Archive for 2021
Who would live in Wales?
This week the Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (RhLC from now on) wrote an article sparked by the campaign by Vaughan Gething, the minister for the Welsh economy, to persuade young people born or raised in Wales not to emigrate. An important part of her, she says, is Welsh – she grew up in north […]
John Clare and the snipe
Slow radio at its best achieves what no amount of ‘fast radio’, with its assumption of the attention span of a hoverfly, can achieve: thought connections that stay in the mind long after the programme has ended. Paul Farley’s recent day (half an hour on the radio: The Poet and the Snipe) looking, in vain, […]
Ar ben pella’r byd
Dyma’r ffordd o’i chyrraedd. Edrychwch am droad i’r dde wrth ichi deithio tua’r gorllewin ar y ffordd i ben pella’r penrhyn. Mae’n hawdd ei golli. Cadwch eich llygaid ar agor am fryn coediog gyferbyn ar y chwith. Wedi troi, mae’r lôn syth yn disgyn yn raddol â llain o lawnt ar y ddwy ochr. Ar […]
The ageing of Henri Rouart
Henri Rouart was one of Edgar Degas’ oldest and most loyal friends. They went to same school in Paris, Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and served in the artillery together during the Franco-Prussian War (Degas was an indifferent soldier). Rouart became an engineer and industrial designer, specialising in vapour-compressed refrigeration. He owned a successful company and used his […]
Wye Valley Walk, day 7: Monnington-on-Wye to Hay-on-Wye
Before breakfast we meet the Couple from Chepstow properly for the first time, and have a chance to share our parallel experiences of the Walk. S. and J., it turns out, live in Tunbridge Wells and are keen ramblers. They’re not stopping at Hay like us, but plan to go on to Rhayader. Not for […]
Wye Valley Walk, day 6: Hereford to Monnington-on-Wye
It’s a still, bright Sunday morning. We walk from our B&B through the quiet streets of Hereford, calling at our favourite lunch provider, Greggs, and make for the Cathedral to visit an attraction we missed yesterday, the statue in the close of Edward Elgar leaning on his bicycle. As we walk towards to Wye Bridge […]
Wye Valley Walk, day 5: Fownhope to Hereford
Today our friends at Celtic Trails, who organised our trip, have taken pity on us and given us a half day off: there’s just between six and seven miles of easy walking ahead. For the first time we’re reduced to three walkers. We’re taken by taxi from Hereford to Fownhope, and we’ve persuaded the driver […]
Wye Valley Walk, day 4: Ross-on Wye to Fownhope
Another fine day, that starts with cloud and opens up later to sun and breeze. No shops or pubs on today’s route, so we buy our vegan sausage rolls in Greggs and make our way down to the river, alongside a group of kayakers. Looking back from the river plain Ross stands handsome on its […]
Wye Valley Walk, day 3: Symonds Yat to Ross-on Wye
I’m awake before 4:30 this morning, after a nightmare in which I’m on the run from armed police and have to hide in the branches of a tree. The meaning’s obscure, but the presence of trees is easy enough to explain. So far the Wye Valley Walk has spent most of its time surrounded by […]
Wye Valley Walk, day 2: Llandogo to Symonds Yat
This morning’s taxi back from Tintern to Cleddon has a punctured tyre, so Kate of Celtic Trails, luckily based in Tintern, is our chauffeur back up the frighteningly steep and narrow lane. As we pass through Llandogo we spot the two elderly backpackers we saw yesterday, the Couple from Chepstow. At Cleddon our old friend […]
