tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225315728636336152024-03-13T17:40:53.165+00:00Gumboot ConciergeGo to any big hotel in any city around the world and there you will find the Concierge with the crossed keys badge on the lapels of his or hers smart uniform. Their job is to book you restaurants, get you theatre tickets and give you the inside track on their city. Things are somewhat different in a small country house hotel. We don't have a paid up concierge but as owners of Gliffaes Hotel we can give you the inside track on getting the most out of the Brecon Beacons, South Wales.James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-87976671060752519232010-10-20T09:44:00.000+01:002010-10-20T09:44:08.720+01:00Autumn Walking in the Brecon Beacons
My walking friends and I have a tradition of Birthday Walks and this year mine was an absolute corker!
A crisp, clear day with a blue sky heralded what was to be one of my most glorious October walks ever.
We started out from the Talybont side of Torpantau car park (about half an hours drive from Gliffaes), making our way steadily up the steep side of Craig-y-Fan Ddu alongside sparkling James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-22850548506196726102010-09-20T12:12:00.000+01:002010-09-20T12:12:26.120+01:00Autumn Days Out
I thought I would list a few events and some ideas of my own of what to see and do over Autumn in the Brecon Beacons and surrounding country side of Mid Wales.
I was racking my brains of places to see really good Autumn tree colours and after pouring over maps and books Susie came along and said
"We have the best Autumn colours right here at Gliffaes and up and down the Usk Valley walk."
And James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-82364780089040263752010-09-02T13:06:00.007+01:002010-09-10T13:08:48.837+01:00Lamb Cooked in Hay
One of our favorite guests and very loyal friend of Gliffaes, Ken Phillips asked us to a arrange a private dinner in the Drawing Room for his wife's birthday.
"My pleasure", I said.
"What would you like to have on the menu?"
"I'll leave it up to you James, but I would like four courses please. There will 19 of us."
And with that he was off. Now, this is not as easy to do as you might imagine James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-4887551664384212852010-08-12T10:10:00.000+01:002010-08-12T10:10:00.220+01:00
In the interests of researching all good days out around Gliffaes, I decided to take Alexandra, Olivia and some of our French family canoeing on the Wye yesterday.I wonder why we have not done this before? What a fabulous way to spend the afternoon. I think I may do it more often.
Having not paddled an open canoe before, I was not sure what to expect, especially with four children in tow. James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-89080531145094057812010-08-09T11:32:00.001+01:002010-08-21T12:19:14.854+01:00Picking Wimberries
It is around the first couple of weeks in August that wimberries or bilberries (Empetraceae) are ready for picking. These are wild berries found on moorland and mountains across a lot of Wales and uplands in England and Scotland. Wimberries look like small blueberries but are less juicy and more acidic, though just about sweet enough to eat raw. They grow on a low scrubby plant making them James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-30383124527610163032010-07-18T09:44:00.010+01:002010-08-10T18:06:01.715+01:00A Trip to Aberglasney GardensA trip to Aberglasney makes for a great day out from Gliffaes, the journey along the A40 westwards is very straight forward and takes an hour. We often call in here on the way back from Pembrokshire to have a look around and to have lunch in the very good cafe over looking the big pond, over which the swallows and house martens skim over through out the day.
The house and gardens were abandonedJames Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-10897267870383582042010-07-18T09:31:00.003+01:002010-07-26T18:42:30.440+01:00Discover more of Wales.We have been going to the north Pembrokshire coast for about ten years now. Every time I make our annual trip I am blown away by the rugged beauty and by how few tourists there are on this wonderful stretch of coast underneath the Presseli Hills. We base ourselves in the small town of Newport at the mouth of the Nevern estuary in the middle of the Pembrokshire Coast National Park.
The beach hereJames Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-10053905741809046082010-07-12T14:59:00.007+01:002010-07-20T16:46:19.689+01:00A Generous Host + Good Friends + Good Venue = A Great PartyEvery once in a while some generous individual decides to throw aparty for his or her friends, nothing too unusual about this you might think. But when your host decides to take over the whole hotel for a weekend and treat his friends to what is, in effect, a giant house party - that is pretty unusual. No small undertaking and I was very pleased to be entrusted to arrange a special birthday James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-67783084459167667452010-07-05T12:58:00.001+01:002010-07-06T13:26:30.626+01:00Queen comes to GliffaesI bet that headline got you going, well its true, we have two queens living at Gliffaes now. In the beehives at the bottom of the walled garden. Susie and I started keeping bees some years ago when the man who used to keep several hives here passed on. We had some very successful years at first and then we hit a rocky period along with most of the country's bee keepers and had a struggle to keep James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-46949624802247837702010-06-23T12:18:00.001+01:002010-06-25T09:04:55.367+01:00Skip dinner and go Fishing!At the height of summer with bright, hot days and low flows in the river it is almost pointless going to the Usk to fish for trout. The trout are sleeping at the bottom and you will just get hot and bothered wrapped up in rubber waders.
