Thursday, April 29, 2010

Grannom & Stonefly on the Usk

As I look back over the last two weeks I cannot remember a year in the last fifteen that has produced such dense hatches of grannom, and, in addition, that huge fly that literally crawls out of the river, ‘the stonefly’ has been in evidence. The water has been relatively cold and the result has been of a lack of rising trout for two reasons. One, trout like stonefly, and a stonefly represents breakfast, lunch and tea all in one so collecting the groceries while it is around for eating is dead simple and the old trout takes a rest in between. Secondly because the grannom are being taken under the surface just deep enough not to show. Feeding on grannom as stonefly hatches dwindle is the next dish on offer.
There was a great article in the Trout & Salmon (March) by Louis Noble featuring the grannom and he concludes that the most successful patterns are the ones devised by Dave Collins – the Shuttlecock Suspender and Parachute Emerger. I have friends who have successfully used them, I have not but will make certain I am properly prepared next time.
With the big Dark Olives and March Browns over what is on the menu next. The sort of armory one needs are Light Olives, Iron Blues, Blue Upright  and Usk Naylor and as May progresses Blue and Evening Dun, Ginger Quill, Alder and Pheasant Tail.
We could really do with a top up on the rain front though the river is a delight to be on with all the wonderful wildlife busily building, sitting or feeding. Swallows, house and sand martins, and sandpipers are all in evidence not to mention the wagtails.

Nick Brabner

You might find this post about fishing with grannom on a fishing forum of interest.

Spring Blossom at Gliffaes

Here is a very short and very amateur video of the wonderful trees in blossom in our garden at the hotel.



Monday, April 26, 2010

Volcanos, Earthquakes and other Tremors

 This time last week I was feeling very smug; the hotel was fully booked for this weekend with a group of Texans off to wedding near by. We were laying on a lavish dinner for 60  on Friday night, the night before the wedding, for the brides family, and  with all the Texans out at the wedding on Saturday night I had arranged a Chilean Wine Dinner for locals to keep our restaurant busy for Saturday night. So far so good but I certainly had not factored in a volcano! The Americans could not fly, the wedding postponed  and I was left with a hotel to fill in five days.


Thanks to the power of email ( a good lesson about maintaining a sound customer data base) I was able to re-fill the empty hotel for the weekend and we still had to pull off the Chilean Wine Dinner on the Saturday night. Head Chef, Karl Cheetham working with Michael Cox of Wines of Chile put together a great dinner, with each course accompanied by a different wine. All the wines came from Great Western Wine in Bath. Thirty people came for the  Dinner and £360 was raised for the Chilean Earthquake Appeal. The menu and wines were as follows:

Canapes served with either a glass of Elki Pedro Jimenez or Leyda Sauvignon Blanc Garuma Vineyard

Aspargus with Hollandaise - 2008 Leyda Sauvignon Gris
***
Paupiette of Cornish Sole with Salmon & Chive Mousseline - 2006 Leyda Lot 5 Chardonnay
***
Loin of Wild Fallow Deer, Boulangere Potatoes, Savoy Cabbage & Juniper Sauce - 2006 Falernia Carmenere Reserva
***
Saffron Poached Pear with Vanilla Parfait or Welsh Cheeses & walnut Bread - 2008 Leyda Pinot Noir - Las Brisas.

Some of the wines are on our list and I want to serve the Pedro Jimenez by the glass as it will make for a lovely light summer drink.

So in the end we pulled something out of the ash(es)!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

A Walk around Cwm Mawr ( The Big Valley)

My wife suffers from what she calls, "ridge envy" and the condition is brought on by gazing up to the top of any stunning ridge, plenty of them in the Black Mountains around Gliffaes, and on spotting a tiny speck of a walker or two, she immediately turns green and wants to swop places with them. The treatment is swift and pretty tiring - you have to climb the ridge. Saturday morning and a beautiful spring day, perfect conditions for a bout of ridge envy. We had to get her to the top.

Where the lane leading up to the hotel meets the main road (A40) you pause for a second to look left and right for traffic but your eyes are always drawn upwards to the magnificent ridge that runs between Pen Cerrigcalch to Pen Alt-mawr, and at 650 meters high that was our target. With two old friends of Gliffaes staying at the hotel we set off at around 10am for this 5 mile circuit of Cwm Mawr (the big valley). A 5 minute drive from Gliffaes finds you at the parking spot somewhere in the region of 203 213 (OS map 13) this has the advantage of a height gain of some 250 meters, every little helps.

The route is a simple one. Straight up hill for about 1 mile following the ridge towards Pen Cerrig-calch (217 225), no need to climb right to the top, when you see the flat saddle on your left, between the two high spots, head left along the ridge towards Pen Gloch-y-pibwr (203 233) before descending the opposite ridge you went up. These two ridges frame a perfect, steep sided bowl shaped valley. This area was once used for grouse shooting and the old grouse bouts are very much in evidence. We saw no grouse but did see plenty of sky larks and welsh mountain ponies. It was a perfect day and we had stunning views all the way across to Pen y Fan.  At the bottom of the ridge you meet the mountain wall and the Beacons Way path, turn left for the short stroll back to your car. One case of ridge envy dealt with.

Notes: Do this walk before the bracken gets too high, so avoid late summer and autumn. I will be happy to mark up your map and give detailed instructions to any guest wanting to go on this walk. It can be very windy on top and I have been snowed on here in June.

