Cyfaredd 5: Spring is a-coming in?

Helo Pawb (Hi Everyone)

Over the last week, we have had glorious weather here in Corris. The sun has been out, birds have been chorusing in greater numbers, and buds are appearing on trees. When I went for a walk on Tuesday, I had to take off my jacket, so warm it had become, though I haven’t acclimatised enough to be like the locals, some of who were almost in t-shirts. For a while it looked like spring had finally arrived, but then the rain and mist returned, sometimes at the same time (see short video below). The last two days, especially, have almost made me feel homesick: sun, then drizzle (or mizzle, as my Cornish friend would say), then rain, then sun—like the famous Melbourne ‘four seasons in one day’.

Below are photos from my various walks to show how the seasons have been changing, sort of, around Corris:

Late Winter

Winter trees

Afon Dulas, looking upstream

Frost on fields

On a clear day you can see for miles. View from a local lookout.

Waterfall seen from the same lookout, days later, after rain

And then the mists descend

Some signs of Spring

First buds (on a blackthorn** bush)

Blackthorn** flowers

First daffodils (Wales national flower)

Lambing season, though I missed taking a photo of the lamb
gambolling around its mother

Afon Dulas, looking upstream, with sun-scald*

Corris in sunshine

Or Not

And then the mist and the rain (filmed today)

Whatever the weather, I am loving my time here. The folks here, in the village and with Stiwdio Maelor, are welcoming and helpful, my studio is a great place to work (plenty of quiet thinking and writing times), and the landscape is inspirational.

On my last trip to Britain, I fell in love with jackdaws. Not sure why. They just seem to have an interesting mix of solo and communal activities.

Jackdaw warming itself on a chimney pot

Sometimes I hear one overhead give a single ‘chak’ and other times when one bird is excited or there’s a whole flock of them:‘chaka-chaka-chak’. Here’s a photo of two having a chat :)

'So, how's the weather?'
'Cold with a side order of wet. Don't you just love it!'

I hope wherever you are, the weather is feeding your soul in some positive way.

Until next time.

Pob Hwyl

Earl

(* See Robert MacFarlane's article on nature language.)

(** My good friend Grevel Lindop pointed out that what I had thought were hawthorn bushes were in fact blackthorn bushes. Thanks, Grevel.)

Cyfaredd 2: First Days in Corris

Helo Bawb (Hello Everyone)

Two weeks ago I arrived at my residency in Corris. The weather here, being further north, is colder than it was in Bridge. On the second and third nights I froze so much I had to wear my thermals under my t-shirt and tracksuit, along with thick woollen bed socks. A day later, Veronica, who runs Stiwdio Maelor, told me about new snow on the mountains between here and Dolgellau, apparently a beautiful sight—no wonder I was so cold. The weather hasn’t been so bad since. We even had a few days of spring sunshine, so much so that people were sun-baking in bikinis, apparently, on the beach in Aberystwyth. From what I know of UK weather, I suppose the people here grab what sun they can get, even if the temperature is barely above ten degrees Celsius.

Anyway, just a little about the arrangement here. I have a bedroom and a writer’s studio, which has a desk, a comfortable office chair, a reading chair and footstool, and a small table on which I’ve stacked research books I’ve brought with me or have been borrowed from the local university for me. Also, three of Veronica's artworks for inspiration, if the landscape fails me. For your interest, here are some photos:

The view from my bed when I wake up.

The view from my desk. Forestry pine trees on the mountain.

My studio space

As for my routine, my days are filled mainly with ‘bum-on-seat’ as I try to nut out this next draft. I spent part of the first week on structural editing issues, prompted by my discovery of this editing framework a month or more ago: www.storygrid.com. However, I knew I had to get into the guts of the story eventually, so on the Friday of that week I started the actual re-writing/re-drafting. The going has been slow, because those issues I mentioned required me to go back to early chapters I had re-written back in Melbourne. I have also had to create some new chapters to fill in story holes I didn’t know I had till I started looking at structure. Only in the last day or so do I feel the work is picking up pace.

When I’m not in my studio, I go for walks, attend the Tuesday morning Beginning Welsh group I discovered in my first week, go shopping in the bigger towns nearby, or go to the pub next door, The Slaters Arms, to use the Wifi and chat with locals.

Some more photos, from some of my walks:

My first walk, up an old forestry track.
Bare trees, but tons of moss and fern further up the track.

Lower Corris, nestled in hills

View of Cader Idris. If you spend the night on the summit,
you come down either mad or a poet. Too late for some of us!

The only real annoyance here is that planes, helicopters and transports (from the RAF base on Ynys Mon, or Anglesey in English) roar low over the valley almost every day. The first time I heard one of these planes, I was shocked by the noise; by the end of the day, however, I became used to it. As someone fascinated from an early age by planes I have enjoyed watching the fighters bank and turn, plumes of engine exhaust trailing behind them, but generally I ignore the noise and get on with whatever I am doing.

Although I am concentrating on fiction during this residency, if poems come then I work on them. At the moment, though, I’ve only been gifted several haiku. Here’s one, prompted by a view out my studio window, after the sun came out for a while one morning, but the rest of the day was misty with a light rain:

mist drips

from beaks of jackdaws—

ticking water heaters

That’s about it till next time. As always, comments are welcome.

Hwyl (Bye)

Earl

Great News!

When I was in the UK last year researching materials and settings for my dark ages novel, I met Veronica, a visual artist who is a friend of one of my ex-students. Veronica lives in Dolgellau, a small village I had chosen as a base of operations for my research activities in North Wales. She took me to her local upon my arrival and made me welcome. Later in the week she showed me one of her favourite walks, the Precipice Walk, which has views of Cader Idris and surrounding country. We spent a wonderful afternoon foraging on blackberries and talking about nature, culture and language, one main topic being the eventual loss of minority languages unless the speakers themselves stop reverting to English whenever communication becomes difficult.

We have kept in contact since my return to Australia and recently Veronica emailed me about Stiwdio Maelor, a new studio complex she has established in Lower Corris, a small village 10 miles from Dolgellau. The studio offers residencies for one to eight weeks and contains two spaces for visiting artists and one for a visiting writer. Each space has a bedroom and an artist or writer’s room and, because there are no telephones, television or internet, one can focus completely on one’s creative projects without interruption. The surrounding areas contain many walks through the beautiful Welsh landscape.

Front of Stiwdio Maelor
Photo by Veronica Calarco

I had been planning to go back to the UK for further research and for visiting friends, but had only considered doing this when my wife, Jo, could take long service leave and we could travel together. However, once the chance of a residency came up, Jo encouraged me to apply, which was incredibly supportive of her. I did apply and this week I received the news my application has been accepted.

So, I’ll be taking up an eight-week residency in early March next year, during which I will work on the second draft of my novel. I am thrilled to be going back to Wales, especially as I will be there in Spring, a season I have never experienced before in my previous travels to the UK, Ireland and Europe. And I am enormously grateful for the chance to spend a great block of time on my writing. I’m sure my adventures there will prompt some poems, too, and I will make sure to keep you all informed of my goings on.

The writer's room: no distractions but the view out the window.
Photo by Veronica Calarco

As being a writer is generally a lonely profession, I have always felt we should celebrate our accomplishments with those sympathetic communities we find ourselves in. Thank you for sharing my news. If you have had any recent achievements, let us know about them in the comments below.

Happy reading, musing, writing

Earl