I’VE had a long weekend away, re-kindling my artistic proclivities by staying in a yurt on the edge of a moor in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire; also the source of the blue stone used to build Stonehenge. It is an ancient landscape of winding roads, erratic stones strewn across the landscape, burial barrows, stone circles and various other random dolmens. Overwhelmingly Pembrokeshire is defined by its patchwork of green fields that hug the coastline right up to the lips of the characteristic Pembrokeshire cliffs.
On the way down to Pembrokeshire was Aberystwyth, home to the sister of my alma mater university, and also home to a fine promenade (see pictures below), great cafes, and delicatessens. Also not far from Aber is Machynlleth and the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). When I first visited the CAT 12 years ago, on a university field trip, green technologies were bulky, poorly commercialised and required a significant commitment to implement. However, times have changed, and it’s never been easier, or cheaper, to make the change to green energy, water and waste recycling, and sustainable lifestyles. The CAT is looking a little dated in some areas (most notably the rickety old water-powered funicular, which isn’t exactly a technology that should be rickety), but in other areas it has continued to grow, develop and implement newer green technologies.
One thought-provoking CAT display is a pictoral time-lapse of landscape (mis-)development between 1953 and 1975, with obvious connotations of the negative impact of urban development. I photographed them and reassembled them here, which is the image on the left of this post.
Also at the CAT I discovered the Small House Society, something I’m sure has been rather more successfully promoted in the USA, but alas has received little notice over here. Spending time in a yurt, with a small adjoining shed containing a mini kitchen and shower, a hay bail to piss on and another small shed containing a sawdust toilet pit, it makes you wonder just how much space we really need. I guess the point it, if you live in a beautiful place, then sacrificing your living space isn’t too much of a chore; if you’re trying to ‘get back to the garden’ in a Joni Mitchell sense, then surely it’s better to have more garden than house? It’d be nice to see more communities of small (<300 sq yd) houses, rather than sprawling urban ribbon development.
Speaking of the yurt, on the same grounds was a pottery studio where I learnt to ‘throw a pot’, which is apparently pottery parlance for the making of a pot using a wheel. I have subsequently returned home with several new dishes, some random small pots, a coffee mug, a milk jug and a strong desire to add ‘Potter’ to my long list of alternative creative career options.
Four days isn’t really a lot of time to see everything, and rather than bore readers with a long account of a destination that you are better off visiting, rather than reading about, here are a few taster photos:
I will add to these as and when I make headway through the seveal hundred captures I made!
Mental Indigestion 