cook the best welsh cawl.  Which for those who are not familiar with the name is a lamb and vegetable soup.  Angela Grey will be doing cookery demonstrations I quite liked the sound of her Patagonia Cake.
The big food festival of the year is Pembrokeshire Fish Week June 25th - July 23rd.  It won Gold at the True Taste Awards 2009/2010 for Best Food Tourism Destination.  I plan to go to two events, a seafood foraging day in Newport and the top chefs master class at the Torch Theatre.  I am a great fan of Mark Hix as a Saturday Independent reader and an admirer of his cook books.  He has no television cookery show but  is very well regarded within his industry.  Anyone interested in attending the fish evening should rush and book a ticket to avoid disappointment!  The only trouble is that the Torch has not released the date as yet so keep trying all those of you that are interested.  I have enclosed two links so you will know who is also cooking that night and  the events going on during fish week around the county.

http://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/content.asp?nav=&parent_directory_id=646&id=21871&Language=

http://www.fishweek.co.uk/pembrokeshire_fish_week_brochure.asp


The Really Wild Food Festival has moved from September to Friday29th - 30th July this year, presumably that is down to Iron Man Wales coming to Pembrokeshire.  I will leave Iron Man for another blog lets get back to the Really Wild Festival at St.David's.  It is a celebration of wild food, foraging, music, guided food walks put it in your diary its great!http://www.reallywildfestival.co.uk/.

Narbeth Food Festival is another thoroughly enjoyable festival which is taking place on the 24th - 25th September.  The Narbeth Plant Sale on 1st May is also excellent but you need to get there early to avoid disappointment!  Talking of Narbeth in this weekend's Sunday Independent Simon Calder wrote an article on Wales.  The Pembrokeshire Coast  Path got a mention but there was a whole paragraph entitled "Top Shops"  highlighting Narbeth as the place to visit and I quote"....Once a rural backwater, Narbeth is now buzzing with upscale shops selling homeware, high fashion, art and craft."  It also said that Andrew Rees is probably the best butcher in Wales.

The Rococo Gardens,Painswick, Gloucestershire

Hi Everyone,
I went to Gloucestershire a few weekends ago and visited the Rococo Gardens,Painswick.  I went with a friend on rather a cold, dull day to do the famous snowdrop walk.  If it had been fine and warm there would have been masses of people!!!  Despite the weather the snowdrops were fantastic and there were not too many people.  It is a masterpiece in naturalistic planting.  They divide up the clumps every few years and it is stunning the effect in the woodland area.

There are a number of folly's throughout the garden.  One I felt was similar in design to a similar one at Portmeirion and it created the feeling of an Italien garden.

My absolute favourite snowdrop was  Galanthus Nivalis 'Flore Pleno'.  I purchased several pots of them and brought them  back to Pembrokeshire for my own garden.  Unfortunately they will take ages to develop the wonderful drifts of snowdrops at the Rococo Gardens.  So I think I will have to put in a bulk order!  I decided I would follow planting instructions to the letter and put in bonemeal and fertiliser and oh joy my dogs smelled the bone meal from  inside the house and proceeded to dig them up to get at the bone meal so the flower that was looking lovely is now looking extremely battered and sorry for itself!!!

Galanthus nivalus 'Flore Pleno'

There were beautiful cyclamen and aconites and all in all it was a lovely place to visit. I hope you have enjoyed a little armchair view of it in the comfort of your own homes!

http://www.rococogarden.org.uk/SeasonalJoys/SnowdropsatRococoGarden.aspx