Ronald Hutton recently asked Jim...when going home to Rhos Hill, where do you cross the Tiefi? We thought that was a very good question; the Tiefi (pronounced like ivy with a t) runs from the Cambrian hills to the east of us, and can be spotted running from the Lampeter area all the way to Newcastle Emlyn then onwards into the bay of Cardigan. We must cross it at some juncture when driving from the M4 to home. But where? As far as we can tell, we cross it at the Llandysul bypass, but although we can see this on the map, we can't see it as we drive. Perhaps there is a conduit under the road.
We know where we cross it at Newcastle Emlyn, the river winds around the ruins of the castle then under the bridge we take home.
We know where we cross it at Newcastle Emlyn, the river winds around the ruins of the castle then under the bridge we take home.
We traced some of the river when Claire Peacock came to stay. She stayed for three nights, which was a magnificent chance to discover more about the area. I was glad of the company because Jim was staying with his aunt, Dot, while she was in the very last stages of her fight against cancer.
Claire is an old nursing friend of mine (not that old, of course) and she loves gardening so she was quite a welcome kind of guest, weeding flower beds and digging vegetable beds, so huge thanks to Claire. We did enjoyed Newcastle Emlyn, tracing the river around the ruins of the castle, where it runs in a loop forming a natural moat. We also went to the Cenarth Falls, where the coracle centre is, on the way to Cardigan and Poppet Sands.The border between Camarthenshire and Ceredigion runs entirely along the Tiefy, and so, as you cross the bridge at Cenarth, you move from one county to another. The Welsh seem to have a particular affinity with their rivers...everywhere we go, they have called their houses, there businesses, their pubs and cafes, their villages and towns, after rivers. Note that, next time you talk about Abergevenny, Aberystwyth, or even Cardigan, because it's Welsh name is Aberteify.
Once we’d had our fill of the Teifi in all its aspects, we found Castell Henllys, a reconstructed iron age fort with several roundhouses and people sitting around fires in Celtic costume. It's well worth a visit, especially the Celtic herb garden.
Claire is an old nursing friend of mine (not that old, of course) and she loves gardening so she was quite a welcome kind of guest, weeding flower beds and digging vegetable beds, so huge thanks to Claire. We did enjoyed Newcastle Emlyn, tracing the river around the ruins of the castle, where it runs in a loop forming a natural moat. We also went to the Cenarth Falls, where the coracle centre is, on the way to Cardigan and Poppet Sands.The border between Camarthenshire and Ceredigion runs entirely along the Tiefy, and so, as you cross the bridge at Cenarth, you move from one county to another. The Welsh seem to have a particular affinity with their rivers...everywhere we go, they have called their houses, there businesses, their pubs and cafes, their villages and towns, after rivers. Note that, next time you talk about Abergevenny, Aberystwyth, or even Cardigan, because it's Welsh name is Aberteify.
Once we’d had our fill of the Teifi in all its aspects, we found Castell Henllys, a reconstructed iron age fort with several roundhouses and people sitting around fires in Celtic costume. It's well worth a visit, especially the Celtic herb garden.
After Claire left, the weekend passed traumatically and we both felt exhausted at the end of it. We were invited to a wedding party, but for me, it was the wedding that never was. Simon and Henrietta were getting married at the Guild Hall in Bath, and then having their party at Dick Willows, a cider farm and garden centre with a lovely cafe; we’d eaten there before. We were really looking forward to it, as Simon and Henrietta were getting wed in Indian dress and the food was going to be traditionally prepared Valencian paellas. On the way there, we dropped in to see Bill, my cousin. He’s was Frenchay hospital after breaking his hip. He fractured his neck of femur in Southmead hospital, having gone in for a simple routine procedure. We arrived to find him extremely ill, after contracting the Norovirus in the ward after his operation. I have to say I was upset by what I found. The ward was so short of staff; one nurse walked off the ward sick while we were there. He’d been isolated in a side ward because of his infection, he was left for long periods, confused and semi comatose. As a huge coincidence, Claire’s partner, Steffan (yes, he is from Wales), works on the ward that Bill was on...although I’m certainly not blaming him for the way things were. Jim went on to the wedding party to deliver our gift and send our apologies and he had a great time for a few hours. He came back and we decided to stay the night, so that we could care for Bill for a little longer. He only lost his wife two years ago. She was my Godmother, but he looked after her for almost 40 years as she got progressively worse with rheumatoid arthritis, so I felt it was particularly cruel that this had happened to him only 18 months later.
Bill died on Monday, so I’m very glad we stayed with him. Jim’s aunt Dot died last Tuesday; so we have two funerals to get through in the next week or so. We feel a little shaken up by these events, but Branwen (our adopted granddaughter) is coming to stay this weekend, and I know she’ll cheer us up. We may even try tracing the Teifi again!
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