During 2008 I had two opportunities to spend time with my parents at Llandrillo, firstly in May, which was a time of beautiful weather - a classic English spring. The second was in August and September. The coldest English August since 1958, the wettest since records began and as this is written early in September the rain is pouring down! So the ‘photo opportunities’ were precious and I have tried to make the most of them. The results are not world-class but I hope that they will help you understand why I love Wales so much.
'Nurses Gron' This is a locally well-known hill where a TB sanitorium was located some years ago. This spring evening view is from the back of my parents home.
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'Lush Valley' Late summer now, and summer 2008 was wet and grey over most of the UK. It rained almost every day in August in Llandrillo, but this particular morning at least started well. The village lies where Cwm Pennant opens out to the valley of the River Dee. Here we look over toward the western side of Cwm Pennant just south of the village.
'Pennant Hillside' A similar view to that above, but using a telephoto lens and the dark foreground to frame the view. Most of the walks on which the pictures are taken are early morning with my parents Jack Russell 'Patch.'
'Rain to come' A different morning in the same August, in fact a day that turned even more quickly to rain (the whole sky had clouded over in less than twenty minutes). The 'window' of photo opportunity was small, but worthwhile. This time I was on the eastern side of Cwm Pennant, going toward where a small river, the Dinam, comes down the hillside to join the Ceidiog. The light was catching the tops of the Berwyn range as I looked south-west.
'Pennant Barn' On the same walk, and a similar view in the same direction as above. The light makes the difference, but one of the wonderful variety of old barns to be found in Wales adds foreground interest. One of my personal favourites - taken on a Fuji S100fs and processed in Adobe's Lightroom 2, for the technically minded. You don't need million-dollar equipment; far more is gained by taking advantage of the light at the right time.
'Dinam Lace' Afon Dinam does not have much of a life and will never be one of the great rivers! It rises in the hills on the western side of Cwm Pennant and sfter these falls has a short and quite steep run into Afon Ceidiog, which runs out through Llandrillo to join the Dee. The south-western side of Cwm Pennant is called Dinam; the waterfalls by the road are not normally much to see in summer, but a wet August has its advantages! No tripod, just a slow shot with the camera resting on a fence post.
‘Dinam View’ From the approach to the waterfall, this is the view on a rainy morning toward the Berwyn’s which are cloud-capped. The shot illustrates the sheep farming which forms Cwm Pennant’s main industry.
‘Toward Dinam’ This is the opposite view to that above; the ‘cloud-capped Berwyn’s’ are the location for this view back across Cwm Pennant.
'Woodland Stream' This is a small piece of woodland that has been planted with conifers in the past but is now being returned to native trees. It's a work in progress, the wood is quite dark and on this morning when the light was unreliable and fast deteriorating I expected nothing. But a sudden shaft of sunlight and the little stream seemed perfectly lit.
It is one of the relatively unrecognised advances in digital imaging in the past two years or so that the wide range of tones in this picture can all be captured. Few films would have approached this range and using transparency film (‘slides’) would have made the image almost impossible.
'To the West' This view from the Berwyn side of Cwm Pennant looks across to the west, over the Dee and toward Snowdon. The way the village nestles back into the shelter of Cwm Pennant is quite clear.
'Llandrillo Heart' The church shows its place at the heart of the village, although it is not an especially imposing building. Its dedication is to Saint Trillo, who is said to have founded a church here in the sixth century. The Early British Kingdoms site says: ‘Prince Trillo was one of the saintly sons of Prince Ithel Hael (the Generous) and grandson of King Hoel I Mawr (the Great). He travelled to Gwynedd with fellow missionaries and founded at churches at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, Llandrillo and Llandrygarn. He lived at the former, where his chapel and holy well can still be seen. He died in the late 6th century and was buried on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island).’
'Ceidiog Bridge' Llandrillo is essentially a very pretty village, but not easy to photograph. This superb bridge is obscured by the modern footbridge from which this shot was taken. This photograph has been ‘post-processed’ (a polite word for ‘doctored’) to remove some very ugly BT wiring that generally disfigures the village. This is also an HDR photo: an image with a high dynamic range made from three or four photographs taken on the same spot at several exposures.
'Ceidiog Run' The Afon Ceidiog in Spring passes quietly through Llandrillo, parallel with Heol y Berwyn (Berwyn Street)
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'Llandrillo Church Tower' The church is not a great or notable building but it is quite attractive and well worth a photograph.
'Church rear view' This view is taken from the footpath that runs round the church and connects to a number of homes.
'Church gates' On a rain-threatening August morning the church gates stand open as if offering refuge.
‘Heading for Bala’ For the sake of denominational balance(!), this view of the road leaving the village toward Bala includes the only chapel that remains open in Llandrillo.
'Spring Chestnut' This tree looked so good on a beautiful spring morning that I could not resist it. It is of course a good-looking tree at any time, but in summer the rich hedgerow growth obscures the view from the road.
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'Dandelion beauty' Among the most common of UK plants and certainly not normally admired, these freshly-opened spring blooms nevertheless look glorious.
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'Heol y Berwyn Spring Morning' This street runs parallel to the Ceidiog and becomes a lovely lane, although the mixed housing has no special attractions. But in the spring morning sunshine, Llandrillo is a wonderful place and Berwyn Street is the best place in the world.
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'Late Foxgloves' Foxgloves have been a favourite of mine for years,and were made more so by the great privilege of a time living in Pembrokeshire, where they are very special. In the wet summer of 2008 the foxgloves were still flowering in late August, and this pair of blooms on a wet morning have the 'jewels' of the morning on them.
‘Hedgerow harvest’ The area round Llandrillo produces all kinds of good things - large mushrooms can be found in the fields, for example. Here the ordinary blackberry manages to produce something in spite of the lack of sun this year.
‘Spring flowers’ Just north of Llandrillo bluebells and gorse make a superb display on an otherwise ordinary spring day.
‘Promise’ Taken on a typically showery August morning, this rainbow could be anywhere but it is a genuine Llandrillo specimen! The picture is called ‘Promise’ from the fact that the rainbow is the sign of God’s promise not to flood the whole earth again (Genesis 9:12-16). Because all the promises of God are a result of grace- his free love and mercy toward all who turn to him through the Lord Jesus Christ -it is fitting that this rainbow could be ‘anywhere.’
Finally, just to demonstrate that occasionally I get beyond Llandrillo here are two shots from a trip through Bala to Dolgellau, and then back through the mountains on very minor roads. Just north of Dolgellau we turned off the main road into very empty single-track roads through a forest. The waterfall was truly beautiful.
Waterfall
‘Pont Gain’ We left the forest and climbed into the mountains until we came across the minor road that leads over the hills to return to the main road at the southern end of Bala lake. On that route the Afon Gain at Pont Gain looked good.
