HAS IT ONLY BEEN A WEEK???!!!

I have tried to keep my journal up to date because I am afraid I will forget some of our amazing experiences. And they are amazing!!!

Our flight was fine, long but not as long as coming home from Australia. Our luggage made it. Yes we used two of our bright orange suitcases again and they were totally full. No problems with customs.

Our phone did not work, of course, but a kind person allowed us to use her personal phone to call AutoEurope so they could pick us up. In just a few moments John picked us up in our Peugoet and drove us to the office to sign our lease papers. The car had 7 km on it and only a little gas and it was kind of dirty from having just come on the ferry from Paris the night before. And we have RED French license plates.

We were told how to get to the gas station but I could not figure out the roundabouts! They are rather difficult for me. After going around the same places for at least 15 minutes I stopped and asked a policeman how to get where we needed to go. He very kindly programmed the SatNav and we made it to the station and then on to the M4 on our journey to Pontygwaith.

The weather was perfect, the scenery was great and we love our car. BUT we were both so tired. In fact I really should not have been driving because I struggled to stay awake and more than once jerked awake just before rear ending the car in front of me. It was a Friday afternoon and Good Friday afternoon with many people traveling for the long weekend.

I really  believe that the only reason we did not have a wreck was because I had angels prodding me awake as needed. We stopped a couple of times at service centers to get something to snack on trying to stay awake finally arriving at 1 Margaret Street in Pontygwaith about 6 PM

Steve Rowlands, who owns Steve Rowland Car Sales right next door, has worked hard to remodel this place for us to rent and live in for the next 4 months. It is lovely! We have 2 bedrooms which are upstairs. So, we have built in exercise facilities by going up the 12 very steep stairs to our bedrooms and whenever we want to use the bathroom.

A sweet neighbor unlocked the door for us and then drove us to the market so we could pick up a few things. As we drove home the fatigue just crashed over me. We soon went to bed and slept until 2PM Saturday when we awoke somewhat rested. But jet lag is brutal!

Then we drove to Llantrisant to the Tesco store to buy disposable phones. They were only £19 each and then we each put another £10 on our phones. We have local numbers for local use while we are here but it has taken us all week to figure out how to use the phones. In fact we had our first call on Saturday.

Sunday we found the church in Pontypridd [pronounced Pontypreeth] and met a lot of lovely people. I ended up using my rusty piano skills to accompany the congregation because the organist was sick. It is always amazing to me how comforting it is to feel that same warm Spirit attending our church meetings in unfamiliar places.. I am so grateful for the Gospel in my life!

The Cardiff Stake had an Easter presentation in the evening. Our souls were well fed with the beautiful music and the reminders of the sacrifice of our Savior for each of us. Very humbling to think of it.

It has been our hope to be of service in the ward here and we immediately had that opportunity when the sister who had driven the missionaries and a member to the performance ended up in the emergency room unable drive them home. It was nice to be of service and I am VERY grateful for the SatNav to guide us where we needed to go.

In the forest shortly after a rainy day to see the beautiful bluebells of Wenallt.
What a treat!!! I felt like I could breathe!

Our home at 1 Margaret Street. Parking is in front if there is room. There are 11 units in this group of terraced homes and sometimes there are too many cars. But we have a failsafe spot in between our place   and the garage.

Our lovely car! and our French license plate. We had a man stop and tell us he
had been following us because he loved our car. And he told us some cool things to see while we are in the country.

Lovely kitchen with dining room and back porch/garden beyond.

Our own personal gym!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I have learned that croeso means 'welcome' in Welsh.

A street near our home.

The highway we drive on pretty much everyday to get where we need to go.

And we drive down this street on our way as well. Note the parking. It is a 2 lane street for driving and people just work it out.

Most of the homes in the area are terraced homes.
This has a LARGE number of homes all attached  in a row and I got a kick out of all the satellite dishes!

There is always a way to show individuality.

We enjoy seeing the architecture as we drive from here to there. It is always interesting.

Starting Tuesday we have been working in  the Glamorgan Archive in Cardiff - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.   We have been searching as many documents in and around the village of Colwinston as we can in an effort to trace the Bowen and Edmond lines. Evan Jenkin married Anne Bowen in Colwinston in 1765. We have not learned anymore about Evan who we believe was  a shoemaker. But it is possible that he was a journeyman during his time in Colwinston. Although he was there for many years. Still trying  to find out where he died so we need to fan out from Colwinston and look at many records.

Anne's parents were David Bowen and Jennet Edmond, both from Colwinston and now our quest is to trace them back beyond their parents and find out where they came from. It has been interesting to look at the old documents. It is amazing to me that we are able to handle documents from the 1700's and 1600's in our quest.

One day we met for an hour with an expert from the Glamorgan Family History Society. He gave us some great direction and told us about some resources of which we were unaware. It was well worth the £5 fee for his help. We left another £5 as a donation.

On our first day!

Steve learning to read the old records. This one was in the mid 1700's all about a David Bowen and the minerals rights he would have on some property. But we are not sure he is 'our' David Bowen.

This is a will from 1729 for a Thomas Edmond who is one of Steve's several back great uncles.
It was good to get this document to verify and expand some info.

