Caer Sion

Walking up a mountain in unseasonal heat with a chest infection wasn't the best decision of the day, but when I finally got over the hypoxia...I kind of enjoyed myself.


Caer Sion is a Iron age Hilll overlooking the small walled town of Conwy which is located just down the coast. Nige, me and William negotiated the somewhat steep terrain with some gusto ( he in sensible trousers and walking shoes) me with the aforementioned chest infection and croc sandals

The Hill fort dates from 300 BC and as the descriptive plaque on the top of the mountain states:-
Caer Seion is a large and strong hill fort. Excavations were carried out in 1951 but did not produce any dating evidence. However, it is believed to have been occupied during the Middle to Late Iron Age, about 300 BC to 1st century AD and it seemed likely that the fort was abandoned when the Romans conquered North Wales in 78 AD. The fort had a commanding position overlooking Conwy Bay and estuary and over the ancient trackway that followed the coastal ridge, continuing westwards towards Anglesey.

me giving up the ghost (fat bastard)

Next time.........I will be prepared





Sounding like an old pervert

The View down the vale from the top of the Gop this morning

 Today I sound a little like Richard Attenborough's character from the movie 10 Rillington Place......I have an exspiratory wheeze that could out do my mother's "60 a day" tar chest, and this morning when I was half awake in bed after Chris had gone to work ,I was half convinced that someone else was in bed with me, as I was sure that all the breath sounds ecching around the cottage bedroom were definately NOT my own....I am getting old...or at least my lungs are, thanks to this inherited chest infection from mother-in-law Sorrel...I must admit I do sound somewhat f&cked respiratory wise!.......as I walked the dogs up the gop in the sun this morning I met a friend and neighbour who commented on my old lady chest as I puffed my way up hill....

."perhaps you've got Psittacosis" he volunteered cheerfully!

Also, I am getting a little frustrated today as I know I am so behind on my spring planting.,Our Friend Nige comes to visit later, so I am now off to the supermarket for some grub....so the potatoes will have to wait a day or so more

Forgive the banality of this blog entry.......real life and sputum has got in the way!

George and Constance, rabbit hunting

Islwyn Thomas

I know I risk soundling like a "interviewer" bore, but I must tell you that yesterday I spent a wonderful hour or two with the most "senior" of all of the Trelawnyd residents....Mr Islwyn Thomas, who has lived in the village for over 89 years.

Not only did he tape some facinating stories for me, he gave me hundreds of family slides to check through in order to sort out some "historic" village photographs as well as loaning me some old books and vintage magazines depicting village life here.

So last night, I set up a loaned slide projector in the kitchen and using the fridge as a screen, I somewhat voyeuristically perused my way through decades of someone's life!....It was fascinating. I found slides of "old village characters", scenes of a village carnival and photographic records of buildings now demolished  and I must admit Chris must have been pig sick with me yelling through the cottage every few minutes asking him to come and look at one interesting photo after another!

After just a week of information collection..I now have nearly 9 hours of conversation to "analyse" and two folders of photographs to sort out and from today I need to get my arse into gear and get my records sorted into some sort of order.
I am up at my brother's today , so will conscript him to scan some of my donated photos so I will have them ready for the blog site.
I must publically thank Islwyn Thomas, Gladys Jones, Bryn Davies,Gwyneth Jones and Trevor Evans for their time , effort and good humour...I have another six villagers to see next week!

John "the dogs"

Yesterday a neighbour asked me if I would like to go with her to the Methodist chapel for a "frugal" lunch. Now not being much of a Church goer, I have little knowledge of the traditions of lent, but as I am a fan of The Archers, I now feel pretty more informed of the state of frugal lunches as experienced by Clarrie Grundy  at Ambridge over the past few weeks or so!
There was around 20 villagers at the lunch, which consisted of hot pot ( is hot pot frugal?) cheese and bread. I knew most of the people there but there was a few faces I did not recognise, so I seized the opportunity to "conscript" a couple more of the older villagers for my oral history blog.
As I introduced myself to one older lady she preempted me by saying with a smile "I know you, you're John the dogs",

This kind of "title" pleases me, it is also a typical Welsh description of a personlike myself. as I can always be seen twice a day walking around the village and local countryside with the four dogs walking cleanly at heel.
This kind of Welsh nickname remains commonplace in communities like ours.

Now I know recently I have been waxing rather too lyrically on the virtues of a deadpan flatulent bulldog with an over abundance of saliva and in answer to the prolific e mailer Mrs Fickle, I agree I have not perhaps shown William, Meg and underdog George in a similar positive light.......so today I will endeavour to rectify my mistake.

