Letters to garden makers

Dear Monty, This Spring weekend was not what was forecast. Instead of cold wind and rain - warm sunshine and hope in the veins - enough hope for this day - as this day counts as do all days. We walked a part of the hills that we have not walked in our 20 years here, with the staff and friends of our local GP surgery and their dogs. A walk for health organised by Gail Edwards. The familiar valley and surrounding hills were seen from a different perspective. Walking is good not just for the body but for the soul, walking with other fellow humans also strenghens what it is to be human and the need for companionship. Dogs also need walking ! This morning I felt more alive after yesterdays walk. I danced and sung with the chickens - like the fool I am - I feel sorry for my neighbours. Spring has started late here in the Upper Tawe Valley, but it is such a welcome sight again. Every year when the plants wake up - it is as though I have never seen them b

Dear Monty, This experience was uplifting - a walk with two other men coming to terms with the issues that are put our way - the changes wrought by age and retirement, the pain and joy of memories both good and ill. Uplifting though because it is so true that burdens shared really do lighten the load. Forest Coal Pit to Twmpa. I wound up the road from LLanigon in my battered car to the foot of the Black Mountains. I saw a mountain hare A red kite circling A raven And skylarks Over the Gospel Pass to meet Two men Like 'Last Of The Summer Wine' Hedgerows were bursting into new life Arum, sorrel, aconite, digitalis, primrose and budding branches We walked past Journalists houses We pulled up to the ridge on a sunken lane Unburdening on our way Stress and anxiety Passion and dreams and the real things of this strange life Llanthony Priory like a miniature medieval ruin We try and pronounce Capel y Fin and Twmpa E

Dear Monty, If you read this blog you will already know that like the rest of us I have both high and low points in my life experience. Here in hill country the topography seems to rhyme with my internal sense of self - a symbiosis of the external and internal world. I sometimes think that being a human is a largely painful experience especially when we can see the damage we cause to both our environment and one another. Then there is the exquisite painful joy of watching the light over the hills - a kind of deep yearning to be free. Sue and me walked the old Swansea to Brecon railway line - now a cycle route and footpath. The views of this under appreciated valley are magnificent. My mood lifted by the hills and that sudden changing light - patches of sunlight chasing the mountains lighting up the blond grasses and red bracken dried by Winter winds. Just as suddenly my mood blackens like the sky as we drive back down to the valley floor. Plastic bottles, take-away car