We have put in long hours and try really hard not to fall asleep over the documents. Next week we will go again on Monday afternoon when they open to find a couple of things and then on Tuesday we will drive the 2  1/2  hours to the National Archive in Aberystwyth. 

I have ordered some marriage bonds and some wills that we need to read there. After that we will decide the best course depending on what we learn. There is a LOT of work to be done but we can only do it a step at a time.

Just hours before we left our son found an amazing 'app' for my phone called Scanbot. I have been able to take scans of the the documents we have found, adjust them thru a filter and then email them to Steve's sister who is working hard at home to hep with this research. When I send it to her it shows up in the 'sent' file in gmail so I also have a copy. So FANTASTIC! I would highly recommend it if you have any need for scans. And a big thanks to our son!

One of the staff at the archive mentioned that we should go see the bluebells of  Wenallt which is north of Cardiff. It had rained each day we were at the library but on Wednesday it stopped about 4 PM so we decided to try and find the bluebells. With a slight course correction  we found the forest. There was a public access to the forest because a lot of people walk there all year long. But this was a special treat.

We have enjoyed the cherry blossoms in Tokyo and the jacaranda in Sydney and now we had the chance to see the bluebells in Cardiff. The pictures do not do them justice. I absolutely loved being there in the forest! It just fed my soul and I felt like I could just breathe. I could have spent hours in that forest but sadly there was not time. I look forward to another day in an other forest.

The step up and over entrance. Enjoy the journey! 

No bluebells in this area but oh so peaceful!

Probably more bluebell pictures than you wanted to see. But they were so amazingly beautiful

The narrow lane on the way to see the bluebells.
If there was an oncoming car one of us had to back up to a wider part of the road so we could pass.

One lone bluebell! simple and small by itself yet what an amazing thing happens
when there are thousands and thousands all together!
It made me think of how it is possible to make a difference if we can band together for a good cause.
 

Saturday we had an adventure. It had been so windy, stormy and rainy that when it became sunny we decided to get out of the house. So we drove to the Lidl grocery store to check it out. [I bought some geraniums and a tomato plant, we'll see how the goes!]

On our way home I took the wrong exit on the round about which led us up a narrow street of terraced houses to another roundabout. I was just about to take the roundabout all the way around and go back when I noticed a car park so I pulled in. Turns out it is a parking lot for this statue  There is a large statue of Mary with the Christ child over looking the valley. It was amazing to me to read that this was a site of pilgrimage for centuries and is only 5 minutes from our place. There used to be another statue of Mary nursing the Savior but back in Thomas Cromwell's day ca 1538 it was torn down, taken to London and burned with other Catholic artifacts. At a later date this new statue was erected and pilgrims still come believing that there are healing properties - most notably for rheumatism and eye issues.  There was a building to house the sick for awhile but now it is just the statue and a few stone walls.

Here is a quote from wikipedia "On 2 July 1953 a new statue was revealed by Archbishop McGrath at the site of the old chapel. Standing on a plinth and although much larger than the original, was carved from Portland stone using the descriptions left behind in medieval Welsh poetry. More than 20,000 people attended the first pilgrimage after the erection of the new statue.^[11] Due to its religious importance, Penrhys is part of the Cistercian Way, and many people still make pious pilgrimages to the site every year"

 If you are interested in more try this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrhys

A beautiful statue on a beautiful, sunny but very windy and chilly day!

With some rock wall remnants.

A beautiful view over a Rhondda valley.

With the weather still beautiful we opted for a  further adventure and set the SatNav for Merthry Tidfil. Steve does not have relatives in that area. But I do know that it was a centre for the coal mining industry many years ago and since we are so close...

It took a while to wind to the main highway and then drive there. It was an interesting place. Almost immediately we found a car park and parked the car. We asked a couple of women in the car park just what we should see while we were there. They were so nice and suggested the 'red house' which was just up the block and then her  husband came along and  gave us a list worth pursuing. But we had only a little time so just walked around a little bit. Perhaps another day we will return. There is a castle after all...

This was an enormous building and quite beautiful. Here is link if you are interested. http://www.redhousecymru.com

A beautiful stained glass window with a likeness of Queen Victoria in the middle section.

Although the stairs were roped off so we could not go up, they were beautiful. The husband told us that this building was built by the workers of Merthyr Tydfil and had some significance to them.

A poor photo of this amazing tilework dragon. Ddraic [pronounced thraic] is Welsh for dragon.The husband told us this was the first use of the dragon in Wales but he was  not correct. Here is a link if you want to know more about the dragon. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-Red-Dragon-of-Wales/

Just down the street this public house was called The Iron Dragon. The dragons were magnificent!

On our way back to the car park we spotted this amazing building in the distance. It is  'for sale' so if it is your desire to live in a castle in Merthyr Tydfil here you go...

A steep hill on the way home

And a round about! This one was crazy!

This first week has been amazing! I can hardly believe that we have been here only a week as so much has been going on. The Welsh people are open and friendly and have been so kind to us. Many of the people at church who have family history connections have offered their help. One night we stopped for fish and chips at the local shop. When she learned why we were here the woman serving us proceeded to give us a 15-20 minute dialog of her family history experiences with a distant family in Australia and the trip she and her husband took to meet them. Her accent was delightful, thick and I had to really strain to understand all she was saying.

Our adventure continues. 😎