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May 10, 2000
We'll see how far I get with this one. I'm in a high school in Wales in their computer lab,
paying about $3/hour to use the internet and I only have limited time before they decide to throw me out and go
home.
Let's get you up to date. I was last in Devon in southwest England, staying with Martin and Helen's family at Eaglehurst.
I had a wonderful five weeks there and then was asked by their neighbors, Claire and Roger, to watch their home
for a week while they were traveling. It was the "house-sitting job from heaven". They live in a modern
home (would fit right in over in N. California), built on the foundation of an old mill, and it's surrounded by
water. After all…it is a mill.
It has a wooden deck by a beautiful pond, with gardens, stonewalls, the works...including both a hot tub and sauna.
Each year a pair of Canadian Geese nest there on this little island on the pond, and the day before I left, five
goslings hatched. So, mom and pop brought them over to show them off. I felt like the proud uncle, as the male
would come up and sit at my feet on the deck while the wife watched the eggs. It was an excellent week - plus Roger
got me my sorely needed tent while in the US too!
I left Devon with mixed feelings, as you might expect after building so many friendships there. But it was time
and I hope to return there some day. Then I spent five days in London staying with my new friend Kate in her beautiful
house there, after which I subsequently traveled by train to the coast of Wales…where I am now.
I'm staying with Jane Whittle about five miles outside Tywyn, which is near Machynlleth - as if you might know
where that is! (Has anyone pulled out his or her atlas yet?) Jane is a marvelous eccentric, a late 60's gal who
has created for herself a garden paradise. Married nearly fifty years, she's lived here for the last ten while
her younger husband lives a more conventional life near London. It all works out quite well, she tells me. Jane
bought a house built in 1620 and has restored it and the landscape around it into something really special. There're
streams, ponds, an orchard, a veggie garden, and flowers everywhere - and they all seem very happy. It is a challenge,
however, as there're badgers, foxes, mink, weasels and polecats trying to steal her chickens and veggies. She also
has a pair of magnificent Indonesian ducks.
We've eaten all our meals outside overlooking the valley, listening to the songbirds, sheep, geese and roosters
carry on with their grand symphony of nature. It is idyllic! She's placed twelve benches of various sorts (one
is a stone statue of a man who's lap you sit in), each of which are strategically located to provide different
visual and sound experiences...like a Japanese Zen garden. I could go on and on. Jane has written a small book
on how gardening can be used as a spiritual practice.
Jane herself has traveled a great deal: five extended treks to the Himalayas alone, one of which took her to Everest
base camp, at over 18,000 feet (gasp, gasp!).
Wales has a much different feel than does England. It's wilder and more rugged. Instead of the gently rolling moors,
these hills are higher and rockier, though still very green. One day we hiked high up to Bird Rock, a huge granite
outcropping were cormorants nest three miles from the sea. Sheep are everywhere, which is a bit of a problem since
the price of wool and mutton have dropped in recent years and many farmers are struggling to keep their land. This
in a country in which where you're from, your roots and your independence are deeply significant to the culture.
Wales over the centuries has been invaded by virtually everyone but the Oakland Raiders, and have been ruled by
the English for about 700 years now, much too their bitter dismay. There're fiercely proud of their Celtic heritage,
their language and their land. Everything is bi-lingual (like Quebec, for example), and sometimes the nationalists
paint over the English part of road signs. But most of the mines in the south have closed too, and now tourism
is essential to the economy so fortunately, for their economy at least, Wales has become increasingly popular as
a vacation destination for the English and many have settled here.
Tomorrow I'll head to South Wales and to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park to camp on the beach. It'll take six
bus connections to get there. Fortunately the weather has been incredible, the first shorts and sandals climate
I've had in the UK. From there I will take a ferry to southern Ireland where I'll explore the south and west of
Eire before heading to France for a 21-day meditation retreat. Busy.
Three men are sitting in a bar: a Scot, an Irishman and an Englishman...all bragging about which country has the
best pubs. The Scot pipes up, "Where I come from, the first pint is free!" To that, the Irishman retorts,
"My pub gives out the first two pints free!" After a pause, the Englishman says, "There are several
pubs near me where they give you three free pints...and then you get shagged (laid)!" Astounded, the other
two ask, "Do you go to these pubs?" The Englishman replies, "No, but my sister goes all the time!"
I read that in the Guardian, by the way.
Some Websites with information about Wales:
http://www.tywyn-today.co.uk/ --Just what it sounds like: Tywyn
today
http://www.barmouthlink.force9.co.uk/tywyn/ --More on
Tywyn
http://www.tourism.wales.gov.uk/ --Official Wales tourism site
Until our next visit...
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Peace
and love
