Last week, plans for a wind farm on my old stomping ground were rejected by all but one member of the planning committee. Before I left the area in 2013, I took some photographs, just in case the wind farm got the go ahead and this landscape I loved so much was lost forever.
I also wrote in my journal about walking there…
Ripples of sunlight reflect off a quicksilver brook, swollen by heavy rain.
The chattering of water tumbling over stones.
Sheep pause their languid grazing to gaze with idle curiosity, wondering why I am wandering in such wilderness as this.
I walk along the hallowed road that echoes with the footsteps of ancient drovers.
The old road winds far away, up and over the hills, farther than the eye can see.
I cannot walk such ancient roads without thinking of those who have trod here long before me.
In my mind, I hear the hollow notes of distant cow bells ringing, and the drover’s voice a-calling ‘hey-hope, hey-hope’.
Over the rise he appears, in broad-brimmed hat and oiled long coat, with his herd of cattle and a gaggle of geese with their feet all tarred and feathered.
I turn away from the ancient path to walk farther still into the mists of history, along the side of a tinkling brook, towards the remains of a settlement and hill fort, older still in its origins.
Faint are the outlines of stone wall boundaries, and crumbled are the circles of stones which once were ancient dwellings.
I sit among the scattered stones where hearths once warmed chilled bones.
There is no sound in this sheltered place but the wind whispering through the grasses and a buzzard mewling overhead.
I feel the tug of time spinning backwards, weaving the thread of my life into the fabric of the ancients.
Wherever I go from here, I shall carry the memory of this place with me until I, too, am no more.
Like the drovers and the Celts, we are all but passing through….
Jenny Lloyd is the Welsh author of The Megan Jones trilogy; historical novels set in early, 19th century, rural Wales.
You can read about the books or purchase them by clicking on the links below.
Leap the Wild Water: http://ow.ly/jEoi302jXkd
The Calling of the Raven: http://ow.ly/4uRO302jXmd
Anywhere the Wind Blows: http://ow.ly/73tq302Ov71
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