Jaunting to Wales …
20/09/2014 § 3 Comments
Old House Cottage on the farm
Nantbrenni Farmhouse
We have, on many occasions, stayed at the Nantbrenni Farmhouse in Rhydlewis for bed and breakfast. It’s always wonderful to return and this time we stayed in the Old House Cottage – a self-contained 3 bedroom cottage off the old farmyard. The weather was gorgeous and we breakfasted on the sun terrace overlooking the Ceri Valley every morning. The cottage was beautiful, comfortable and cosy. I enjoyed early morning walks around the ponds with the girls whilst watching Red Kites swirling overhead. We walked the girls on local beaches and enjoyed some great times with Dad and village friends.
River Teifi estuary at Gwbert
Misty – busy digging – Poppit Sands
Belle – her favourite game, chasing the ball
I love old farm buildings. The refurbished cottage and newly converted Stable Cottage are amazing, beautiful stone built buildings, open right up to the beams – light and airy. The farmyard also has many original buildings with those traditional carvings and good luck symbols left by previous generations:
hind hoof horseshoe
front hoof horseshoe
Did you know that you can tell exactly which hoof a horseshoe was worn on? Hind shoes are more oval than the rounded front shoes. If you lay the shoe flat, with the toe clip uppermost, there are usually more nail holes on one side of the shoe and that’s the outer edge – so, it’s easy to identify the precise hoof – front or hind :: off or nearside. I love old horseshoes on stable doors. I have horseshoes tucked all around our home, from the horses that I’ve owned over the years – Prince, Cinderella and Storm.
Merlin – the farm sheepdog
Isn’t he lovely?
So now we’re back ‘home’ where we enjoyed a quacky welcome from Flora Puddleduck and as ever, I’m feeling a little homesick about leaving Wales. It takes me a few days to settle down again into my daily routine – quilting, dog walking, cooking – so today I started with mooch around the garden and some yarn-winding:
Shetland wool, from a local herd bought from the Newcastle Emlyn Country Market
This is SOoooooo satisfying and such a fun way to produce yarn cakes!
Seven lovely Shetland wool yarn cakes – what shall I make???
I couldn’t resist this Shetland wool, from the farmer who keeps the sheep! That’s just the best thing about country markets – meeting the people who make/grow/spin the products. Yarn winding was an easy early morning job, to ease me back into being at home whilst remembering our jaunt. I’m not sure what to make – the yarn is described as ‘light aran weight’ but I reckon it’ll end up as a huge and very warm shawl/scarf to keep me snug at the Christmas Market at Winchester Cathedral in November/December.
The garden is still blooming though I’ve long since given up trying to keep up with the weeds. They’re all dying back now anyway so I’ll just mooch and enjoy some late summer blooms:
Night Scented Stock in the old sink herb garden – it’s straggly now but still smells amazing in the evenings, so insignificant alongside the geraniums and Fairy Queen miniature rose
dahlias blooming in the walled garden
self-seeded lambs ears (Stachys) around the geranium pots – and the first Autumn leaves from the Silver Birch tree
The Summerhouse – in need of a sort out and a coat of wood preservative next year.
I hope you’ve had a lovely week too. I picked some sloes when we walked the dogs earlier, so I’d had better wash some jars and start my favourite Spiced Sloe and Apple Jelly. Enjoy your weekend.
Adaliza
Loved your pictures. What a wonderful place!
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Awesome cottage and trip. Love Wales and hope to get back there someday especially envious of your dahlias. I fail miserably w them. Enjoy the fall.
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I have sunflower envy from you! Maybe we should just keep swapping photos on blogs! You have a lovely fall too. Flora Puddleduck sends a quack to you all and Belle and Misty send much growling to all your 4-legged beasties!
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