William is a delightful five year old Welsh terrier. Of all of our dogs he is the one with the best manners and the sweetest personality.
William possesses a gentleness about him which I always think is a rare trait is such a young dog. He is slow to rile and quick to welcome other dogs and people.
He also allows himself to be bullied by the physically more dominant Constance

Meg is the baby of our pack even though she is the oldest dog at six. Neurotic, needy, clingy,and constantly jealous of anyone and everyone, she is not happy unless she is within a gnat's crotchet of me at any given moment of the day.

If Meg was the female version of Woody Allen in the household and William a canine version of Matt Cardle (?) George is a bit of the Elliot character from ET.
George has always been and will always be the underdog in the house...even the hens understand his low status and will bully him without a thought when he checks each of the hen houses for spare eggs.

However, despite his low standing, George remains the comic of the group. Resolutely cheerful, he remains  a constant wall flower in the daily cottage routine......and therefore  secretly dominates everyones affection by his undemanding behaviour. He is just a real sweetie

If we had a bigger house and garden, we would have a huge pack of  dogs, of that I am sure.....but then I guess my nickname would not then be "John -the dogs".......it would probably be "John the  "f*"king" nutcase

Julie Zenatti - Notre Dame de Paris

The French can sing out the ingredients and flavourings from the back of a cornflake packet, and make them all sound good. This is a Moody little piece from Notre Dame de Paris...."Zingara" by Julie Zenatti..I have been playing it a lot in the car at the moment....I love it.

"Interviewing" Gladys Jones for the sister blog this afternoon which should be lively, this documentation of memories will be a bigger job than I expected......last night I listened to the 2 hours I recorded from Trevor and Gwyneth.....a lot of it will make a cracking read I hope....however after most of the evening of analysis I had only managed to write a couple of paragraphs! Once more into the breach
postscript
....Today's first entries went a little easier! see http://trelawnydhistory.blogspot.com/

Interviews-Round One

I met up with my first interviewees today
Sat around a kitchen table with a plethora of old photographs  two village octogenarians recalled village life from the 1930s with halting affection, amazing precision and just a bit of ribald laughter
After two and a half hours, I was fading with a concentration headache....but they, I was sure, would have carried on Merrily until dusk.......I now have reams of information to sort through
Thanks  to my first Voices from The Past.....namely

Mr Trevor Evans

and Mrs Gwyneth Jones

If It Ain't Broke...........

I have been listening to the meandering and pedestrian radio soap opera The Archers for over twenty years now.
The storyline depicting Kenton's gentle romance with The Bull's Landlady Jolene plods quite nicely alongside Elizabeth's grief and Eddie Grundy's lent hardships fill perhaps seven minutes of a fifteen minute drama slot which has always been aired at 7pm each night.

So why (oh why) have the prepubescent wizz kids from radio four ddesigned a "new" and " exciting" new "concept in radio drama" namely the crackingly original  Ambridge Extra.
This new pacy and "innovative" spin off series will develop the existing characterisations (why?), will  introduce us to the previously silent characters like Rhys the Bull's barman ( again why?) and will allow the audience to follow the lives of non Ambridge based residents , like the mind numbing Alice Carter who is working away in a Southampton University. ( whoopie shit)

The Archers has ticked  middle England sensibilities since 1950.......it has bumbled quite nicely thank you without any gimmick, or wizz kid intervention for years......so I have a message for the twittering Keri Davies....the script writer who is developing this new initiative..........
"leave well alone"

"Let's kick some alien ass"

 Picture Independence Day......add a slice of Black Hawk Down......throw in the obligatory  tough Hispanic female marine (Michelle Rodriguez playing .....well......Michelle Rodriguez) and sprinkle the whole lot of CGI with a liberal amount of shite dialogue...and bingo...you have ....Battle: Los Angeles.

Now I sort of enjoyed the action sequences.....I sort of think that most of the movie resembled one of those computer games that I know nothing about...but boy when the movie slows down to let beefcake Sergeant Aaron Eckhart  build his bromance relationship with his multicultural and mistrusting marine group....Chris was reaching for his sick bag!....and I was cringing in disappointment
John Wayne.....where were you when we needed you?
6/10 (visually 8/10)
(ps best line of any action movie......as the marines crowd around a dying alien in an effort to find its weaknesses..... the lone civilian woman in the group pipes up "Maybe I can help. I'm a veterinarian"
........beat that