where art collides philosoperontap

October 30, 2024

wading through treacle

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 8:39 am

Bit of a result last night when watching the Imps beat Northampton. Managed to book the hotel we are staying in at the weekend for seventy quid a night cheaper. Always pays to check these things a few days before ya go. Also got double points! Yay. 

Noticeably lighter in the morning when I got up to make the tea. My turn. GMT. It’s almost as if the T in GMT stands for tea. Really it means lighter in the morning when I make the T. Time has no meaning. I suppose time does have meaning really. It’s the be all and end all.

I returned to the bedroom, tea tray in hand, to find the wireless blaring out a news item about the forthcoming budget. Don’t like to think of it. Ditto US presidential elections. I tune these things out. Do the right thing Amurica. 

The one mildly amusing political news item is the Conservative Party leadership election. Two useless candidates who will have no effect on anything, bless. They will be electing someone else within a couple of years. Bless. Thassenoughpolitics.

Scrolling through the paper, so to speak, the only good bit of news I could find was “Majestic brightness’: Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art finds a new permanent home” After decades of nomadic existence, the Polish capital’s art temple is open for permanent business in an inspirational, light-filled new building (Guardian). Comes to something when an obscure article from Poland is the only good news I could find.

Chances are I won’t be going to see that museum. I’m a member of the Tate which is a lot closer and hardly ever go there. I’d prefer Krakow anyway. Great spot. Old, not modern. I realise you can’t blame Warsaw for that.

I’d spend more time reading cookery recipes which you might think would be innocuous enough and free from negativity were it not for the fact that chefs these days struggle to find anything new and find themselves concocting ‘delicious’ new dishes out of obscure or boring ingredients. 101 things to do with pumpkins. The hidden side of broccoli. Sprouts revisited.

Different day today. Dropping THG off at the stayshun then going foraging as I’ll be fending for myself for a couple of days. See what’s fresh in the market. Sokay I’ve done it before. Don’t fret, pet. Won’t be anything out of the ordinary. Maybe a nice quinoa and lentil salad.

Unsurprisingly after my recent post on the subject Facebook is pushing me offers on Nordic socks. Forty quid for five pairs or buy two get one free. So for eighty pounds I get fifteen really warm pairs of socks. Problem is I don’t need fifteen pairs. I don’t need any more pairs as we keep finding the lost singles 😀. Problems problems.

I did the other day make a purchase: “This small corner: A history of Pencader and district by Steve Dube. The definitive and fully illustrated history of this north Carmarthenshire village, including the neighbouring settlements of Llanfihangel ar Arth, New Inn and Gwyddgrug.”

Exciting. I am specifically interested in Llanfihangel ar Arth whence came two of  my 4g grandparents. Doubt they get a mention but am hoping it will be a good read. Arrives tomorrow or Friday, hopefully before I set off for London.

I have several lines of enquiry I am currently pursuing, albeit slowly, in my hunt for my 5g grandparents. 4gs Daniel and Anne Davies’s wedding was witnessed by a Benjamin Davies. Must be a good clue but not definitive proof. 

Dan’s brother David was Rector of Llandysul church and a few outlying places of worship. As part of the established church there must be some record about him somewhere. Need to find it. I have his will which is v interesting. He owned a house in Llandysul which is not an insignificant achievement in the eighteenth century.

Then Daniel’s farm Talgoed was rented from the Coedmor Estate, the records of which, or at least some of them, are lodged with the National Library of Wales. I need to check those out. There was another brother who went to the Unitarian College in Brecon. That may be a useful lead. All the brothers were literate.

Although these people were Davieses I got to them via my 3g grandmother Margaret who married an Evans and whose daughter Mary proceeded to marry a Benjamin Davies. Ben was the farmer who became a woollen factory owner and is a line I have as yet not had time to explore further.

Plenty to be getting on with but trawling through online records is like wading through treacle. 

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress