Capel Dewi Uchaf Country House Diary

Autumn/Winter 2008/9
Capel Dewi Uchaf Country House

As Autumn turns to winter all too quickly, we start to prepare for the coming summer season. The barn conversion is coming along, albeit late! It is nice to see it coming together and looking really beautiful, it has occupied most of our thoughts never mind labours over the last few months, we have had to dig ditches and trenches for the services, paint acres and more!. The drive has been a little embarrassing over the summer months, not that it made any difference to anyone but now that the winter months are here we can at last make a little headway with the redesign of the top of the drive, we have been reluctant to make any amends over the summer as the weather has been very unpredictable, rain being the last thing we needed!

The season has been a little mixed, the weather and the credit crunch taking a bit of a toll on our visitors, what did happen for us; lots of people who have been before came again, it was lovely to see them in their numbers and thank you so very much for all your support. For the British we are so lucky to have so many wonderful places to visit within our wonderful British Isles, there is such a lot of diversity out there. Here in Carmarthenshire we have some wonderful walks along the beaches and mountain passes, the countryside and forests are so lovely to cycle round or even take a leisurely stroll along a country lane. We have a marvellous working relationship with a wonderful local cycle company, we can arrange the hire of cycles for all the family and have them delivered for you which includes a full support network, just to take the pain out of all the arranging what more can you ask for when thinking about ones carbon footprint? Of course we have a credit crunch offer: Stay with us for three nights and we will reimburse you for your entrance to either The National Botanic or Aberglasney Restoration Garden.

Our garden has been fairly productive this year, we made 56 pounds of wonderful organic jam, froze many pounds of fruit which has made many delicious desserts, compotes and the like, so not too bad overall. Breakfast on the terrace was a little dicey some mornings but when we got out there it was really appreciated by the lucky guests, I do love serving Breakfast in the morning sunshine on our terrace.

There have been many festivals in our county this year, the town is getting ready for the Christmas season as many of our town centres do, here in Carmarthenshire we try to find different ways of celebrating Christmas, have a look on www.visitcarmarthenshire.com for up to date details. Of course we have our own Bethleham in Carmarthenshire too, you can have your Christmas cards hand stamped with a Bethleham stamp which I do believe is quite unique.

We are planting even more daffodils again, it has become an annual event! I love to see them coming through the soil at the beginning of Spring, the Tenby Daffodil is a small and resilient variety which I really enjoy putting in every little corner of the garden. The National Botanic Garden and Aberglasney have a good winter itinerary which is a real plus for us as we are almost on the door step of the National Botanic Garden and a really lovely short drive from the road we live on, B4300 or even a nice walk too, we love to go ourselves and enjoy our membership as there is always something different going on.

I paid a really lovely visit to Prince Charles's new country home to see what is being done to this beautiful organic farm, it is a really beautiful traditional Welsh farm, in the heart of the Towy Valley. Although it is not open to the public it is nice to have The Prince of Wales in our County.

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