The Forest of Dean

Winter is now here - gone are the warmish days and here comes the rain and wind!! We took the car to work one day (the excuse was we needed to fix the window and install the new radio and so we decided to wait for a day where the weather wasn't brilliant for biking). We managed to bike every other day and didn't get too wet or cold. It seems to rain around midday alot and then the mornings and late afternoons are just a bit drizzly. Anyway, we were having some friends around for dinner on Tuesday night and so we decided (or should I say 'I') decided to decorate the fireplace while Harry watched 'Top Gear'. I was quite pleased with our little fireplace and even though we can't use the fireplace the decorations have given the dining room a Christmassy feeling. We had a bit of a confusion over Tuesday dinner. I emailed these friends (I worked with them at the hospital) our address and phone details etc but my computer crashed just after I did that and they never got the email. So, they didn't know where we lived, our phone number and what was worse I didn't have their details. Harry and I enjoyed lasagne for the next two lunches and two nights (for those of you who came on a holiday with me to the West Coast of the South Island - endless lasagne will conjure up memories you probably would prefer to forget). Anyway, we met in the pub on Friday evening instead and had a lovely time - they have just bought their first house (yes they are heaps younger than us) and it is down the road from the bed and breakfast that we stayed in when first arriving in Bristol. We knew the building as the terraced houses are all different colours and I can remember taking a photo. Thursday was Harry's birthday and he was really spoilt with presents, cards and phone calls from the Southern Hemisphere. He is wearing his Tui scarf this week and we are waiting for the first kiwi to say 'Are you from New Zealand?'. We went to our NZ friends for tea to celebrate in style - home cooked Indian and apple crumble, chocolate cake and icecream.

Saturday Anne came over from Newport. We had planned a trip down south to walk the cliffs along the coast but the weather wasn't really suitable - even I gave in to the pressure! We went instead to the Bristol Museum. Had a range of things on show including an Egyptian display with mummies, the box kite which was a replica built for 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines', Moa bones, kakapo and kea (stuffed - hopefully they died naturally) and an amazing photographic display of pictures taken to show the greenhouse effect. We spent some money at Kathmandu (went to buy polyprops but came out with something else that was on sale but keeps us just as warm - apparently polyprops weren't big sellers over here and they were all sent back to NZ), bought some papers and came home to the warmth to read all about the canoeist coming out of hiding after 5 years, the political scene etc.

Sunday dawned - wet, windy and cold. But I woke up and said 'what can I write in the blog if we don't do something' so we decided to drive off to the Forest of Dean which we assumed would be a bit more sheltered - it hardly rained at all while we were there. It isn't far, but a bit further if you take a road that you think will cross the Severn but doesn't. With the distinct seasons here it seems the colours are so much more definite for each season - autumn and the forest was characterised by reds and browns, not only were most of the trees without their leaves, the undergrowth (dead leaves and bracken) made everything look reddish brown. Quite lovely. We came across a sheep in the middle of the road and when she saw us she ambled across in front of us to make us slow down (worked better than a speed camera). It happened again but the second sheep went back into the middle of the road once we passed. We stopped the car to take a look at the Severn River meandering through the countryside.

We made our way through lines of trees (at one point in the day the trees formed a low lying canopy over the road - the trees weren't cut but a road sign warned travellers in trucks and campervans). Had morning tea outside the Heritage centre which attracted little robins and we were pleased to find that it was open and had made an effort for Christmas (we can't decide why we expected the decorations to be so much better over here but we did). Father Christmas told me that if Becks and Mike have any trouble getting from Heathrow just to let him know and he will take his sleigh over to pick them up. The Forest of Dean is the 1st National Park in England created in 1938 to try and stop the devastation from logging and mining. We learnt all about how you make charcoal from wood - it really is fascinating the things we are learning. There is a charcoal making season - the makers came and lived in little huts by a some cut woodland. They would pile on top of the wood (up to a ton at a time) dirt and basically smoke it (I thought a bit like a hangi but on top of the ground). There were holes at the top and when the smoke turned black they knew the wood at the top had turned to charcoal filled in those holes and made some in the middle etc until the holes were at the and the smoke was black. It takes a few days and needs to be tended constantly over that time to fill up any cracks in the mound. And we learnt about free mining. Apparently in the 13th century King Edward 1st granted those born in an area the right to mine coal with no charge - they did have to pay a commission on what they mined though. It still stands today that if you are born in the area you can be a 'free miner' but you have to have a home birth not born at the local hospital - you'd think they would have placed the hospital right by the mine entrance wouldn't you? Anyway, a little poem from a 'free miner':

Gold for my lady, silver for the maid

Copper for the copper smith, who's cunning at his trade.

But said the miner picking up his fall

'a big churn of brush ore is better than them all'.

We looked in an old mine where the adit (door) was propped up by some branches - it really didn't look very secure or inviting. Cider was also made here, apples crushed by a big wheel turned by a horse (not something I think we would allow today) and then dejuiced (didn't quite get the full picture of how it is made but we've decided we have to try some as it is so popular and being made from fruit must be good for you).

It was getting late and so we decided to finish the day by visiting an iron quarry. It had a Christmas story theme throughout it and was inundated by families (you had to wait at least an hour to sit on Father Christmas's knee - we decided not to wait and so also had to forgo the present we could have had!!). The mine was man made and there wasn't a lot to see -except if you followed the story of Cora, who swam around trying to find a big blue monster with a loud voice who scared everyone but really was very lonely and once he stopped yelling he made lots of undersea friends and they all went home happily to Cora's place for Christmas dinner once she had been rescued from the sharks!). Anyway, these children enjoying the lights, stories and presents probably didn't realise how fortunate they are to be born today rather than the 1800's where children as young as 6 were required to carry up to 8 tonnes of rock from the quarry each day. The iron was mined by candle light - the miners worked by candle time since they didn't have watches and couldn't see the daylight. When they were half way through their daily allocation they knew it was lunch time and going home time was I guess just before the last candle burnt out.

Our last drive for the day took us to Monmouth as the sun was setting. The bridge is 1 of 2 in England - as the gate sits in the middle of the bridge rather than land. We drove beside the River Wye - which looked swift and close to overflowing its banks and seemed to go across the English/Welsh border a number of times. It was easy to know when (no not because of all the Welcome to Wales or Welcome to England signs). All welsh road signs are bilingual and so when we saw SLOW and beneath if ARAF we knew we were in Wales, and when we saw just SLOW we were in England. We are learning quite a few Welsh words but the pronunciation is quite hard - last weekend we were saying Laugharne as Larfarne but it is pronounced Larne according to the Welsh man I work with. Speaking of work, one person spent a lovely weekend in Paraparaumu last November - he said that the train journey into town was as picturesque as anything he had seen - when you think about the rocks and hills by Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay, the countryside, Plimmerton and Porirua Harbours, and through the tunnels into Wellington is very special. His friends who live there though, had told him the trip takes 35 minutes and seemed to give the impression they were always on time....