What a Shame Not To Have A Camera!!!

It’s just not the same blogging without a camera! I have just arrived in Manchester today after my four weeks in the North West of Wales.

I didn’t have far to go from the beautiful magical mountains of Eira, Snowdonia, to reach the center which is located on the Llyn Peninsula of Wales. Both areas are a strong hold for the Welsh language and not exactly known for their shopping centers and crowded cities. The history of the name Llyn itself is said to be Irish, and related to the ancient kingdom of Leinster in the East of Ireland. Though most of the Irish have long since departed, there was definitely a connection between the two areas, and traces of the history remain in place names and ancient archeological evidence. Geographically, the peninsula is fairly flat and bare, though it has a few mountains and beautiful forests, and the sea has always been a part of life for the inhabitants.

Felin Uchaf itself is located in the south west of the Llyn. The full name is Menter Felin Uchaf which means in Welsh – Upper Mill Venture. It is called upper mill because the building itself, though no longer a mill, was once a mill. The venture part comes from more recent times when some great minds got together and decided to create a community rooted in sustainability and the traditions of the land.

When I arrived at Felin Uchaf, Upper Mill, was hopeful but had no idea what to expect. I found Felin Uchaf on the WWOOF UK website, before I left. I looked at the website http://www.felinuchaf.org/ it sounded like a terrific idea, but you never know. What I found when I arrived was a sort of commune where I would live with others, primarily two couples one English and one French. The cooking cleaning and work schedules were shared between the group and pretty much everything was shared all the time. The main proprietor of Felin Uchaf, Daffydd Davies-Hughes, was at the center each day to help with the planning and inspire us with ideas.

It was great getting to know Daffydd. I think he is a bit of a dreamer like myself. The anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner was a common theme of discussion and his ideas were definitely incorporated into the center. I had come across the radical thinking of Rudolf Steiner (inset link) before in Chico so it was interesting to see someone putting the ideas into action. The plants in the garden, for instance, were all planted in accordance to the planetary alignments of the great cosmic mystery.

During my three weeks at the center I spent time learning how to thatch roofs in the traditional manor of the Llyn tradition. I built stone walls. I built raised beds for the plants. I built walls of cob (clay and straw). I met local people, practiced welsh and shared experiences with other people living at the center. Most of the days there wasn’t a whole lot of time to do my own thing, but whenever I could I took the time to learn and practice Welsh traditional tunes, and learn the Welsh language. I spent the week after Halloween at my favorite haunt, no pun intended, Nant Gwrtheyrn the Welsh language and cultural center in the Llyn. I’m quite happy to say my welsh has improved dramatically after one week of does dim seasnig, no English. That’s right. For one whole week I did not utter one sentence of English. Maen Fawr Iawn! It was great.

After my week at Nant Gwrtheyrn, I soent Bonfire Weekend in Wrexham, a city with some interesting family history. Then it was back to Felin Uchaf.

I got fairly close with my friends at Felin Uchaf, and parting is always such sweet sorrow. I know someday I will return again though, and I am very curious to see what becomes of Felin Uchaf.

Culture shock was what I expected and what I received when I arrived in Manchester this morning. The first thing I did was walk down to the Weatherspoons book shop where I purchased some literature, including a crash course in Italian, for my next leg of journey which takes me to both Rome the distant Italian Island of Sardina. One of the main attractions in Manchester, other than shopping, is the museum of industry. Manchester was an important center of factory and thought during the industrial revolution, and many Irish immigrated here during the Famine to work in the cotton factories. In fact, I got a ride to Manchester from a nice couple, of whose grandparents were Irish immigrants to the area. The museum itself is very large, and very interesting. I have only seen half of it so far.

I plan to spend the weekend with a friend from Fein Uchaf who lives in the area. On Monday it’s off to Italy. By the way, I searched for pictures on the internet which best convey my experiences so far since I have no camera. It’s a shame mine broke down due to cold weather. The museum said that every year a million phones are thrown away, what a waste. Why can’t they make them sturdier?

Cymry yn eto!

Happy Halloween! It has been some time since my last blog entry, and what an amazing journey it has been so far in my fall travels through my home away from home Wales. After leaving my last WWOOF host I spent an entire week exploring the great outdoors in the Snowdonia National Park. My first stop was Bala, a small town located alongside what I think may be the largest lake in wales, also called Bala. There is an interesting local legend associated with the creation of the lake itself which involves divine retribution on an evil prince who once lived in a castle where the lake now stands. When the Princes domain was flooded the only one to escape was the harp player. It is truly beautiful how deeply embedded music is in the Celtic Consciousness. Not just fiddle music, but the music of the Welsh language itself. Music and sound have an innate ability to express the deep, timeless truths which cannot be easily explained away by words, and the Celts must have realized this. Bards were the links to the spirit world. They lived half in and half out of the physical world and they drew their knowledge from the "music of the spheres" or "the heavens". It felt great to be able to walk into a pub in Bala and exchange a few words in welsh with some local farmers. Then the next day hiking along the lake and surrounding country side was nice as well.

My next stop was the Conwy valley, a hiker's paradise. I stayed at a lovely back-packers barn in a small town just outside the walled castle town of Conwy itself. There was a blue-grass festival going on the first night I arrived and I got to hear some great music. Didn't pull out my fiddle this time since I don't play too much blue-grass, but it was sure nice to listen, and I made some new friends from South-Wales who have welcomed me to stay at their house any time. The next four days I hiked the local mountains and valleys and explored the legends that encompass the area. The height of the hiking for me was to hike up a great mountain named after a distant ancestor Llewellyn the last prince of Wales. There was even another mountain named after his wife Gwenllyn. Nothing like a little outdoors adventure to bring one closer to the natural world, and my next stop Felin Uchaf was another chance to renew my connection to the Welsh land and culture.

Felin Uchaf is situated on the south west of the Llyn Peninsula N.W. Wales. The Llyn is an area rich in heritage, and like Snowdonia, a strong-hold of the Welsh Language. I arrived at Felin Uchaf enthusiastic about the potential for such a place. A natural living center, rooted in the welsh culture, language and traditions seeking to involve volunteers and the community together to bring the past to life. I arrived on a beautiful day, and was greeted straight away by the volunteers and staff. There were two payed staff and six volunteers on the day I arrived. There is also Daffydd Davies-Hughes who runs the venture, and what a venture it was. I felt that I fit in right away. My home for the next three weeks would be a Celtic round hut. I would share meals every night with a diverse group of people. The next three weeks would be exciting, inspiring and educational. When I did find free time, the harp or fiddle were close at hand waiting for traditional Welsh tunes. One night I was asked to join Daffydd in a story telling night for twenty youngsters from a near-by school. My job was to play a tune during the story of the drowning of the lower one-hundreds, a traditional Welsh story recounting the loss of an entire kingdom during a flood. There were always stories at Felin Uchaf. One night a large group of professional story tellers came and we had a fire-side story filled afternoon that no television program can ever begin to compete with. Daffydd himself is a great man willing to spend most of his waking hours working with the volunteers and building and designing the dream of felin Uchaf. Sleeping under the moon and stars and immersing myself in the sacredness of the land renewed my interest in Celtic mysticism, and I came across some great books on the subject of Celtic astrology.

Come Halloween Day, it was time for me to depart and make my way to nearby Nant Gwrtheyrn. The Welsh Language and heritage center. This being my second time at Nant Gwrtheyrn, I am still blown away at the beauty of this little village. Nant Gwrtheyrn used to be the home of a mid-evil king of Arthurian legend called Vortigern. In more recent times it became a granite mining village until it was shut down in the mid-late twentieth century. I will be here for the next week on the foundation Welsh language course. Allot of people ask why I want to learn welsh. I always find that question hard to answer, because there are so many reasons why I want to learn any language, and especially one such as Welsh that has connections with my family. One very important reason is that I think language is rooted in spirituality and a critical component of any movement of cultural movement. It has everything to do with peace and understanding to me. Language includes sounds that work like music to open new doors and paths to all sorts of discoveries and understandings. So, being here is very important to me, and I am very grateful.