How green was my valley

After the latest trip to care for my Dad, I went down to South Wales to stay with some friends. They moved there a few years ago from Essex, realising that for what they could get for their little box of a house in London they could buy a decent house with no mortgage in Wales. D. is an entrepreneur, really, though I don’t think he’d really go for that description: he makes most of his living as a DJ (see http://www.dltservices.co.uk/), and by going up to Essex at weekends he can usually make enough for the week’s wages, though he’s moving some of the work down to Wales as well. They have both thrown themselves into the local community: T. organised a charity walk last year for gender-specific cancers which was a great success (see http://www.steppinthevalleys.co.uk/index.htm) and is doing another one in 2007 – all welcome so if, like me, you’re looking to get fitter and lose a bit of weight then do start training and join in! T. is also involved in a project to reclaim an area of wasteland and turn it into a leisure part, with an outdoor gym, an education area, wetlands, trees, and all kinds – a really good place to go with the family for a day. They are putting in a Victorian style iron bridge over the stream and it should provide a habitat for a variety of bird and plant life. I just get lost in admiration at they way these two put their energies to constructive use!

On the Tuesday, we decided to go out for a walk – we set out on a heritage walk, but hadn’t gone very far when we decided instead to climb the mountain opposite. (It’s 550 m high, so qualifies as a mountain.) We took the car as far as the road would allow, to avoid the boring bits, and then went on from there. The views were great, and I was pleasantly surprised to find I could manage the climb without feeling unduly puffed – in fact coming down again was much more difficult on the calves as not all the route was on paths and some was traversing fairly steep slopes. But half way up we could see down into the next valley, where there was a reservoir with a heron standing looking for food: and on the way down we saw some buzzards (sparrowhawks, as D and T prefer to call them) – magnificent birds, hovering over the pasture looking for small furry creatures for lunch, and then swooping down on their prey. Seeing this kind of natural phenomenon, this example of life undamaged by wretched humans and their greed, you feel optimistic and at one with the Cosmos, a small creature in a huge universe and one which has no right to pollute and destroy it as we do. T. is doing more than most to redeem some of the ravages of money-making: would that we all did our bit to that extent, or even were aware of the need! A green valley, indeed, down in Nantyglo and Brynmawr: long may it stay that way.