Taking it easy in Cheltenham and Cwmbran

It was still really hot and sunny as I headed back across the Cotswolds to Cheltenham and the countryside looked more like the end of August than late July – all dried out and dusty. At this rate they will soon be combining the wheat – it looks as if it should be a good yield which will be good news for the farmers after last year's disastrous crop. Mum's garden had suffered quite badly as she has been unable to carry watering cans to all the plants that needed it, she has just concentrated on her many pots of geraniums, fuchsia, etc. I rigged up the hosepipe reel and gave the garden a good soaking for a couple of nights, but for some plants it was just too late and other plants had flowered quickly and set seed, so there was not as much colour in the borders as Mum would like. The trouble is that her garden soil is very sandy and drains quickly – even the grass looked in a sorry state. However, whilst I was there we had a few wet days and it was amazing to see how everything greened up again.

It was Mum's birthday on the Wednesday of the first week that I was back, so I treated her, and her friend Meg, to lunch at the local gastro-pub. Their lunchtime menu is very reasonable and both mum and I had the salmon fillet and salad, although mum also had a side order of crayfish to try (they were delicious). We didn't have a sweet as Meg invited us back to her house for Eton Mess which we ate sitting in her garden in the sunshine.

On Friday my aunt and uncle came over for the day to take Mum out for a birthday meal, so I got to visit The Royal twice in one week – I was not complaining! My aunty used to be a keen knitter and craftswoman but has been unable to do much in recent years so had started sorting out her vast stock of wool, some of which she brought for me to use. There was some gorgeous mohair and some colourful cotton yarns too, but I really loved the cones of silk yarn – I'm wondering if I can incorporate them into the Shetland fleece that I am hoping to spin soon?

On Sunday we drove to the small village of Guiting Power, where Meg's daughter, Debbie, lives and where they hold an annual music festival. The Sunday afternoon slot is usually jazz and Mum goes most years, as a continuation of her birthday celebrations. We all sat together under a gazebo and had a picnic lunch complete with paper serviettes and a jug of Pimms – how very civilised! I made a quiche to take and share and other people had brought marinaded chicken, various salads and a sherry trifle for dessert. It was a bit breezy on the playing field where the concert was held and several people had problems erecting their gazebos, but Debbie's husband is an expert of many years standing (plus he got onto the field early and avoided the worst of the wind).

Later in the afternoon I went and had a quick look in the church, which has two beautiful Norman doorways. You may be thinking that all this church visiting is down to some sort of spiritual revelation, but it is simply because I love the history contained within these buildings and the thought that for hundreds of years people have met there and celebrated their most important events. It feels to me as if some of that continuity is still held captive within the walls and whispers to me as I look around and read the memorial inscriptions.

On Monday, Mum and I drove to Cwmbran to visit my sort-of-aunty, Jen, in her new home. If you remember, I went to her old house last November to try and tidy up the garden prior to her putting it on the market, and whilst I was there we managed to get a quick look around the house that she has now bought. She had a lot of work done to it before she moved in and it now looks much lighter and more up-to-date. I slept in the smallest bedroom (which was still a good size) and had views up across Cwmbran to the mountains behind. I always think of Cwmbran as being a rather ugly town, and in some places it is, but you don't have to go far to find some beautiful scenery, and there are even hidden gems within the town. One such place is a segment of the old canal, bordered by some of the oldest cottages in the town, where the yellow water lilies grow so dense that a moorhen and her two chicks were crossing without getting their feet wet! Only a short distance away there are industrial estates and modern housing estates and the town centre, but here all was tranquil and some young lads were fishing just below the old lock as the water was alive with fish.

We had several trips out while we were there. One was to Tredegar House at Newport which is now being run by the National Trust, but had been a school that Jen attended when she was in her teens! The school had been run by nuns and the sumptuous drawing room, that we started the tour in, had been the chapel. The old Art Room had wonderful ceiling murals and paintings of classical figures on the wall panels. Jen said that when she was there all the nudes were covered over with black paper and she hadn't realised they were there! It must have been an incredible place to go to school, as all the rooms are huge and the grounds have a large pond and several enormous redwood trees. Apparently the house is one of the finest Restoration houses in Britain and boasts a dining room executed by Grinling Gibbons – the carved wooden panels are breathtaking. Some of the rooms are yet to be restored and look just as Jen remembers them when they were classrooms, but others have been restored to how they looked when the Morgan family still lived there. It will be interesting to go back in a few years time and see how things have progressed as the National Trust only took over custodianship less than two years ago from Newport Council. In the Orangery I discovered a shuffle board (like a large shove-halfpenny board) that was made for the house in the late 1600s and is made from one length of oak 42 feet long!

On another day we went to Caerleon, which was an old Roman settlement and port, and has an amphitheatre and a large barracks that can be easily seen in the grounds of the local school. However, Jen didn't take us there to see those, she took us to a small courtyard area which is not really obvious from the street, where there are a few shops and a cafe but also the most amazing collection of large woodcarvings. Some of them are of heads, others complete figures and the largest one is of a giant Welsh lovespoon carved from a complete tree. It was so large that I had to take two photographs to capture it all.

We stayed with Jen until Thursday afternoon and then I drove back to Cheltenham through the lovely Forest of Dean, and round the not-so-lovely Gloucester Ring Road! After a quiet weekend, it was all-change again as I dropped Mum at the railway station, where she caught a train to her friend in Paignton, and I then headed off in the opposite direction, to Oxfordshire.