However, if you take the brave decision to skip dinner (or eat something early)and head down to the river from about 8.00pm onwards you could be rewarded with James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-65679016114019843542010-06-14T20:00:00.009+01:002010-06-15T09:38:42.070+01:00Home Grown & LocalThe mixture of sun, a couple of hours of rain and our very own compost ( made from a combination of food waste and wood chip) has meant a burst of activity from our vegetable patches at Gliffaes. Everything Peta has planted seems to be coming up now. While we can't pretend to grow anything like the quantity of veg we need we can grow salads and herbs very easily. During the summer and autumn we James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-71824435297623467672010-06-10T16:01:00.000+01:002010-06-10T16:01:04.374+01:00Evening Trout FishingThat wonderful moment when evening trout fishing is here has arrived. I fished last Saturday and started at about 8pm on a beautiful evening. I set off to the top part of Llandetty where I know good fish live and found lots happening and good sized fish. Using a klinkhammer with a grey body and a grey wolf hackle size 14 I soon found takers but all going short until a fish was hooked. It took offJames Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-2190300711781646342010-06-09T18:44:00.003+01:002010-06-09T18:47:35.031+01:00A Useful piece of Timber
We had this huge oak tree felled a couple of years ago and have since burnt all the cordage on the fires through out the hotel but Nick decided to save the butt and get it cut into useful lengths of timber. So today, Martin and his mobile saw rig turned up and with the help of large tractor and its winch to get the timber into position they got the whole job done in around two and half James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-26843838062396454492010-06-08T11:08:00.002+01:002010-06-08T11:13:19.607+01:00Enjoy a Bike RideAlthough the countryside is not exactly flat around Gliffaes a bike ride along the lanes of the Usk Valley can make for an enjoyable couple of hours. Sitting up on a bike means you can see over the hedges and engage with the countryside, wrapped up in your car, windows shut and air conditioning on, your purr through the lanes filtering out most of what is so special about the landscape in early James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-17350620253382719962010-06-02T11:31:00.002+01:002010-06-03T11:33:46.167+01:00Crickhowell gets a BrasserieCrickhowell has a new restaurant, well brasserie to be exact, the food offering in and around the eastern end of the Brecon Beacons just keeps getting better. This new brasserie, Number 18, (that's the name simply because it is number 18 Crickhowell High Street) has been opened by my friend Steve Lewis who all his business life has relished a challenge. By George he got one when he decided to James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-1239756922856289952010-05-24T10:04:00.004+01:002010-05-24T12:34:55.216+01:00Enjoying Summer Food OutdoorsThe best thing about good weather and Gliffaes is being able to sit outside in truly wonderful surroundings and enjoy a long and leisurely lunch in the company of good friends. Simple pleasures indeed but I think we fail to under estimate the importance of the simple things in life. With so much rush and hassle everyday, two hours sitting in the warm shade of a tree next to an old friend with a James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-37109447863560488982010-05-23T13:58:00.000+01:002010-05-23T13:58:24.966+01:00Festivals, Events and Family Days Out this SummerJune, July and August are when most of the countries big outdoor events take place and the Brecon Beacons and surrounding area has many established events and a couple of new ones have come on to the scene this year or last year. I have listed the events with a link to their own websites along with the time taken from Gliffaes to get to them.
Crickhowell Art Trail - May Bank Holiday weekend
OverJames Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-32787908614237562292010-05-17T10:08:00.001+01:002010-05-17T10:08:33.309+01:00Fly Fishing for Beginners at GliffaesFishing is this country's biggest participation sport and this weekend Gliffaes swelled the sports ranks by another 9 new recruits. Over the last three days we have hosted our tenth, 'Fly Fishing for Beginners' course. Gliffaes is the perfect venue to learn to fish, although not an easy one, we don't stock the river so new recruits have to get used to stalking wild brown trout, which are wild in James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-26463140377326335372010-05-14T13:18:00.001+01:002010-05-14T13:19:15.448+01:00National Garden Scheme & Timber Operations at GliffaesThere has been a fair bit going on in the garden this week. Last Sunday we opened the gardens as part of the National Garden Scheme which helps raise money for various charities but in particular the Macmillian Cancer Care Trust. This meant a flurry of activities; straitening the edges of the lawns and paths, strimming, mowing and sweeping and brushing around the buildings. We opened for James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-11970613706314035702010-05-07T12:23:00.000+01:002010-05-07T12:23:32.184+01:00Guest Report on a Fishing Break at GliffaesThis piece and the photographs has been supplied by Jonathan & Peter Steeds.
To celebrate our fiftieth birthdays my twin brother Peter and I thought we would treat ourselves to the three day fishing package offered at Gliffaes - what a treat it was!
Although we have done a fair bit of still water trout fishing over the years, we are both pretty new to river fishing so arranged to meet up James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-7460367259383380692010-04-29T17:53:00.000+01:002010-04-29T17:53:35.400+01:00Grannom & Stonefly on the UskAs 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 James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-59769771107079024532010-04-29T15:25:00.000+01:002010-05-02T15:27:38.360+01:00Spring Blossom at GliffaesHere is a very short and very amateur video of the wonderful trees in blossom in our garden at the hotel.
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<!-- VZAAR END -->James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-63757477537865657762010-04-26T14:48:00.002+01:002010-04-29T14:53:31.638+01:00Volcanos, 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 James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-23445102610260056502010-04-24T17:33:00.023+01:002010-04-25T18:05:26.319+01:00A 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 James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722531572863633615.post-56395106777795562612010-04-19T09:55:00.000+01:002010-04-19T09:55:50.152+01:00The 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 James Suter - Gliffaes Hotelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14417024951807090736noreply@blogger.com1