Carmarthenshire – John and Liz Burton

Working on the Land

Since arriving here in Carmarthenshire last November we’ve been taking our time to decide what to do with things. We do not plan to actively farm our smallholding but to get the land back into shape before perhaps letting the pasture for sheep, creating some more woodland and harvesting the wood from our established woodland.

hedge — The Newly Cut Back Boundary and Repaired Fence

During January and February John spent some time with our adjoining neighbour cutting back the overgrown branches and mending the fences as the existing posts were breaking off. During March we have had such a long spell of dry warm weather that we started cutting up the timber and burning the brash.

chainsaw — Liz 'poses' with the Chainsaw (Wot no protective trousers or gloves?)

fire — John Gets the Fire Going (eventually!)

We did get quite distracted watching the Buzzards and Red Kites circling above us in the valley.

house — Our House Down in the Valley Below

Tony Furtado at the Angel Inn Llandeilo

We drove off to LLandeilo on a bitterly cold night. This was a good concert in the upstairs room at the Angel, if it was a bit (Ed. very!) cold. Tony Furtado is an American banjo and slide guitar player, playing Americana, bluegrass and folk music. He has played with people such as Allison Krauss and Tim O’brien. I thought he was excellent in his own genre but was not too keen on the Irish tunes. He had 3 other people playing with him that night all good especially the two female vocalists. It was an enjoyable evening listening to a different genre of music.This concert was organised by the Llandeilo Acoustic club and they do have some good people playing in such a small town. Andy Irvine had played there in the past so we shall be keeping a lookout for what’s on.

Moving to Wales

We eventually moved to Wales at the end of November 2010 just a few days before the worst weather in the UK since the 1960’s set in. Luckily we had deliveries of oil and wood soon after moving otherwise we would have had a very cold time as the lanes around here were impassable and we did not even have post delivered for nearly a month.

The house is very easy to keep warm and we only had one mishap with the water freezing in the UV filter outside. John, ever resourceful, soon had that sorted out and it is now insulated. We were lucky as some of our friends were without water for several days.

Sheep in The Snow — Sheep in the Snow Near our House

The snow may be a nuisance but it was certainly very beautiful around here on the hills and trees so we took advantage of it with local walks to take some photographs.