A Walk Above Tal Y Bont.

A chilly wind and some haze at times but mostly sunny today. A good day for walking in the hills.

I accepted the offer of a lift with a couple who live around the corner but when I got there they were quite surprised as they hadn't realised that the clocks had gone forward an hour. If I hadn't of turned up they would have missed the walk! We met up with the rest of our group at Tal Y Bont, left one car there and drove up to Taliesin's Grave a bronze age cairn later said to be the resting place of the poet Taliesin. To our surprise the harp that we had seen on our last visit was still there.

Our walk today was mainly on quiet roads with a few footpaths through fields full of sheep and lambs and one steep climb up a wooded slope that ruled out the walk as being suitable for Peter.

We crossed the Afon Cletwr by a stone bridge the sturdy construction of which made us wonder if it was part of the old toll road system.

Eventually we took a footpath to a high point on some rough ground. We opted to sit sheltered from the wind looking back across our route (Taliesin's Grave is on the hill directly behind the tall tree.) Afterwards we ventured onto the windy side for views out to sea. (Below.)

We returned along the same road we had walked down.

Today is Mothers' Day and I was thrilled to have a long phone chat with Romas this morning. (I suspect Peter might have sent out a reminder.) Later I got to thinking about why I find the day difficult. Apart from losing Linas, Mothers' Day has never been a big thing in our house. For a start it didn't feature as part of our mine and Peter's upbringing. The Lithuanian Mothers' Day is on a different day and for Peter it was about a special mass in church and flowers for the mothers and for me I don't recall anything. I was at boarding school from the age of 6 and I suppose it was thought that making a card or a present would simply have reminded us that we were away from our mothers. Very different from when I was teaching young children when making and writing a card and making a present were great teaching opportunities. When I was older school was for education and not doing fun stuff and with no extended family, television and of course no internet how would I have known about Mothers' Day? I think it was more when I was teaching and hearing from other members of staff how their families treated them that I began to feel I was missing out. And now of course I just miss seeing our sons. Which is probably what all mothers with spread out families feel.