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Sun has finally Arrived



What a difference the weather makes to running a hotel in the country. The sun comes out and the first thing to be done is not sort out the parasols on the terrace but rush to the boiler and turn down the heating, that is the first sign of spring for an oil burning hotelier like me. The first proper sunny weekend of the year and it is a really great to see people outside on the terrace having long lazy lunches, children running around the gardens through the daffodils and even a very plucky young chap called, Isambard going for a swim in the river. Gliffaes seemed to be full of sun and laughter all weekend. We hosted two birthday lunches, a family reunion and a group of dedicated cyclists taking advantage of the hilly roads to prepare for the Etape d Tour under the guidance of cycling guru and journalist, Rob Penn. ( If you are a riding the Etape this year Rob is running two more training weekends from Gliffaes in June.)

More and more of the garden's shrubs, trees and flowers are coming out; magnolias, camellias, blue bells, wild cherry and still the daffodils keep going.

However, not everything is looking quite so rosy. The Icelandic volcano eruption has probably put paid to a whole party of Texans coming to Gliffaes for a wedding next weekend so I now have a hotel to fill in just five days. Anybody like to make me an offer for next weekend? Please do call.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

More Cheese than France

The U.K. has over 1200 different cheeses, more types than France has, which everyone thinks is the home of cheese. Wales alone has about 150 cheeses made by around 25 cheese makers. The growth of the artisan cheese maker has really taken off in the last fifteen or so years across Wales. Farmers soon realised that just selling milk to super markets was not a very profitable business so they decided to add value to their milk by turning it into cheese and selling cheese rather than just milk. Don't just think Caerphilly when you think Welsh cheese, Wales has all types of soft and hard cheeses made from cows, sheep and goats milk, raw and pasteurised.

It was on Friday that I came by all this cheesy knowledge by going to a very informative cheese tasting at the National Trust farm, Llanerchaeron. We spent and hour in the company of cheese expert, David Edwards, who talked us through a sample of ten delicious cheeses from across Wales. Cheese is tasted from mildest to strongest for obvious reasons. We began with a traditional Caerphilly, from Caws Cenarth in Carmarthenshire ( caws is the Welsh for cheese), made from organic cows milk this cheese had a tingly, lemony bite and being quite mild would go wonderfully in a salad. A new cheese to me was the soft mould-ripened, Preseli, from Pant Mawr Farmhouse Cheese in Pembrokshire. A fruity rich taste and a glossy straw colour made this cheese a deserving Gold Award Winner at the 2003 World Cheese awards.

Around the cheese board we went; goats cheese, two different blue cheeses, smoked cheese and even a scrumptious soft creamy Pont Gar infused with Garlic and Herbs which would make a new twist for cheese on toast. Our last mouthful came from the Teifi Cheese Company in the form of their double award winning, Saval. A semi-soft, washed rinded, raw milk cow's cheese with an aroma and taste not dissimilar to Stinking Bishop. Very strong taste but would be the perfect way to finish up that last glass of red wine.

At Gliffaes we only have Welsh cheeses on our cheese board but this tasting opened my eyes to the many more cheeses out there and added to my knowledge about cheese in general. Look out for some new additions next time you are here.
 

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

High Water on the River Usk

Goodness me we had a lot of rain at the end of March begining of April and the river rose fast and furious, putting paid to any ideas our guests had of fishing over Easter. You would think that everything in the river; fish, eels, inverterbrates etc would all end up in the Bristol Channel, but somehow they all just hide under rocks or move to the edges of the river to ride out the storm. The good thing about the Usk is that the high flows drop off very quickly and within 24-36 hours of the rain stopping the river is back to normal.

This video was taken on Easter Saturday (April 3rd) and just shows the size and the force of the Usk.



Just as an aside, speaking to a couple who were fishing this morning they saw a otter and two cubs swim all the way up our main pool, searching for fish, and paying no head to the two fishermen.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Waterfalls Walk

 Guests often ask us where they can walk and see waterfalls and with all the rain we have had lately I decided to take a wander up Blaen-y glyn and the Caerfanell river, the stream that feeds the large Talybont Resivoir. This stream runs down hill through quite a steep gorge and over a series of about eight waterfalls varying in size from about two meters to about 15 meters. A walk of about an hour takes you to the most upstream waterfall from where you can either re-trace your steps back down stream or strike on into the Brecon beacons.

From Gliffaes, drive through Llangynidr and on to the village of Talybont, turn left over the canal, signed Talybont Reservoir and carry on right to the far end of the reservoir where, after crossing a small bridge, you will see a car park sign saying, 'Waterfalls'. (map reference SO 065 171). Park here and go back on to the lane, cross the bridge and begin walking up stream on the obvious path, it won't be long before you get to your first waterfall. There are several good picnic spots and for the more daring a swimming hole. I think the last  fall is the best and from the top of the gorge you get good views of the central Beacons, which yesterday were covered in snow.

If you want to make a circular walk back to your car, carry on upstream to what was once a small building at map reference SO 059 186, cross the stream (so you are now on the west bank) and head up hill till you get to the path running through the tussock grass under the steep slope of Craig y Fan Ddu. Follow the path south towards the forestry, over the stile into the woods and keep going south. The track will bring you out at a another car park above the one you left your car at. Just before the gate on to the main road pick up the path downhill throught the woods to return you to your car.

All in all about 2 hours walk at a very reasonable pace.