Hafoty, Anglesey

Hafoty is a medieval house on Anglesey. It has been undergoing conservation work to preserve the fabric of the building, and the front of the house is currently covered in scaffolding, to enable safe access for the man who is currently painting it white!

This house is rarely open to the public, although it will be on various dates in September 2008, under the Civic Trust's 'open doors' scheme:

http://www.civictrustwales.org/ehd/programme2008/handlist0108.pdf

A collection of objects found on site during the conservation work.

A newly created door, in oak.

The fireplace is huge, impressive, and beautifully carved. The carved stone with family crest above the fireplace was added much later. On the close up picture above, you can see the remains of medieval paint (red ochre) staining the grey stone.

One of the windows.

A refurbished window, complete with shutter. They didn't have curtains in early medieval times, they used solid wood shutters to keep the heat in.


An upstairs window. It is unlikely that this is the original window, but was either a replacement or an addition, as it has a stone frame, and the original windows were all wooden framed. The house has been changed through time, as all houses are, and has features created in a range of different times.


The upper part of the bedroom (the floor is on 2 different levels, this is the dias where the bed would have been, about a foot higher than the rest of the floor).


The fabulous roof trusses. Imagine lying in bed and looking at these? This house was originally built as an oak framed house, and the stonework was added a couple of hundred years later, when one of it's owners wanted the house to become a grander dwelling.


The rear of the property.

Wonderful Weobley windows

I visited Weobley Castle, on the Gower, near Swansea in south Wales. The Gower coast was declared an 'area of outstanding natural beauty' over 50 years ago, and has had legal protection against any developments which might spoil it ever since.


The castle has been there for about 700 years, and is located on a headland high above an estuary. I may post more pictures of the castle at some point, but for now I'll just share the view from the castle and through the windows!!!

Wiston Castle, Pembrokeshire

Wiston Castle is small but perfectly formed. It is a small and simple motte and bailey type castle, in the small village of Wiston, in beautiful Pembrokeshire. There are no big hills on which to build a castle, so the earth was mounded up to create this base, and at the same time form a moat (which no longer has any water in it). On top of the mound, a castle was built - probably originally in timber, and later in stone, as timber was too vulnerable to fire.


The castle from a distance. You can see a very long way from up there.


The interior of the castle.

Harlech Castle

I have been very busy of late, and have rather neglected this blog,
so I thought I'd post some pictures of Harlech Castle, in north Wales.



The castle is accessed by wooden bridge in the location of the original drawbridge.
It looks formidable. This castle was rendered and painted white when it was built, as was Cricieth. They were meant to be highly visible as symbols of domination, from a long way off.



These were the grand apartments of the castle,
as viewed from the inner courtyard.


This is the remains of the Great Hall, you can see the fireplace and doorways on the left, and more holes in the walls, where beams would have supported the floors above.


You can see the potlug holes in the curved wall - large beams were insierted into these holes when the castle was being built - these beams then supported a ramp made of smaller pieces of wood, and the builders used the ramp to access the higher levels as they built the castle. The square structure where the curved wall meets the flat wall is the lavatory chute....


This view of a small window opening shows the thickness of the walls, about 10 feet, I think.


The view to the north from the castle. When the castle was built, the sea lapped at the base of the rocks it was built on, and it was supplied by sea, as this was easier and safer than trying to bring supplies through a difficult geographic region full of hostile Welsh people.


The remains of a grand fireplace and chimneys. See the corbels (stones standing out of the wall) which would once have supported a ceiling or floor or part of a roof.


Some steps within the castle - made from huge slabs of local Welsh slate.

A small adventure!

I didn't travel far today,
but I saw some beauty in nature
and thought I would share it with you.

I took a 5 minute walk around my garden


A peony, just beginning to drop it's petals


a reddish clematis, the first flower of the year,
many more buds on the plant,
which is climbing up a tree


a purple clematis, which is fighting with the honeysuckle to take ove the fence



a pale yellow iris in the pond



2 little frogs, who thought they were invisible



this one posed nicely!


this one didn't realise I was looking!


this is where he always hides


sometimes his friend joins him



we dug the pond, with the help of friends, in May 2003. It's not very big, maybe 5 feet by 8 feet, and 2 feet deep in the middle. We positioned it at the back of our garden, in an area where we knew frogs passed through. We had frogspawn in spring 2004, and now have a colony of frogs living in the pond, with new tadpoles each year. We don't know how many frogs there are, but we counted 11 adult frogs last weekend. I also often find very little ones in the flower borders when I am weeding. We have noticed that we don't have a problem with slugs in the garden any more, but I wish they'd learn how to eat snails, so that my hostas could look majestic instead of holey!!!!

A Welsh wild flower walk

I was staying at a fabulous Bed & Breakfast near Caernarfon:

http://www.ygoedeneirin.co.uk/index_eng.html

and I went for a walk before breakfast, as it was a beautiful day. Fifty yards from the front entrance to the B & B, I came across this inviting gateway:

which led to a path alongside a small river, where there were masses of wild flowers. I only walked for 15 minutes, but saw and photographed 15 varieties of wild flowers.


