Walking: Cambrian Way Stage 7 - Storey Arms to Glyntawe

I was looking for some long walks that I could do to really stretch my legs and build up my mountain walking skills again.  One of the criteria I had was that it would need to start at a location my husband could drop me off at when going to his work.  Thankfully this wasn't a critical I needed to follow for the end poin as I'm very lucky in that he was happy to do a detour on his way home to collect me.  The two that fitted best were stage 7 of the Cambrian Way and stage 5 of the Beacons Way.  The Cambrian Way looked like it would require me to do a lot more navigational work so I decided to go for that first.

The directions for this walk can be found pretty easily online and in books so I won't go into that here, and I didn't quite follow it exactly as I started at the Pont ar Daf car park instead of Storey Arms and carried on walking a little longer once I'd reached Glyntawe so end up at Penycae further south.  So all in all I walked about 25km /15.5miles that day.

It did say in the directions for this walk that there were times where the route would either be faint or non-existent and there were a few times where I found myself just staring at my compass trying to work out what feature in the landscape I could use to navigate to.  For me though, this is the type of walking I really enjoy as it feels a little more like an adventure and you're a lot less likely to come across another person.  You also have to use your brain more and it was a good way to test my rusty navigational skills.  That being said, I was glad that it was a bright after a few days of dry weather as navigating some of these areas on a misty day when your feet are disappearing into wet, boggy vegetation wouldn't have been anywhere near as enjoyable.

There was a little bit of history to find on this walk, with a Roman Road to cross and a Bronze Age standing stone, Maen Elia, to look at.  Maen Elia was particularly striking against the surrouding landscape and a good reminder of just how long people have actually been using this mountainous area that we see as being wild.  There wasn't as much nature as I had hoped to come across which isn't too surprising as this is still quite a managed landscape, but I still got to listen to skylarks as I wandered a long and see a few red kites here and there.  One even flew right over the top of me.  Mostly I just enjoyed the quiet and the lack of people interaction I had despite me doing this walk on a Sunday.

I didn't find the end section of this walk quite as enjoyable as the start as you're just walking along an old tram line with not much change in the landscape to see.  Though it was still interesting to see just how far into the Beacons mining actually got and how the evidence of it isn't as obvious as you would think it would be seeing as it didn't end all that long ago  The village of Penwyllt was apparently once a thriving area due to mining, but you wouldn't think it when you walk past it now.  From here you walk through some actual fields, directly through the middle of someone's farm (which definitely felt a little weird), and a long some road before reaching the end point on the A4067.  It was here that I turned south and followed the footpath that runs parallel with the road to finish my walk with a pint in Penycae.  However, there is a much closer pub to the finish if you want to follow suit.

All in all I would say that this was a pretty good walk, though not necessarily one I would recommend if you don't have any navigational skills just yet.  It's obviously not a particularly popular walk and that means does you get to spend some time on your own.  There's are some interesting features in the landscape to look at and break up the walk a little.  The fact that I had beautiful weather on the day definitely helped, and that I didn't have a large backpack on my back.  This walk gave me a really good idea about the area and I enjoyed myself, though my feet maybe not so much.  Next - the Beacons Way, at least part of it.

What my Wardrobe Looks Like Now

It's been a little while since I wrote about how my wardrobe is coming along and it's definitely changed a little over the last few years.  I have to admit that I have strayed a little from how I had originally planned the make up of my wardrobe to be at the start of 2021.  However, I do think this is probably a little normal as I'm making a number of my clothes now and there are a number of styles and techniques I've been wanting to try.

The most obvious difference is probably that it's a little larger than it use to be or how I had originally planned it to be.  This is party because I have been enjoying having clothes that actually fit me in the items I've made myself, which has meant that I've made more than I really needed to.  However, I have also become a little bit more relaxed when it comes allowing myself to buy new or second-hand clothing and I have been especially bad at this when it comes to t-shirts.  I do think I needed a little more clothing than I had originally thought as I do sweat more than I thought, which means I do need more clothes I can rota before washing them.  However, I definitely didn't need as many as I had brought.

The new makeup of my wardrobe is 40% (16 items) were brought new (though many of them are actually pretty old now), 35% (14 items) are home made, and 25% (10 items) are second hand.  For the new items that I'd brought recently I have tried to make sure that they were either ethical or helped support a charity or organisation in some way, but sometimes I just needed to buy a specific item and couldn't follow this idea.  I will have these items for a long time though, but I really shouldn't need to buy anything new for a while now.

