The downside to going to bed early is waking up early. The Shipping Forecast has blown through, Storm ten in Rockall, and I’m now listening to Spike Milligan on Desert Island Discs. Disks? Currently playing Yesterday by the Beatles. What’s not to like? I thought to put it on as they were playing Goon Show episodes on Radio 4 Extra but I never really gelled with the Goon Show. Was of its time. Shipping forecast was read by an enthusiastic female presenter. Seems to be a thing, being enthusiastic at that time of day.
Avin a bit of a lie in. Figured I’d wait for someone to offer to cook breakfast. No point in getting up and having to sort it out meself when I have an enthusiastic visitor to sort me. Switched on morning service half way through. All about radical equality. Soz love. Am all for it but it’s not why I listen to the Sunday Service. Switched off again.
Now downstairs wiv a cup of tea waiting for the world to start turning. A Full English has been mooted and I am not going to jeopardise the sitch by having toast as an interim nibble.
Made some progress of sorts with the Family tree yesterday. A couple of people I contacted came back with loads of info. One of the farms, Cwmiar or Cwm y Iar (look it up) as it was in the eighteenth century, has had its outbuildings converted to holiday cottages and I dropped the owner a line. She replied and said her 90 year old dad knew a lot about the Maesnonni farm and they were good friends with the person who runs it now who would appear to be a descendant of the people I am looking at. Wowsers.
My biggest issue is that I now have too many John Joneses to fit into the jigsaw. A John would name his sons John and David, or David and John :). They in turn would also name their offspring the same. Before two long the area was flooded with John and David Joneses. It is very difficult to keep up with it all 🙂
I have no idea how many pieces this jigsaw will have when it is finished. It would be a never ending job if I let it. I have to be careful not to go down too many side alleys. I’ll keep you posted obvs but a visit to the area should help. A stroll around the cemetery taking photos of gravestones. That kind of thing. Someone has already done this to some extent but I don’t have all the info I need.
One of the John Joneses ended up as the rector of a church in Llangunllo (pop 2011 369) which is miles away. The population in the eighteenth century would have been even less. He would have known every single person in the parish. An interesting fact that has come out of my research relates to the growth of nonconformist denominations in Wales. Clerics in the established Church used to whinge about this a lot but the truth be told if everyone in the country rocked up at church one Sunday then the Church of Wales only had capacity to accommodate 25% of them.
Gotta go. Bakson.
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Back in the snug with my fourth cup of tea. A bath has been run. Not for me. The kids like to take advantage of our bath when they come home. They typically only have showers in their own places, or small baths. I have a sonos 5 discretely attached to the ceiling in the bathroom for the specific purpose of listening to toons whilst in the tub. Not that I have a bath that often and usually only in winter. Certainly not whilst I still have a dressing on my hip, waterproof or not.
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Rainy in the shire. Too slippery to venture forth on the crutches. It’s ok once you get to the pavement but hey, it’s rainy. Sat in the snug watching football and rugby at the same time. Both are muted and really I’m only glancing occasionally.
THG got home from her travels shortly after two pm. Trains rammed apaz. A combination of returning end of half term holidaymakers and the fact that a load of trains were cancelled yesterday due to leaves on the line or some similar meterorologically triggered event. Fortunately she had a seat on both trains. A pot of tea awaited her return. Seemed like the right thing to do.