Since the UK government announced its road map to leaving lockdown everything has been so busy. Overtime at work, late nights, and less time to be outside. Add the weather warming up, more people spending time outside and my local quiet, secluded spots in nature have become busy and crowded.
I wanted to spend some time away from it all and a remote weekend in the Wye Valley seemed like a great way to do it. After a bit of internet searching, I booked an Airbnb, a small summer house/studio on the grounds of an old, antiquated house. It was not the most remote place in the world or even the UK for that matter, but it was away from home where distractions could not reach me.
Brockweir, Gloucestershire was on the Wye River, where England and Wales meet. It’s a small village on the hillside overlooking the valley. Our little weekend home was a 10-minute drive up the hill, passing sharp turns and single track lanes that were not fit for the faint-hearted. The grounds of the house was reminiscent of a scene I could remember from the film adaption of Great Expectations, wild and overgrown, but at the same time not un-neat or unnatural. The summer house was at the top of the driveway, draped below low hanging tree’s, surrounded by wildflowers, in the shadows of the house.
It was hardly wild camping, but it was secluded enough. I could sit and enjoy a morning cup of tea overlooking the valley. Walkthrough the public footpaths to the local farm shop. Enjoy a local ale in the pub in nearby Tintern.
The weather for the weekend was bleak as a typical welsh downpour washed over us. Plenty of time was spent in the comfort of an armchair with a book and a tea. No plans, no expectations, just time to relax and unwind. Woven into the moments of silence was a trip to Tintern Abbey. A 900-year-old ruin which had been the first Cistercian foundation in Wales, and the second in Britain, and had been home to Monks and Nuns for hundreds of years until it fell into ruin after the Dissolution of Monasteries in the 16th Century. Today it simply made for a nice walk as we were gifted a temporary gift of sunshine.
“For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity.”
William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, 1798.
On the final morning of our self-imposed retreat, I wandered the footpaths of the Offa’s Dyke Path in Brockweir and St Braivels Common. A hilly path that winded its way through the old farmhouses on the hill of the valley. Moss-soaked stone walls lined the path, broken in parts by the growth of century-old trees and all-consuming wildland. The walk was tiring but, flanked by the overflowing wildflowers and occasional breaks in the tree line revealing distant views of the valley, was well worth it.
Before I knew it our time at the studio was over and we would have to return home. The moments of silence had fallen fast, and the everyday bustle of balancing work and life would return. Although short-lived, the weekend at the Studio was a reminder that stopping and standing still is not always a bad thing.
Get Up Go Outside 