A bright and sunny, gorgeous day, following a hard frost overnight...we left about 6:30 a.m. to head south to Dafydd Davies' - the Master Stickmaker - home and workshop, in Llanddewi-Brefi. It was about three hours' drive through beautiful country. We drove through a place called "Devil's Bridge", that Elgar had mentioned to us. Our destination was about 20 miles from Aberystwyth...where the ISDS International sheepdog trial has been held in the past, and where it will be held in 2020.
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| I had anticipated getting to this village for so long, I took this picture through the windshield! |
We arrived, and DD was so sweet and kind. We had a wonderful time. He showed us his shop, and the horns and shafts in all phases of assembly. We took a breathtakingly beautiful custom stick home for Mary Minor. It is a fascinating process to hear him speak about how he acquires the horns, and the shafts, and then builds them out into custom works of art.
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| Where the magic takes place -- DD's workshop! |
I bought some whistles from Dafydd to take home. Some for gifts, and some for me. I bought three buffalo horn and three polymer -- which were in two different widths. The horn whistles are made from scraps of horn not used in the stick handles, at least in the case of the buffalo horn whistles. Nothing is wasted! I am wishing now as I write this, that I could have bought more polymer whistles...but I also remember that we bought almost everything that he had made up and ready to go. Earlier in the year, I had bought a Welsh Mountain ram's horn whistle, made by DD, and imported by Nina Fox of Stockdog Gems. I wore the whistle that day, and I gleefully waved it about the workshop as it had returned "home"... for "luck". LOL.
DD is so friendly, gregarious, and kind. His wife made some Welsh cakes for us, and he fixed us coffee and tea, to our liking. It was very enjoyable. Then we piled in his van and he drove us out to their family farm. His brother and nephew farm there, and DD helps them from time to time when they need an extra hand.
Their farm is beautiful, and so tidy. The sun was shining and it felt like heaven. I do believe that heaven is in Wales, at least for me. They had just finished lambing, a few weeks before, like at Glyn's where we had been staying in North Wales.
They lamb inside, in two gigantic sheds. They have a fresh water system running down both long sides of the shed, so that the ewes can access it. Then when the lambs are 1-3 days old, they are turned out into close by outdoor paddocks, The sheep are "improved Welsh Mountain" sheep and didn't have the brownish red markings on them that we had seen elsewhere in Wales. They are all white at this farm. When they gather, they gather up to the top of the mountains, instead of the opposite as is commonly done. His brother's dogs are mostly Welsh sheepdogs although there was one border collie in the group. By the date that we arrived, all of the ewes and lambs were out on the abundant green pasture. It was idyllic.
Dafydd said that if his father were still living, he would have done the same thing for our visit, i.e. take us out to the family farm. He called it "our little mile" -- only in Welsh -- which he translated for us. It was really neat of he and his brother and nephew to share this slice of heaven with Gloria and me.
After we left the farm, he took us by the (now closed) school where Megan Tanner's father was formerly the headmaster. What a nice man and what a great visit we had!
This little village school in Wales is where my "six degrees of separation" with Dafydd began. :-)
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