We paid our third visit to Brythonfa at the end of May, which was half term week. We took the caravan this time, travelling down on Friday afternoon after Lesley finished work and stopping for a meal en route. When we arrived, we set up the caravan first, and it was dark when we finally arrived at the house to settle the cats in for the night. It had been raining and as I walked up the garden path my legs and arms were soaked from overhanging greenery. We couldn’t see much but I was very disheartened to imagine how overgrown the garden had become again on the few weeks since our last visit.
We stayed on a site called “Waters Meet”, between Pontardawe and Neath, just 15 minutes away from the house, which was very convenient. It is a beautiful site in a hidden valley, very quiet and peaceful. It does offer shower and toilet facilities, but frankly they’re a bit run down and shabby, so we were glad to have our own on-board facilities. We also nipped up to Mum’s one evening for a long hot soak in the bath!
We had a lazy Sunday morning, but went up to the house in the afternoon to see to the cats and take the china cabinet, which had travelled down from Linton flat on its back on the bed in the caravan! We also took advantage of the space in the caravan to take my bike down this time. I was relieved to find that in daylight the garden did not look as bad as I’d feared, though the brambles had grown. But there was compensation in the fact that other more desirable plants had grown too, and there was a wonderful display of azaleas to greet us.
Ian and Nina lent us a hover mower to tackle the grass, but even that couldn’t cope, so we went out and bought a strimmer, which made a big difference. While David strimmed the long grass, Lesley used the hedge trimmers to cut back the overhang on the paths, both of which made the garden look much more trim and cared for, and meant we could walk around without getting snagged by brambles or soaked by rain drops!During the week, we completed the removal of the upstairs rafters, ready for new rafters and ceilings to go up. David has begun to construct the framing for the dry lining of the gable wall in our bedroom, which will also provide some support for the new rafters. Downstairs, Ian helped David to knock out the rest of the old fireplace and put in the new concrete lintel, so when we return next time we can get the chimney man in to plan the installation of our wood burning stove.
We spent quite a bit of time planning and measuring this time, pacing out new room sizes with hypothetical new walls! We’re now happy that there is enough room to create a bathroom upstairs and still leave a reasonably sized guest bedroom, out of what was the master bedroom. The second bedroom, with the addition of an alcove to include the middle window, will become the master bedroom, and actually provides a larger floor area than we have here at Linton, though a longer, narrower shape. We made sure that our bed will fit!
We’ve discovered that the paved area by the pond is a real suntrap from early morning until about 7 pm when the sun dips down behind the mountain, and this is now our favoured place for a tea break. We’re getting used to seeing buzzards above the garden but one day we were thrilled to see a red kite overhead. How good can it get?
Our final day, Saturday, was Nina’s birthday and to round off the week we went out for a meal together to celebrate. Meals together, either at home or “out”, home cooked or takeaways, are becoming a feature of our times together, which is really enjoyable.
I now have only 2 weeks to go until my term ends and then we’re off down to Godre'r Graig for the summer. “Waters Meet” offers caravan storage, so we left the caravan down there, and it’s ready and waiting for our next visit!
