Llanasa

 A couple of miles northeast of Trelawnyd is located the pretty village of Llanasa. Smaller and quieter than our village, it has grown from a rural settlement dominated by two large farms and a large private house ( Gyrn Castle) into a collection of designer houses owned by people with money. Some aspects of the old community does survive however as the village still has its church and congregation and a robust WI based in the old schoolhouse.

Last night’s talk took place in the village, and I knew several of the ladies there, including animal helper Pat and Cameron’s mum.The talk by Helen Papworth was about her book The Butterfly and the Bee, which discusses the relationship between HM Stanley and his wife Dorothy. 

It was a good listen.

Afterwards.I drove around the village and noted how much had changed since I was a boy. 

http://www.llanasa.wales/

Llanasa circa 1971 “my”farm right foreground

                  Rona 

In the early 1970s Llanasa was my Girls Own adventure go to. In tow with my sister Janet I would don wellies and a thick school coat and we would brave the Welsh winters to groom and ride and care for my sister’s benign old mare Rona. 

I loved those times, not only for the companionship in a somewhat lonely childhood but for those little farming adventures that could be had. Of climbing the hay bales in search of was was probably rotten hens eggs, exploring the old sheds and barns or playing with the Labrador puppy, tied up next to the back door. 

If the snow was too harsh the old lady of the farm used to beckon us in, so we could drink a cup of sweet camp coffee with evaporated milk in order to get warm, after which we would take Rona into her green little stable ( now a house) where I could smell the mix of snow and straw and manure and pony breath and  where my own breath couldn’t quite prevent the chillblains on my hands sodden by iced woollen gloves.