#welsford

[robertsmithsonlibraryandbookclub]

Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club [Welsford, Enid, The Fool: His Social and Literary History, 1961] Oil paint on carved wood, 2018

[dananickerson]

Frozen Cunningham Creek Falls, about an hour or more in the woods, I could not find a path to the falls, the last part of the journey was heavy brush and a steep decline. Definitely off the beaten path.

[briaredsoul]

[lovedustxx]

Welsford Falls; #waterfalls #waterfallchasing #welsford #explorenb #exploring #explorecanada #outdoorlife #outdoors #getoutside #nature #nofilterneeded #iphonephotography #vacation

[asmallhistory]

A Merry Xmas to all, and may the boys of Pictou County be merry in their sober senses this year.

December 24, 1897 Welsford community notes, Pictou Advocate, December 24, 1897

[building-dwynwen]

Dwynwen?

Naming a boat, well naming anything, is not something to take lightly. We spend ages thinking up the names of our babes to be, only to find out we have the sex wrong, or that when they make their appearance in the world that the name is totally wrong. So it is with some trepidation that I already have our boat named. A name that goes back into history, and is associated with love, devotion, isolation, and oddly enough, quite possibly the worlds smallest example of a tectonic plate! Dwynwen.

Dwynwen is to be our boats name.  Dwynwen, after the Welsh Saint, considered by many to be their equivalent of St Valentine. I say a Welsh Saint, she is venerated all around the Western Seaboard of the British Isles. Whilst she lived on Ynys Môn, daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog, King of Brycheiniog. Having fallen hopelessly in love with the young Maelon. Now there are many stories as to what happened next, but in essence, she was never to marry the man. Distraught, Dwynwen prays to be allowed to forget her lover. An angel appears, turns Maelon to ice with a potion. Dwynwen seeing this, then prays again, asking for three wishes. One, to allow Maelon to reanimate, the second to request God looks after all true lovers, and finally, that she remained unmarried for the rest of her mortal life. These wishes granted, she moves to Ynys Llanddwyn to live out her life as a hermit.

I have visited Llanddwyn Island a couple of times now. It is a beautiful tidal island. Not very big, but wonderfully isolated. It appeals to me on so many levels, but for now, they will be limited to the spiritual, and the geological.  Llanddwyn is a rare beasty; an almost perfect example of a micro tectonic plate. I would try to explain it, but this video does a much better job! So there we are, now you know why :-)

[building-dwynwen]

Inspiration

For a long time now I have been looking at how to downsize, from the car, to the tent, garden size, belly, and life in general. One of those aspirations was to build a camper in a Bedford Rascal or a HiJet van. The art of micro living I think runs deep.  So with that in mind, for nearly 10 years I have looked at small trailerable yachts as an option to keep me close to the water, but not have to worry about mooring fees and all the other issues that keeping a boat in a marina brings. In particular the SeaWych, a very capable twin keel 19footer. I still like this boat. Its small and compact yet will provide a good sailing experience for 2, ( or 2 with two small ones maybe ) as a day or weekend cruiser. This was all well and good until I came back one day to a present from H, a book called "Camping By Water" ( The image in this blogs header ). This book changed everything. Although written back in the 1950's, when boys were men, and women were gels, it opened up a completely new set of criteria for what I was looking for.  I had never even heard of dinghy cruising. My experiences with such small craft were normally on a lake, or on the Med, and invariable included a spell with me in the water having tried too hard in a race. The idea of taking one on a camping trip seemed a little odd to say the least. Then I happened across a blog written by Tim, about his journeys around Ireland in his little ship, a Francois Vivier Ilur sail and oar home built boat. That was it! Before long I had ordered my first book dedicated to this new life on the high seas, Roger Barnes's The Dinghy Cruising Companion which arrived just prior to the long drive up to Oban for the week away from the world on Tiree. Surrounded by water, the bug began to bury itself deeper, and by the end of the holiday, I had narrowed down the type of craft I would wish to own to a John Welsford Navigator. Now don't get me wrong, the Ilur is a very well designed boat, but for me I felt I wanted to build something that had two masts, and to learn the intricacies of sailing with a mizen. The gaff yawl rigged Navigator not only fulfilled this technical requirement but it is also a craft of great beauty. I will admit now to have only ever sailed with a Bermudian Sloop rig, so all the extra things to learn will be challenging, but ultimately I hope, they will add to the enjoyment of sailing, both inland and in the coastal waters.

From here, I found myself searching for more and more info on the Navigator, and t'internet did not let me down. From Arwen to Ellie, each page just convinced me more that whilst this was going to be a challenge, and no short build, that the craft that would take shape was the one for me. So with that, and going against my 'no spend June' month of austerity, I ordered the recommended Navigator 'bible', "Something About Navigator" by Robert Ditterich ( hurrah for online shopping! ) which I am about to tuck into over the next few days whilst dreaming of exploring the creeks of Devon & Cornwall, and the isles and inlets off the west coast of Scotland, hopefully before I hit the big Five Oh!

Anyway, enough babble from me, I'm off to open that new book and settle down with a cuppa :-)

[eadav-blog-blog]

Ted and jandles yes #welsford #teddy