Music and Life on a Hill in Wales
Westsongs
This might be the equivalent of me getting the baby photos out, but you can never have too much Gwen and Emrys in my opinion.
Actually, I’m wanting to catch these moments with Gwen. As you can see from the video she doesn’t walk that easily, and it may be that she won’t want to do this walk for too much longer. Time is precious. As are memories.
I created this for my mum’s memorial service – she died in 2011.
For me, writing the song was a really good way of sorting out my feelings and helping me to focus on my grief, when there were so many other pulls on my time and attention. Sorting through old photos and adding the slides has given the song another dimension, and invites me to come back, listen, watch, remember …
The “Before time” phrase, and a few fragments of the lines first came to me some years ago on a retreat, but I’d never found a place for them.
The Alpacas, and Gwen, at Pistyll Gwyn in 2014. The music is ‘Water falling’ (edited) from Music from Holy Vale.
I wanted to capture our remaining alpacas in the last year of our alpaca business. We still have five which we keep as expensive lawnmowers, but some of the ones here have now left us, one way of another, so I’m pleased I made this little film.
Three minutes of October 2013 at Pistyll Gwyn, Talog.
The oak tree in the video is from the garden of my parents old home in Wisbech. It had self-seeded and was in a place where an oak tree would never be allowed to grow, so they brought it here. Like all our trees, it has been slow to get started, but this year it has really picked up.
The alpacas had been up in the south and east paddocks. They now have the full run of the field, but tend to be down near the barn more. It’s the first year that we have plenty of grass going in to the winter.
And up in the woods, me and Gwen play stick, of course.
Me and Gwen, having a laugh in the woods and the field. Not much else to say about it!