There are still a few more items that I plan on making in the near future, which include a couple of tops, a pair of trousers, and a jumper, but after that I don't really see my wardrobe growing much more on the homemade front.  I have definitely moved away from my original plan of just making a few items so that I had only what was practical, but I think I want to stear myself back to this idea now.  There are a few items that I think I could declutter and I will be going through everything to see if there' something I no longer want or really use, but mostly I think I'm just going to stop buying in new items and just keep using the those I have already until they get too old to keep wearing.  And then I'll just not replace them.

Even though my wardrobe is bigger than I had previously wanted it I love that so much of it is now handmade by me, and that they are the items that I wear the most.  It's also good to have things that are more my style and which actually fit my body shape.  It's still not quite the cohesive wardrobe that would probably be quite useful to have, but that's because my style is so varied.  However, I have been trying to use fabrics and yarns from a specific colour range to help tie things together and this is probably something that I'll continue to work on in the future.  

Walking: Sugar Loaf

This was a very quick walk that we did in May, so this will be a very quick post about it.  Sugar Loaf was on our list of walks we would like to do and as we were needing to go to Abergavenny any way we decided to fit this in as well.  There are a number of different routes that can take you different amounts of time, but we decided to do one that would take us around 1.5 hours.

We parked in the car park just below the National Trust car park and headed up the hill turning left onto the main path that takes you to the top.  We decided to take the path that curves as it goes up the hill as this seemed to be the gentlest and my legs were a little soar after all the walking I had done that week at work.

The views you get from the top are beautiful, at least on a clear day, and you get a great view across the Usk valley towards the Brecon Beacons.  However, we didn't stay too long as there were quite a few people there already.  The route we took back down was much more direct, taking us down into the valley just where the woodland started and back up to the path we started on.

We always seem to be pretty luck when it comes to the weather and that day was no exception.  It was very sunny, but thankfully there was just enough breeze to make it pleasant.  This walk is pretty easy to access so I'm glad we went relatively early that day as there was already quite a few people.  There is a longer circular walk you can do that is around 3 hours long and we might do that in the future, though maybe more in the winter time when there will be less people.  I can imagine it's going to get quite busy up there over the next few months.

May 2023 Budget

May was a slightly unusual month in the fact that there were five weeks instead of four, at least in the way our financial weeks goes work at the moment.  This meant that we did spend a little bit more money than we would have done on other months.  It was also the first month in a while where we both got a wage and that was a nice feeling.

As I had hoped at the start of May, we've actually done pretty well this month when it comes to our spending.  Our food bills, both when it comes to groceries and eating out/ take-away, have come within budget (slightly over in groceries but the same amount under in eating out).  I know that we could save a little bit more if we reduced or stopped the eating out, but it is something that we enjoy having as a treat on the days we do actually get to spend time together so I really don't see us stopping this unless we really have to.  One thing that I have noticed has gotten quite high now is my mobile phone bill, but I've put some work into that this month, looking at different plans etc, to reduce this in the long run and that should come into affect over the next couple of months.  It's not huge amount monthly but the accumulation over the year should make a tidy amount.

We have been a little over on our personal spending.  A few of weeks on my spending does seem high, but one was some craft items that I had already put money aside for and so actually didn't come out of this month's earnings.  The others were because I had to buy a number of items for work, which of course all deteriorated at the same time so the cost couldn't be spread out, and we'd decided to stay away the first weekend in June, which was another £99 off.  When these are taken into account we both managed to underspend when it cames to just buying random things, which is a good change in our behaviour.  We just need to now be more organised when it comes to saving up for trips, etc.

One thing that has become higher than before has been the fuel.  The actual price of fuel is a lot cheaper here than in Devon, but we've had to do a lot more driving now as neither of us can get to work through walking or public transport.  My husband's shift work also means that there are quite a few weeks where the car is being driven seven days a week.  This change in expense is something we can't really do anything about so we're just going to have to accept that our budget on fuel costs will need to go up to £300.  Thankfully, our budget can take this increase so it's not something I'm going to worry about.  There's not going to be anything in the pension sections this month (or for the next few months) as this is now something that gets paid straight out of my wage by my employer.  I am going to increase the amount that comes out of my wage though to the 12.5% I had planned for this year.  In all likeliness I'll get this money back at the end of my contract and I'll just put all of that straight into my own pension.

We did manage to put money into our four months savings as well, which makes me very happy.  It's nice seeing a good chunk going in and now that all the other sinking funds have been completed we can just concentrate on that for the rest of the year.  I'm hoping that, as most of the other months are four weeks long, we should be able to put even more in over the coming months and possibly even surpass this years goal.

So not a bad month and the plan is to carry on with the improvements for the rest of the year.  There will be a couple of months which will be a bit of a blip as we do want to do some touristy things and it is important that we balance being sensible with getting to have experiences.  However, I think we are going to do pretty well when it comes to our financial goals this year and that is a good feeling to have.

Why I Work Outside

It would be true to say that there are many pluses to working indoors.  It's usually dry and warm, and there's usually an endless supply of tea.  Unfortunately that isn't really enough for me.  I can deal with the wind and rain (and the lack of tea) much more than I can deal with the lack of natural light, only hearing human noises, and just sitting still all day long.  Working outside works best for me and here's why:

Constant Exercise

It's true to say that this is generally good for everyone, but for me and the way my body works, with PCOS, it's best when I'm constantly moving.  This constant movement allows me to be healthy and to keep the excess weight off.  Most of the time the work I do outside is very physically and basically like carrying out a gym section all day long.  I genuinely enjoy it and it does seem to be what is healthiest for me.  It's certainly what has allowed me to keep to a healthier weight these last few years.

Helping with the Hyper

I can get very hyper, and I mean hyper.  If I don't get most of my energy out during the day then my energy levels peak at around 9 or 10 pm (I'm naturally a night owl) and then my poor husband has to deal with what is essentially a manic cat.  Working in an office really didn't help with this, and construction work only slightly, but being active in nature all day helps me release quite a bit of this energy.  This means that my husband only has to deal with a slightly manic cat when he's starting to get sleepy.

Helping with Sleep

Speaking of sleep.  My natural state seems to be to not sleep very well, my brain just has trouble shutting down.  This got worse whilst I was working in offices.  Not only was I not exhausting my body, but not matter how hard I worked it actually seems to switch my brain on even more.  When I work outside not only do I physically exhaust my body, but it also seems to exhaust my brain too so it takes a lot less time to switch off.  I also find that being in natural light all day long helps keep my natural body clock in check so that I don't become too much of a night owl, and that helps with me fall asleep earlier than I might do naturally.

Mental Health

This is probably the biggest, and for me the most important, reasons for working out doors.  Being outside all day long has had a definite positive impact on my mental health.  This isn't going to be the case for everyone, especially when it's wet and grey outside, but to me it makes all the difference.  I feel better just by being surrounded by greenery, animal sounds, and a lack of people.  Having this as my work week has meant that I have felt generally much better all round.  Do I never get depressed now, unfortunately that's not the case, but it does happen less and I am able to deal with it a lot better, and that's a win as far as I'm concerned.

It Just Feels Natural

When it comes to work I'm happiest when my brain and body are working together.  Working in the office meant that I only got to use my brain, but outdoor work means I get to use both now and that just feels natural to me.  The final thing is that I just love being outdoors.  Even if none of the other things were true I would still be happier outdoors in the rain than indoors in the dry.  It just feels like that's where I'm naturally meant to be.

Now that I've had the opportunity to work outdoors I don't think I could ever go back to working completely indoors again.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep on mostly working outdoors now until the end of my working career.  What that career journey will look like in the future I don't know, but I will keep it mostly outdoors as much as I can and then I'll be able to carry on getting all the benefits I get right now.

Sustainable Diet

To cut right to the chase, I've put on weight.  Quite a bit of weight in fact, over the last two months.  It's not really much of a surprise to me as I have been unemployed for the last couple of months which means I haven't been doing the hard physical work I have to do on a daily basis to keep the fat off and I've been eating crap.  My diet hasn't been terrible, it's still mostly healthy, but I have been eating more processed food and sugar then I normally do and really I should have known better.  I have PCOS after all and I know how quickly I can pile on the pounds compared to a 'normal' person.

However, when I was thinking about my unhealthy food habits it occurred to me that it also meant I wasn't exactly doing my part for the environment either.  Now there is a bit of a debate about whether highly processed food is actually good or bad for the environment and I can understand the arguments for the good (seen as a way to reduce food waste, less energy used as the food is cooked together in a massive vate instead of separately by each person), but there are a few things that I find difficult to be okay with.  The first is the amount of packaging that comes with processed food a large proportion of which we can't reuse in any way, the use of palm oil in so many of the products most of which isn't taken from a sustainable source (it wouldn't be possible to supply for the demand that way anyway), and the fact that many of the companies just want very specific ingredients which means that farmers are forced to move away from crops that are more suited to their local area to grow other crops that usually need a lot of work and support (usually in the form of chemicals) to grow.  So basically my diet is not very good for me and not particularly great for the environment.

Back to my old PCOS diet it is then.  I'm still doing a big part of it, such as eating lots of vegetables, having only lean proteins (basically all vegetarian and vegan proteins are classed as lean), eating healthy fats, and having Omega 3 in my diet (plant based).  However, where I've slipped is eating a fair bit of processed sugar in the form of chocolates and cakes even if it's not daily, having fizzy juice (I might as well just have been eating a sugar cube), and having processed food with all that sugar, salt, and bad fats.  Some products that I've had that are processed can be perfectly healthy for most people, like bread, but unfortunately that's not the case when you have PCOS.

That means I need to either completely remove or greatly reduce a number of these not great food items from my day to day diet and keep them as just a treat now and then (at most once a week).  I also need to go back to replacing a number of my carbohydrates with low GI forms, like oats and quinoa.   I do feel like I need to do some in depth research into diet and PCOS again though as I've noticed that some of the information seems to have changed a little or is still being debated, like should you have carbohydrates at all and should you be able to eat things like tofu.

And that's it.  It should be a little easier once I start working again as I'll be back to doing all day physical exercise (I might also add some more exercise to do when I get home if I feel like I haven't done enough during the day) and I'll only be able to eat what I bring with me.  Hopefully it won't take me ten years to loss this again now that I have a much better idea as to what I actually need to do.  It'll also be interesting to see if being in my 40s has any affect on this as hormones don't normally follow the usual route when you have PCOS.  Regardless, for myself and a little bit for the environment it's time for me to eat more healthily.

Plans Afoot 2023

As you know we've moved........to Wales, and all the plans we'd made previously no longer applies.  So, it's time to make new ones.  We're still trying to save money though so that means that we need to find stuff that is either free or as cheap as possible.  I've already started making a list.

We still have our National Trust membership, which is a gift, and there are quite a few places around us where we can go and gawp at luxury we will never be able to afford and that I'm glad we don't have.  It also means that there will be a few places where we can park for free when we go walking.  Of course, there is a whole lot of historical sites that are not owned by the National Trust (some of which we saw when we were on holiday here last year) and it'll be interesting to get to explore them too.  However, as they will most likely cost money we'll need to space out our visits to them.

We're wanting to get back into wild swimming again this year and, to that end, we brought the Wild Swimming Walks book for South Wales to give us an idea of places we can go.  We're going to start local to begin with and of course there's always the sea as well which isn't too far away from us.

I've also been looking at some pre-mapped walks in the area to help get us acquainted with the area.  I've picked walks that are relatively long so that it's more of a day event and included locations like the Black Mountains as well.  Once we get use to them we can start to map out our own walks to explore the area more.  There's also some hill walks that start right outside our front door and would mean no need to drive anywhere beforehand.  I'm also trying to find some old books that contain possible walking routes (and by old I mean pre-1960s) to see if it is possible to walk them still.

And then there's the coastal paths all around Wales that would allow us to get back to the sea again.  I'll need to research this a little more but they should be very easy to follow.  Of course, it would be practically sacrilege to not be in this area of the world and not visit Pembrokeshire.  Summer is always good but some part of me would also like to experience it when the winter storms are rolling in as well.

There is a lot to explore here and it'll take us a while, but we don't want to make the same mistake we did in Devon by not properly taking the opportunity.  The biggest issue for us is that our work shifts won't always match up so we won't have as much time to do all the walks and activities we want to do.  We will also be visiting family on some of the days we have off together as well.  I'll do some exploring on my own, possibly to places I know my husband won't be too interested in like the wool museum, but it wouldn't feel right visiting all the sites without him.  Especially as his work involves him getting to look at mountains all day long, but not getting to walk up them.