North Wales near the English boarder is not known for its tourist attractions, especially without a car to drive farther afield. My second week of WWOOFing with an English couple in Wales was filled instead with the simple pleasures of the country, and quite a few people! My hosts recently began renting out 2 small cabins in their garden for holiday makers. They are simple, but charming one room places with a bed, a couple of chairs, a small stove, and an outdoor kitchen and grill, as well as out door composting toilets. Instead of receiving only 1 or 2 bookings for the first summer both places have been almost solidly booked for 2-3 weeks! In my stay alone I met 4 young couples from all over England. One couple in particular were very friendly and spent part of an evening down at the house talking with us. The young lady went to school to be a solicitor. Currently though she is a harpist. She's played on many cruises including one where she' had to hoist her full sized harp from one level of the ship to another. She's also played in a beautiful outdoor theater near Land's End called Minack Theater. Her husband ironically works in the sound profession too, though in the recording of sports games. Beside talking of presidential nominees and the upcoming vote on whether or not the UK should remain part of the EU I quizzed her on where I might visit in Cornwall and Devon. For such a small country there certainly is a lot to see! In the end, after becoming very familiar with the southwest part of England for nights on end, I've decided to walk part of the Southwest Coast Path in north Devonshire, staying in one of the villages she recommended to me.
As my wwoofing host worked on keeping up with the washing and ironing for the popular eco cabins I went about weeding and clearing away plants in general, dead heading (pulling off old blooms to encourage more), collecting sticks from the wood for kindling, and hedging! I can now add 4 more hedges to my list plus two rounded ones I was entrusted to cut, and I'm pleased to say still look very round indeed! Hedges here are really not just for grand gardens. In general just about anywhere there is a fence there is a hedge, which does a great job keeping the sheep out, and making your fence look nicer at the same time. In fact the single lane roads here are completely lined with 6 foot tall hedges, which the farmers are paid a little bit to come along and trim once a year. My work gloves are really no longer useful, and will not be coming home with me. I believe this is more due to their quality (or lack thereof) than of the amount of work I've done. After all I've only used them for 2 weeks.
Lunch while wwoofing was always a welcome break and took place out on the porch in the sun, looking over the garden and the hazel hedge. We had fresh heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, and the ever popular bread and cheese, which seems to be a staple here. On several days we also had homemade soup made from garden produce.
On my first day off I went for a short walk in the afternoon through the woods, up into the field, past the sheep (of course) and to the top of the hill overlooking the whole area. For some reason it's always incredibly windy up top and I've included a photo to give a sense of it. However the views were wonderful. You really don't have to go up that high here to feel that you're much higher than you are. Apparently in the Lake District some of the climbers brought Tensing (?), who was the first Sherpa to make it to the top of Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hilary, for a climbing trip. They pointed out the ridge they were going to climb and Tensing sized it up and said it looked like 3 days. The local climbers laughed and said no that's what they were going to do in a day, and not even that. Everything looks so much bigger than it really is. It's oddly deceiving.
After coming down from the hill I went for a walk through the wood. Along the short path there was a bench perfect for sitting, and simply admiring wood, and lack of noise, though the road was just out of sight.
On my second day off, later in the week, I went with my host and her two grandchildren for a picnic near a grand stone dam probably built during the Victorian period. It's not just a dam, but also a display of grandeur. We drove across it to reach the other side between the huge stone railings. On the shore of the lake (much nicer than "reservoir") there is what the 6 year old girl calls Rapunzel's Tower, which was built to house the pump, or other workings of the dam. It really looks quite like a miniature castle though.
After our lunch we strolled around the wooden sculpture garden with everything from a giant bed to a giant peanut, mostly created by Lithuanian artists in the last decade it appeared. Being around the children was an enjoyable reminder of the children I know, and those I coached at gym. The little girl is still so carefree, and her brother, a bit resigned to being nice to her, but also truly be the more mature older brother. Their childhood with iPads and a 1 hour per day time limit for playing on them is rather different than mine was not so long ago.
We all finished off the evening by watching 2 short shows of "Shaun the Sheep", which if you haven't seen them I highly recommend for a great bit of humor for all ages.
My last morning in north Wales I had boiled eggs in egg cups with toast for the first time. The children did know how I could live in America without them. What made them so special in my opinion was the fact that they were farm fresh eggs from the side of the road on our drive home the previous day. Not only were they farm eggs, but the sign also explained that the eggs were from rescue chickens! Just 1 pound for half a dozen!
Everywhere I've been I've met so many wonderful people. When I started out I didn't really see this as part of my trip; it was going to be a trip to see places and explore the British countryside. It's really been the people I've met though who've shaped my trip, and not so much the places themselves. Everyone has their own story to share, and there is so much diversity in character. One of these photos shows the sculpural work one of my hosts does "to kee him sane" in addition to his IT job that "pay the bils".
