Monthly Archives: August 2015

Left or right?

Posted on August 28, 2015 by bookvolunteer

Both are delightful. When you get to the beach at Newport, turn left for the dunes. Turn right for these rock formations in the cliffs.

Posted in Nature, Sea, Walking | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The essential accompaniment to Sunday breakfasts – Welsh diaspora, 1960s

Posted on August 25, 2015 by bookvolunteer

To re-live the experience click here. (The Delysé record company was set up in 1954 by Isabella Wallich who was born in Italy to a musical family in 1916, but migrated to Britain with her family at the age of 5. … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Religion, Welsh language | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Gate of the Bones (or not)

Posted on August 21, 2015 by bookvolunteer

There are very few street names in Dinas but this straggling village divides into smaller hamlets whose names form part of our addresses. Tegfan is situated in Iet-yr-Esgyrn or ‘Gate of the Bones’. Very satisfactory. It’s a dead-end quiet corner not far … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Welsh language | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Finding the North Pole

Posted on August 18, 2015 by bookvolunteer

In places where many unrelated families have the same surname* and people occupy the same land for generations, the name of a house becomes part of a persons’s identity, as gravestones testify. Was this house named as a wry comment on the poverty of the soil as … Continue reading →

Posted in Farming, History, Sea | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m not afraid of cows

Posted on August 14, 2015 by bookvolunteer

Gate in the Gwaun Valley.  Photo credit Ieuan Yusuf George But I’ll own up to being rather nervous of bullocks and heifers, as well as bulls – which often means avoiding fields that (from a distance) appear to have cows in. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Farming, Walking | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

On the rocks

Posted on August 11, 2015 by bookvolunteer

The rocks on Dinas’s beaches provide an anchorage for an interesting collection of molluscs and lichens, many of which are indicators that the air is clean and general pollution levels are low. Our local Cwm yr Eglwys is included on the Marine … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nature, Sea, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Wynmor Owen – sculptor

Posted on August 7, 2015 by bookvolunteer

Wynmore Owen comes from a seafaring family  in Llangrannog, just 25 miles or so up the coast from Dinas but he has since moved even closer. His father and grandfather were mariners and Wynmor continues this close connection to the sea … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Crafts, Nature, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The teasing teasel

Posted on August 4, 2015 by bookvolunteer

As long as I can remember there have been teasels growing wild in Cilwenen.  As a child in Dinas, I used to walk down to Aberbach along the Cilwenen road and my aunt (who knew that if you wasted not you … Continue reading →

Posted in Crafts, History, Nature | Tagged , , | 1 Comment