Gwaith 7: Leaving Corris (8 Oct 2016)

Helo Pawb (Everyone)

Today I finished the first part of my residency. Last night, the Stiwdio Maelor crew, Veronica and her partner Mary and the three visiting artists, Catherine, Zoe and I, went to the Tafarn Dwynant (Dwynant = Welsh for 'two streams') for a farewell dinner. We forgot to take photos, but below is one of me from earlier in the week, taken at The Royal Ship (known locally as The Ship) in Dolgellau. Not all those glasses in front of me were mine.

Drinking at The Royal Ship

Given that it’s been three weeks since the last update about my progress, I thought this is an ideal moment

to sum up my experiences of my time in Corris.

Writing

Below are my writing achievements since leaving Australia:

Draft 3 of the novel: 30,556 words

Interdraft work (structural editing and conceptual re-jigging): 26,604 words

Blog posts and other writing: 4,217 words

Blog posts (including this one): 5

Haiku drafts: 20

Poem drafts: 3

Short story drafts: 1

Given my daily writing time is 3.9 hours and my average word count is 1589, I’m reasonably happy with my efforts, though I am hoping to do much more than this when I return for another 11 weeks at Stiwdio Maelor.

Language

Since arriving in Corris I have attended five Tuesday Welsh Discussion Group meetings at the Corris Institute and three formal classes with Bethan Gwanas at Coleg Meirio-Dwyfor in Dolgellau. I’ve had the occasional conversation in Welsh with shopkeepers, though usually I have had to resort to English after a couple of exchanges. There have been moments when my mind and tongue has responded with Welsh without my thinking about it, which is obviously a result of the immersion I am experiencing over here. Some people have actually noted how good my accent was, which has been pleasing to hear. I’m looking forward to continuing my Welsh practice when I return in November.

Landscape

After my lack of fitness was exposed in the first week when Freya, Yuki and I climbed Cadair Idris, I have been out walking two to three times a week. My muscles and lungs are slowly increasing in capacity, though I won’t know how well I’ve progressed till I climb something equally difficult during my travels in the next few weeks. As for my appreciation of the landscape, I have taken lots of photos and made plenty of notes about the colours and sounds of water, the textures of moss and grass, the colours of the trees as they start turning to autumn splendour, from dull brown to wild yellow to rust red.

Below are some photos of tree, river, mist and cloud.

Some of the woods near Dolgellau

The Afon Dulas, near Aberllefenni

View of the Corris valley, from high on the ridge behind the village

Clouds above the Corris valley

For those of you curious about the village of Corris, I’ve included some photos.

View of part of the surroundings of the village

Andy and Adam's store

Stiwdio Maelor during Helfa Gelf, with Freya out the front doing some writing.
(This was before the new paint job.)

The Slaters Arms and Stiwdio Maelor in purple.
(I'll post a better photo of the new paint job when I return to Corris.)

I left Corris late morning and, after a leisurely drive, with one wrong turn, I arrived at Ty Dderw Country Inn, my home for the next three nights.

Ty Dderw, showing the hedge lining the one side of the long path from the road

After settling in, I went for a walk, but more about this in my next post.

That’s it for now. As always, I welcome any comments.

Cofion Cynnes (Warm Regards)

Earl