This is Cwmcaddon, our home.
The house nestles in
a little bowl on the hillside opposite Risca, South Wales, and is backed by
several hundred acres of forest.
It used to be
a small farm on the Tredegar Agricultural estate. The garage was once a cow
shed and the old pig barn and stables now house Helen's Boarding Cattery.
The house was extended fifty years ago but the old part has thick stone
walls, cool stone floors and a near immaculate Welsh slate roof. We've re-roofed the newer part of the house in Welsh slate which came from a nearby
pub (legally, of course). The house has needed a huge amount of renovation and
modernising.
There's plenty of wildlife at Cwmcaddon. There are badgers, foxes and
squirrels. You should hear the scream of a
mating vixen in the night - it's quite awesome. The bats are
great fun to watch, too. Sadly, Jesse, our magnificent goat (left), died in January 2004. Strangely, they only live for eight or nine years.
Here are the latest additions to the family - Frodo and Louey.
A neighbour found them abandoned on the mountain.
We have adopted them and they earn their keep by chomping the excess grass in our fields.
Cwmcaddon looks pretty spectacular in the snow. If there's a heavy fall it
takes the snow plough several days to reach us, but we quite enjoy being
marooned. We have to keep the woodshed well stocked so we can keep cosy
by a nice log fire! In February '96 the snow was so heavy the snowboard came off
the roof and smashed the greenhouse.
Cwmcaddon