Journey to Black Patch

Cloudy, but mercifully dry today. The morning was devoted entirely to assembling everything we needed to take with us to our holiday house in Norton on the Welsh side of the border between Herefordshire and Powys. We finally got going at half past twelve. The journey as far as  Bronllys outside Brecon wason main roads. The traffic wasn't too bad, and we stopped to buy sandwiches in a filling station at Llanfaes, and ate them in a lay-by on the Brecon by-pass. The next thirty miles of the journey took an hour and a half on narrow country lanes criss-crossing the hills and valleys of the border. Utterly beautiful scenery, as long you as you weren't driving as I was. 

Black Patch is a fair sized old farmhouse converted into a five bedroom holiday let, with all mod cons, on a farm two miles from the village of Norton, which itself is three miles from Presteigne, the nearest place with a supermarket. We shouldn't need anything, given the careful planning of food and drink to bring that's been going on for the past month between party goers. Getting our little VW Polo loaded was quite a challenge, so much so that I forgot to pack any of the wines I've been hoarding for the past two months, and looking forward to sharing. What a disappointment!

The lane up from the main road through Norton was badly potholed and impossible to drive at more that 15 miles an hour. It was a relief to turn into Carter's farm, where the road was metalled if muddy in places all the way up to Black Patch 'cottage', which faces south west, and nestles below a hilltop strewn with trees and a stand of deciduous conifers (I think). The journey took us two and a half hours, rather than the two prognosticated by Google maps, as many of the stretches of road in the last section are narrow and winding. It was impossible to make haste as the car was heavily laden, but we arrived without incident, in time to take a few photos of the landscape as the sun was setting behind multiple layers of broken cloud. Here they are. 

After dark, I walked down the hill in the pitch dark on the metalled access road, sometimes using a torch sometimes not, depending on how much I could see in front of me. From driving up, I knew it was pothole free, so it wasn't much of a risk. In a shallow natural gulley on the south side of the track is a fast running stream called Norton Brook, which runs all the way into Norton Village. I walked as far as the junction with Meeting House Lane, about two miles, there and back. There was no wind and it wasn't too cold. One bright planet was visible through a thin veil of low cloud. With very little artificial light in this valley, it must be wonderful for stargazing, or moonlit walks.

While I was out Owain prepared baked potatoes with smoked salmon and salad for supper, with optional slices of a pungent French garlic sausage, and an excellent Bourgogne Gamay. Then a quiet evening, uploading and sharing the arrival photos, writing, and finally making a drawing inspired by a photo taken back in the autumn of a road in front of a playing field, near Parc Trederlech. It's nothing like the actual photo, but an attempt to convey an impression of shadows thrown by the setting sun. Nice and relaxing after quite a stressful day.