This is stitchwort, which is common in hedgerows in country lanes



the small river was burbling and beautifully clear



Ivy Leaved Toadflax, the Welsh name for which is - wait for it - 'Trwyn y llo dial iorwg', which means 'Ivy leafed calf's nose'. The plant was introduced to Britain in the early 1600s.


Dog Violet. The word 'dog' means that it is a smaller variety than a cultivated variety. There are several varieties of violet, some are beautifully scented. Sadly, this one had no discernable scent. I love this pretty little flower with its heart shaped leaves. it likes to hide in slightly shadier hedgerows and woodlands.

The Welsh name for this plant is 'sanau'r gwcw', which means 'Cuckoo's socks' - and this name is obviously associated with the fact that violets flower at the time that cuckoos are first heard. In the language of flowers, the mauve violet means 'faithful love'. Medicinally, the leaves are supposed to help cure cancer, strengthen the heart and calm the nerves. In Wales, a treacle was made from the flowers, which was considered unrivalled at curing colds, coughs and chest complaints.



Ox-Eye daisy, which was called 'dog daisy' or 'moon daisy' until the 1500s. It was also called 'thunder daisy', as people believed that if they hung some of these flowers onto their thatched roofs, the roof would be protected from lightning strike and consequent fire. This plant was also used medicinally, to treat breathing problems such as asthma or 'consumption' (tuberculosis). Stalks, leaves and flowers were boiled up together, made into a posset, and drunk. It was also supposed to help heal wounds and ulcers, whether inside the body or on the skin, and cure wind.




Herb Robert, also called Cranesbill (because of the shape of the seed heads). This is a useful herb, being used as an eye lotion, a mouthwash to treat sore throats and mouth ulcers, as an aid to wound healing, and to treat bladder and kidney stones, and apparently if you crush the leaves and rub them on your skin, it acts as an insect repellent. It has been used as a cancer cure, and the Scottish name for the herb - cancer weed - reflects that usage. The whole plant has a lovely smell, and looks pretty!



Red Campion, a common and pretty wildflower. The name campion has French and Latin origins, and means 'field'. The modern word 'champion' comes from the name of the plant, as in the middle ages, people used to make wreaths of chaplets to put on the heads of winners of public games on village greens.



Greater Celandine. This looks completely different to the common Lesser Celandine which tries to take over my garden every spring! The leaves and flowers are different, the only commonality is that they both have yellow flowers. This plant is harder to spot, and seems to flower for a shorter period.



Cow parsley - this plant is quite tall at 2-3 feet, and often grows in drifts, but each individual flower head is delicate and individual flowers are tiny. It looks pretty when you see a whole verge filled with drifts of white, waving in the breeze.




Field forget-me-not. This flower was used as a symbol of great affection. Women used to wear a corsage or posy pinned to their bodice, and if it contained a forget-me-not, they would not be forgotten by their lover. It was also used to treat dog and snake bites, and steel tempered with its juice was supposed to be able to cut through stone.



Foxglove. The name is probably a corruption of the Swedish 'folk's glove', meaning fairy folk's gloves. There are many folk names for this plant across Britain but a couple of nice Welsh ones are - 'gwyniadur Mair' (Mary's thimble) and 'menig Mair' (Mary's gloves). From the 1500s, foxgloves were used to treat sores, ulcers and flesh wounds. In the late 1700s it was discovered that a susbstance in the plant - digitalin - now called digitoxin - was an excellent treatment for heart problems. In 1962 further research into digitalin showed that it is also a good treatment for glaucoma and muscular dystrophy. Today, foxgloves are farmed in large quantities (mainly in the US) for medicinal use.



Hawthorn blossom, also known as 'May flower'. This thorny tree, often used as stock proof hedging in Wales, has leaves which can be eaten when young, beautiful flowers in May, and red berries in autumn. When you look across some Welsh valleys in May, the hedges all look white as the whole hedge seems to be covered with blossoms. Some blossoms are tinged with pink, and hawthorn has been selectively bred to produce varieties with deep pink flowers. I prefer the simple pale coloured variety!




Bird's Foot Trefoil. This low growing plant has around 70 different country names across the UK, some names refer to the flowers, some to the seed pods, which can look rather like bird or animal claws. Names vary from 'butter-and-eggs' & 'boots and shoes' (Somerset), 'boxing gloves', 'bread and cheese' & 'bunny rabbits ears' (Sussex), to 'bird'sclaws', 'bird's eye' & 'bird's foot' (Devon). The Welsh names 'basged bysgota' and 'pys y ceirw' mean 'fishing basket' and 'pea of the stag/deer'.

Closer view of a bird's foot trefoil flower


Bluebells. This isn't a very good picture, as the bluebells have almost finished flowering. They can look stunning in huge drifts under trees. The Welsh name, 'clychau'r gog' means cuckoo bells, as the flowers come out when cuckoos are heard in the countryside.




Meadow Buttercup. Children often pick this flower and hold it under their chins - if a yellow glow appears on the skin, the child is supposed to like butter!

The picturesque gate at the end of the walk. Walking here and back was a lovely way to spend half an hour early on a beautiful late spring morning.