Tag Archives: brecon beacons national park

Wales: wild wet walks

Posted on June 24, 2013 by BarryH

Sunday and I had to get out into the mountains. All week I had been concentrating on construction work in the garden, laying paths and humping rocks around for landscaping and I needed to stretch my legs, get to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Mountains, Pontypool, Wales | Tagged Afon Lwyd, bad weather, brecon beacons national park, gulls, Ogof Draenen, Pont, Pontypool Folly Tower, rain, sink holes, skylarks, Wales, wind | 1 Comment

A Welsh Spring and clichés of violence

Posted on May 26, 2013 by BarryH

Back in Wales and spring has at last arrived. Before I left Arctic blasts whipped across the tops of the mountain ridges dumping snow and lowering temperatures so that buds stayed tight shut long past their usual seasonal opening time. … Continue reading →

Posted in Greece, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Pontypool, Reflections, Spring, Wales | Tagged apples, bees, black currants, bluebells, brecon beacons national park, bud burst, cliches, coat of paint, environmental triggers, explosion, fruit production, leaves, oak, oak trees, Pontypool Folly Tower, riot of colour, spring, temperatures, trees, violence, Wales, winds, wire fencing | Leave a comment

Greece: on the edge

Posted on April 27, 2013 by BarryH

Apologies. The last week or so I have been rushing around like the proverbial, if biologically unidentified, blue arsed fly. Constantly under time pressure. The main reason for being in Grey Britain these days is to be with family and … Continue reading →

Posted in Greece, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Pontypool, Wales | Tagged brecon beacons national park, gardening, gardens, Garn Wen, Greece, growing season, Mynydd Garn Wen, plants, triangulation pillars, trig point, trig points, vegetables, Wales, Welsh, welsh name | 1 Comment

Welsh Winter Walking: reflections on pioneering

Posted on April 5, 2013 by BarryH

Some years ago I was making tired but still rapid progress between High Spy and Catbells, the final leg of a non-stop 7-hour walk in the Lake District from Langdale to Keswick on the side of Derwent Water (for aficionados, … Continue reading →

Posted in Mountains, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, British Summer Time, Catbells, Coity Mountain, Exposure, first tracks, Garn Lakes, High Spy, Lake District, Maiden Moor, pioneering, snow, snow conditions, snow drifts, south wales coalfield | Leave a comment

Welsh Winter Walking: effects of Spring deferred

Posted on April 1, 2013 by BarryH

With overnight temperature yet again down to minus 4oC and afternoon highs still well short of double figures, the last day of March, Easter Sunday and, coincidentally, the first day of British Summer Time saw no real signs of Spring … Continue reading →

Posted in Mountains, Pontypool, Spring, Wales, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, Bristol Channel, Easter Sunday, midday sun, Mynydd Varteg, newborn lambs, snow, snow drifts, spring, winter, winter gloom, winter walking | Leave a comment

Welsh Winter Walking: Forward planning and contingencies

Posted on March 28, 2013 by BarryH

Sometimes things just don’t turn out as planned. Wednesday I had a day free of commitments so planned to take a bus up to the watershed between two of the South Wales valleys and walk back home via a couple … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Pontypool, Wales, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, buses, contingency planning, forward planning, hiking, ice, icicles, Pontypool, snow, snow drifts, Wales, walking, winter walking | 1 Comment

Go west young man, and do it without a list

Posted on January 9, 2013 by BarryH

I don’t make lists. To do so would be, from my warped perspective, to admit that my mind is failing. When I went to Greece for a long summer for the first time in 2010 I was urged to make … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Greece, Grey Britain, Mountains, Pontypool, Wales, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, Calgary, Canada, Greece, lists, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, skiing, south east wales | 2 Comments

A New Year, portents, traditions and looking forward

Posted on January 5, 2013 by BarryH

I’ve never been impressed by the hype of the ‘New Year’, never regarded it as a portent or a time to make ephemeral resolutions to change bad habits, never felt the urge to stand around with arms crossed, holding hands … Continue reading →

Posted in Grumpy Old Men, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Winter | Tagged auld lang syne, banff canada, brecon beacons national park, brecon canal, Canada, canadian rockies, Goose and Cuckoo, Lady Llanover, New Year, Pontypool, pub lunch, south east wales, unpredictable weather | 1 Comment

Rambling through 2012, a year in pictures: Part 1, Wales

Posted on December 30, 2012 by BarryH

At the end of a busy year it seems appropriate to look back and remember the places I went and the things I did during 2012. Far too much to cram into a blogable number of words so I decided … Continue reading →

Posted in Autumn, Grey Britain, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Pontypool, Wales, Winter | Tagged American Gardens, Big Pit, brecon beacons national park, Cardiff, Cardiff Castle, Cricieth, hoar frost, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, Pontypool Park, snow, waterfalls | 1 Comment

Windows of opportunity and a mountain playground on the doorstep

Posted on December 27, 2012 by BarryH

We moved to our present house from Cardiff in 1975 in order to be closer to my work, thereby significantly reducing the daily each-way commute from 20 miles to 4, 45 minutes to 8. The reasoning was that out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, mountains, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, south east wales | Leave a comment