Mindfulness in the Welsh Borders

Mary and I spent the recent Bank Holiday weekend at Taraloka Retreat Centre, and have returned refreshed, she to her new home in Gloucester and I to Somerset. Mary’s motorcycle journey took a couple of hours. I spent an hour on a bus, several hours on and off three trains (getting the hang of my I-pod and particularly enjoying Thea Gilmore and the new Elbow CD, and writing a fragmentary account of the journey incorporating words and phrases from the songs), and two and a half hours walking on rather busy roads  (if only I’d taken a map! I could have walked along the tow-path of the Shropshire Union Canal) arriving in time for a very welcome and delicious hot supper.

Iron-work at Bristol Temple Meads Station

Roof structure reflected in a train window

Clock factory near Whitchurch station

Whitchurch Marina on the Shropshire Union Canal

The other side of the bridge

Honesty and Goose-grass

Gorse and birch

Red Campion

Tara

The village church seen from Taraloka

On Saturday afternoon we went for a walk on a National Nature Reserve right on our doorstep. We heard a cuckoo and a woodpecker and that most evocative of sounds, the call of a curlew.

Ironwork at the old peat-works

Bog-cotton

And back along the tow-path: no roads at all!

Cowslips

Taraloka was made by women for women. A resident community lives in the farm-house and a range of barns has been converted for use as a retreat centre. The old farm-yard is now a beautiful garden. A great many trees have been planted.

On Sunday I woke early and went out to listen to the dawn chorus. Once again there was a cuckoo, maybe two. Two cock-pheasants had a disagreement in the garden. A rabbit lolloped across the lawn. Sparrows made a terrific din.

Later Mary and I took another walk along the canal.

There were lapwings feeding in a ploughed field nearby.

On Monday I had a couple of hours in Whitchurch before my train, so I explored this very picturesque small town, which boasts many timber-framed buildings and at least one cast-iron shop-front. I can recommend the Oasis Cafe for tea and crumpets!