100% Pure New Wool

There is a wonderful tradition in Wales of blanket making, when you consider how many sheep there are it is not surprising, but the designs have changed little over time. That is until recently, a fantastic Welsh mill still weaving in a traditional  manner has really gone off on a tangent with some of their designs. The Melin Tregwynt mill is located in deepest rural Pembrokshire and when Susie and I first visited there some years ago we were determined to get some of the blankets to use at Gliffaes in the bedrooms.

We had our first delivery yesterday of 'spotty' blankets and cushions to go on the beds in rooms, 'Cottage 1' and 'Cottage 2'.  The blankets complement the new fabrics and soft furnishings Susie refurbished the rooms with during January beautifully. I am afraid that these photos do not really do the rooms justice but what a difference these vibrant & contemporary blankets make. These rooms also have new paintings hanging in them by local Welsh artists; Dionne Sievewright, Viv Luxton and Rhoda Partridge. The cottage rooms are big, warm and large enough to fit an extra bed in if you are coming to Gliffaes with children.

Useful links : Melin Tregwynt

Best Walk near Gliffaes

The Crickhowell Walking Festival ended on Sunday and I think was generally regarded as the best yet, with about 1100 people taking part in some form or other and some 65 lead walks organised over the ten days. The second walk Susie and I led on Thursday of last week is really one of the best walks to do while staying at Gliffaes. It is about 11 miles long and will take about 5 hours to do with a good stop for lunch. It can be shortend very easily down to about 8 miles.

 The walk starts just behind the small village of Bwlch (SO161 224), about a 5 minute drive from the hotel. There is a short steady climb to begin with up on to Mynydd (mountain) Llangorse. The path then follows a glorious ridge for about 4 miles north with great views of Llangorse Lake and the Brecon Beacons off to the West and the Black Mountains off to the East. The ridge is home to a heard of Welsh Mountain ponies who live up there all year and is also a great spot to collect wimberries in the late summer. The route takes you down the end of the ridge and then straight up the steep south face of Mynydd Troed, a lovely hill not yet overrun with bracken but still covered in heather. We stopped on a sunny bank here for lunch. Come off the hill at the SW end and cross the lane at Blaenau- draw before picking up the obvious bridleway back to where you parked you car. The shorter version would be perfect to do with children as we can show you how to avoid the two steep climbs.

Spring Flowers at Gliffaes

It was just before Christmas that a little white showed on the Snowdrops by the Lodge. Now, over two months later Galanthus to use their proper name are in full flight everywhere. The very cold weather has extended their season and there is a bumper crop as result. Specialist growers with often hundreds of different varieties would expect to have blooms well into March but with only three or four different kinds here at Gliffaes we are delighted, and they certainly cheer up a dreary winter's day and give us hope for Spring!

Winter Aconites began to appear in January and add a welcome touch of colour. The first Camellias are beginning to peep through, as always the white ones first. Their foliage is invaluable in flower arrangements, and like the skimmia which saves the day in vases at this time of year it lasts for a long time in water  inspite of central heating.

The next excitement will be the daffodils which are just about to bloom and very late they are this year to. (I've cheated actually and encouraged some to flower in the kitchen near the Aga!) Unlike the Snowdrops, which naturalized in vast numbers but are very ordinary varieties, we have a large variety of Daffs and Narcissi ensuring a good long flowering season and a  regular supply of  fresh flowers for the Hotel. This season I must remember to count just how many different ones we have. Roll on warmer weather.

The Fishing Season is back

What a beautiful day. I couldn’t resist going to the river with the two black dogs to see if there was any movement. One of the things about the Usk at this time of year is the importance of arriving on time for the hatch, and its early this early in the season. Needless to say I think I was too late, but it didn’t matter. You must be there by 10.30 am.

When the sun is out and its warmth is having an effect on your back you really feel that at last winter is losing its grip. On my knees looking under stones with a shallow flow I found exactly what I expected – trillions of fresh water shrimp and a good spattering of nymphs mainly olives, but I am not expert in distinguishing which are which in the nymph department. This year on the Usk we are doing a survey on March Brown numbers so if you do come and see any bring home a sample and identify where you saw it.

As I walked up the beat most of the wildlife one expects to see was there, mallard now all paired, the odd dipper but not many about as they are sitting, and I didn’t see a kingfisher though plenty of noisy wrens! Joys to come will be the various wagtails, sandpipers and later sand martins, house martins, swallows and swifts.

It is a stunning river and a delight to see the whole thing springing back to life. No reports of any salmon yet. Last years official catch was 488, well down as were all other rivers in the UK except for the Dee in Scotland which was 7% up probably because of 100 % Catch & Release law.

Nick Brabner

Useful links
River Usk March Brown Survey

Crickhowell Walking Festival

It's Wednesday and it is smack in the middle of the Crickhowell Walking Festival - a ten day long event of daily walks guided by locals around the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons. This is the third year of the Festival and it gets bigger all the time with over 60 walks this year. It is a community event put on by local volunteers. The idea is to bring people into the area at a quite time of the year, trouble is the locals enjoy it so much not a lot of outsiders get a look in.

Susie and I are leading four walks between us, the first was today, a circuit of Tor y Foel, a distance of around 10 miles. We each had a group of about 15 walkers with us and set off with a 15 minute interval between the groups. This is a great walk to do right from the hotel's front door and has a good mix of terrain and nice steady climb to the top of Tor Y Foel from which you get wonderful views of the Beacons and the Usk Valley. It was chilly but clear on top with ice on the puddles. Home via the Brecon Canal in time for tea by the fire, about 10 miles in total. In fact, the walk works as a marketing exercise as well. We get everyone to meet at Gliffaes, so they get a look at the place and we time the walk to finish just as we are serving afternoon tea! It is well worth thinking about for next year if you are keen walker. If you give us enough notice Susie or I would be happy to take you out into the hills around Gliffaes.

Useful links:
Crickhowell Walking Festival 

Singing for their Supper

One of the perks of running events at Gliffaes is that, although it is hard work to organise, it is fantastic to join in! I love music and Saturday night was our annual opera evening, a charity concert for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and George Thomas Hospice Care in Cardiff.

This year the singers were Penny Chalmers and her husband John, Alison Duguid, Eric Roberts, Harry Nicoll, John Games (from Llangynidr) and Virginia Kerr. David Seaman from the WNO was a hero as he had to step in at the very last minute to replace the pianist who had injured her hand.

The programme was a mix of favourite songs ranging from Mozart, Verdi and Humperdinck to Offenbach and Gilbert & Sullivan and many more. John Games, our neighbour and local Bass, also sang beautifully to add a little local flavor to the evening. I particularly enjoyed his Drinking Song, which he performed with relish!

It is pretty special having professional voices accompanied by a grand piano in your sitting room and it is certainly very different from actually going to the opera. The sound is fantastic and really very uplifting and powerful. The singers certainly brought the house down and everyone had a great evening. Most importantly we raised £1300 for this year’s very deserving charities.

Fresh and Local

Fresh and local, that’s how we like our meat at Gliffaes. When we can we like to get a whole carcass and do the butchering ourselves. We can’t manage a cow but lamb, small pigs and roe or fallow deer we can. It means we  hang the meat for the right amount of time and cut it into the portion sizes we want. Karl Cheetham, head chef, will make sure that pretty much every inch of the carcass is used.

In the clip below we can see Carl begining work on a fallow deer from the Forest of Dean