Beautiful stones and the next winter

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The building continues its upward progress. It does feel like the pressure is on to get the roof on now with winter in the sidelines. We are a little way off this at the moment as the old part of building needs to be sorted before we can think roofs.

In the new part the stonework on the gable end is going up nicely and that will stabilise the block work wall. They have just put in a course of flatter stones above the sun room to facilitate the sun room roof which will come out and house our solar water panels. When we look at this and think what the original plans were like we breathe a huge sigh of relief that we put this sun room in.  The only natural light coming into that lounge area would have been from a glass window in an east facing door. It would have been dim and dingy whereas now we will have a bright and airy room.

We are also getting ready for another winter in the yurt. This includes the tweaking of the yurt, replacement of the covers and stacking up of the wood nearby.

Mountain biking in the Brechfa

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As mentioned in the previous post we are holidaying at home and as a result we are doing a bit of exploring.

About twenty five minutes from our “house” is Abergorlech and some brilliant mountain bike trails. As it is a part of the Brechfa forest these trails are becoming very well known on a world wide scale.

We opted today to do the green and blue runs combined, this made about a 14 km long ride. You expect green runs to be a bit dull, but not this one. There are fun little berms and rollercoaster bumps.

Another lovely thing about this ride is that it takes you through oak woods and forestry commission land where they are gently thinning and allowing native trees to reestablish. This gives the woods a wonderfully mainland european feel.

The heather is also dominant here and is clearly having a good year, leaving the hillsides clad in purple.

Off this evening to test out the homemade pizzas at the Black Lion hotel in Llandysul…we really are making the most of our holiday.

Walking above Cilycwm, Carmarthenshire

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We have been taking a holiday at home. We spent last weekend at the green man festival and now we are doing a bit of walking.

Today we walked above the village of Cilycwm, it’s about 15 minutes from our place. The hills are covered in bilberries and heather, they also become quite wild as you approach the tops. Today we sat on a craggy outcrop, eating bilberries and watching two peregrine falcons fight with a couple of crows.

We did, what I would consider, a spectacular walk with: rivers, water meadows, high moor, crags, deep ravines, pretty villages and more wildlife than you can shake a stick at.

The area is well worth a visit if you are a walker or mountain biker (look up Cwm Rhayader for a fun red run).

It’s also the home to the fun Small Nations festival, which we missed for the first time in four years this year.