Monday 1 January 2018

Househunting out in the wilds of Carmarthenshire


Over-catering, as always, for when friends came round.  I bought Tam a copy of "Making Winter" by Emma Mitchell for Christmas.  It is a lovely book and I may treat myself at some point in the year to come.  The Plum, Orange and Ginger cake came from there and Oh My Goodness, it is GORGEOUS.  I will put the recipe up tomorrow, as it's too good not to share.  I made Ham & Cheese Pinwheels too.  Years since I last made those, but it was good to revisit them - they are so tasty.  Just puff pastry, spread thinly with mustard and then chopped ham, and a good covering of cheese.  Roll up and slice into pieces, brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.  However, I am going to have a break from baking for a while now.  We have a Fair at the end of the month, but it's not the one where I bake and share with everyone so I shall just do some muffins of some description.



It was a grey and gloomy and wet day last Friday.  Tam wanted to check out a couple of properties as she and her partner intend to move back to Wales, and it looks like Carmarthenshire is top of the list - which means we probably won't go as far as Herefordshire now when we downsize and will either stay in the county or just over the border in Breconshire or Monmouthshire.  We love Crickhowell in the Usk Valley.  Such a beautiful area.

Anyway, this was property number one - a derelict chapel, with 2 acres of land but no planning permission.  When we saw it, we could see why it didn't have planning - we suspected the owner was a farmer and he hadn't applied for planning as the risk of it being turned down was probably quite high and it would have been a waste of his money.  The views were lovely, but views mean you are high up and Tam thought this was too exposed.  Also, a big chunk of masonry had fallen from the wall since the Agent's photos had been taken, and what you hadn't seen from the photos was that the altar end of the chapel had half the wall removed so that sheep or cattle could go in for shelter and to be fed.  Hmmm . . . at £120,000 it was overpriced by a long way.  Plus it was really in the middle of nowhere.




As you can see, ripe for conversion!!!  Though quite into what, I can't say . . .


Here are a few photos of the beautiful countryside on the way from property A to property B.  Probably about 7 - 9 miles from the nearest town (Llandeilo) where the nearest shops are.  The nearest Junior school probably at Talley, although the secondary school would again be Llandeilo. A lot of driving around.





Above: I played around with one of the gizmo's on my camera (don't know what I pressed to get the short cut to it though!) and was able to highlight the greens in this picture.




We made it to the second property in the higher Cothi Valley.  It was one of a small development of farm outbuildings - barn conversions.  Unfortunately, to see it close up, it would have been a bit like driving into a close and then out again, which we didn't care to do, as the other properties were all occupied.  It was clear that the river was very close to the whole development, and perhaps the risk of flooding (even if it had never happened) was the reason why this particular property hadn't sold at auction, even with a very tempting come-on price (not much higher than the ruinous chapel).  It was in a beautiful setting though, and there was a little family of Bullfinches along the trackway (you can just see two males in this picture). 

Now Tam has gone back home, and we have a day off today to play catch up.  Home Economy of course, now that the tree is out and the decorations down, and beds used over Christmas need stripping and laundering.  But first . . . I want to try and finish my Twister table topper this morning, so watch this space.

9 comments:

  1. Houses sound a bit dicey - bullfinches are delightful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The idea of seeing these "marginal" houses was to strike them off the list of possibles! It worked.

      Bullfinches are something we see regularly here, especially along the lanes, though we have some who appear in the paddock and hang-out in the copse by the stream.

      Delete
  2. I love to catch a glimpse of a Bullfinch - a very rare occurrence round here.
    There can't be many derelict barns etc left to renovate, when we were toying with Wales ( for about the 5th time in our marriage) everything seemed to have originally been a barn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't realize the Bullfinches were rare on your side of the country. Tam is looking in Carmarthenshire as there still seem to be derelict barns and/or houses to do up, with a bit of land (though that is usually the bit that puts the price up too high.)

      Delete
  3. We've been looking at barns too and I think a cold wet winter is the ideal time to view such properties. I would love to live in Wales (Usk valley - yes please!) but work precludes that sadly. We've been down to Ditchling today where there is a wonderful new museum devoted to local arts and crafts. It poured with rain all morning but the sun came out in the afternoon so we pulled on our wellies and had an extremely muddy walk up to the Downs and then a beautiful cross country drive home guided by the full moon. I gave a copy of Emma's book to my baking and making daughter too. She arrived home from university (where she's doing a Master in Medical Humanities, focussing her studies on euthanasia!) mid-December and in the period before Christmas she knitted two long chunky scarves with squishy wool and baked to her heart's content. I cannot wait to get patchworking again tomorrow, once some home economy has been achieved, although I won't be doing bed washing just yet as we have a family trip to see The Box of Delights (one of my favourite childhood books) at Wilton's Music Hall on Thursday. Happy New Year to you dear BB!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That new museum in Ditchling sounds great and right up my street. I'm glad you were able to take advantage of a break in the weather and get a walk up on the Downs. It seems we have similar daughters with similar tastes in books. I did smile at her choice of study focus . . .

      I did some quilting today but didn't make a start on the quilt for our bed as I threatened. Slap hands. Enjoy the Box of Delights.

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. We still have a goodly supply here, lingering from Christmas, though I did eat the oldest remnant for my lunch today . . .

      Delete
  5. What a contrast between your homey and inviting kitchen, the beautiful table spread with treats--and then a gloomy, foggy, chilly venture to near derelict properties.
    We've viewed a few properties over the years that could have been rescued/renovated--but truthfully the expenditure of funds, time, energy to save some of them would have been over-whelming. A renovation project which goes on for too long can set a couple rather seriously at odds with each other.
    That being said, I hope Tam eventually finds something appealing and do-able. That chapel seems quite off-putting!

    ReplyDelete