It's becoming a tradition ... the first full weekend in December is our Christmas meet - once again in Snowdonia because the bunkhouse is free!
Six of us travelled across to Hendre Isaf on Friday evening, all glad to arrive before Storm Darragh hit. We all received the Government red alert message as we drove - saying the red alert began at 3am on Saturday and giving advice about how to prepare for loss of power/electricity and generally keep safe.
Sure enough, the gales blew all night and it was no surprise that Saturday's workday was cancelled because of the danger of working near trees, flying debris and it being unsafe to be out and about.
What to do now ... well, Denise and Martin both reached for jigsaws of which the bunkhouse had several and we set to work solving them. We had this 500 piece one done by 11am. Neil was given the honour of putting in the last piece!
On several occasions the lights all went out, only to (thankfully!) come back on seconds later. The rain hammered down and the wind blew - at times shaking the road sign outside the bunkhouse!
After lunch the weather had calmed down a little and the rain had stopped. Five of us went on a safely-away-from-trees walk on the road up the valley to the tiny hamlet of Ysbyty Ifan. The river was in spate and was thundering under the bridge. We looked round the church then headed back. Denise used the privvy of a widow who at 86 years old is still farming sheep!
Back at base we freshened up and after a couple of hours were tucking into a scrumptious Christmas dinner of turkey (nut roast for Tim) with all the trimmings followed by Mary's homemade Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. That was a good meal!
Secret Santa then called and everyone received a gift:
We were determined to complete the 1000 piece jigsaw that Martin had started in the morning, and got it done by 10:15pm. Trees and sky held us up for quite a long time at the end. Neil again fitted the last piece! Three pieces were missing and Daniel noted this on the inside of the box lid. It was eight months to the day since the puzzle was last completed and on that date there were two missing pieces!
On Sunday the wind had died down a lot and Lewis confirmed by phone that the workday was on. He met us at Hendre Isaf at 9:30 and we drove in his pickup and Neil's car to the worksite near Ty Mawr. We passed last year's worksite on the way! The task was to remove tree guards from oaks that had not been tended to for years and cut down any invasives like birch. The ground was very steep in places and we had to work and tread carefully. The old guards were bagged up and dragged down the slope to the carpark.
Lewis is the TWIG (The Woodland Investment Grant) ranger and will be with the Trust for about 2 years to oversee planting of 100,000 saplings across Snowdonia.
We finished the workday at 12:30, had lunch at Hendre Isaf, tidied and swept up then left for home. All in all it was an excellent weekend, and more sociable than ever because of the enforced day indoors on Saturday.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Daniel
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