A Welsh Back Road

What a beautiful country-side! Having never been to Wales before, I had no idea what to expect. I've learned (often in bitter disappointment) not to take too much notice of the way a country is portrayed in popular culture, or even in the news. So I went to Wales with no expectations, and what I was confronted with blew me away.

As we walked through small-town Wales (not to be compared in the slightest with small-town Canada or America for that matter), we came across not one, but at least TWO health food stores/restaurants. They had organic this and vegan that, and I could not believe it. Even in my quite developed hometown of Pickering (over 100,000 pop.), I had to run around to 5 different stores just to find a place that sold the gluten-free hot cereal my friend requested I bring with me to England.

After an afternoon of wandering around town (the best pasta I've ever had in a restaurant, EVER - creamy, with local ham and cress), shopping at the massive grocery store for items to add to the dinner our gracious hosts were preparing for us that evening (k, you grab these things, I'll grab those and he can grab those..meet back here...5 minutes!..ready...break!), and then a drive through one of the most beautiful rolling landscapes you can imagine (yes! littered with sheep!), we arrived at a beautiful home in the middle of nowhere. Down a crazy old lane with grass growing up the middle, our home for the evening was an old farmhouse, beautifully done up, circa 1840. The fire place alone, floor to ceiling stone, was like something out of well....an old Welsh farmhouse. I've stored the design somewhere in my mind, for use in my own place when I eventually build one, on land I will eventually purchase, hopefully in this lifetime.

Somewhere in Carmarthenshire, Wales. October 2010.