It seems that spring is in the air with buds and bats appearing, we also know that the temperature is rising when friends and family start arriving. One visitor we have been pleased to welcome back is Alun, our volunteer from last summer.

He stopped of on route from Cardiff on route 8 the Lon Las cymru . Most people who do this route have spent time training, hours thinking and then buying the right bike for the job. Be it hybred, mtb or road bike it is usually a machine to eat up those miles. Alun on the other hand seemed to finish work on Friday and get on his old, heavy and very faithfull stead. He arrived yesterday , we gave him food, beer and a bed (plus a little bit too much rum).

So does this tale of not buying the latest bike gadget or lusting after the 2010 model change my mind about what lies at the heart of enjoying cycling. I dont think so , well done Alun.

You rode from Cardiff on that!

Today we took delivery of two new chairs that will grace the decking of the small yurt. The chairs couldnt get more local, made by our friends Graham and Jacky at Coed Cae , with the wood comming from Coed y Brennin.

Graham  has devloped a range of rustic chair styles , we asked him if it would be possible to do two special chairs that would be in keeping with the calibre of guests who have stayed in our small yurt. We came up with the idea of thrones fit for a King and Queen.

As part of our woodland management at Graig Wen we have started an ongoing project of tree planting. We have cleared one corner of a field that has been overrun with bracken; this was then fenced of to prevent the sheep access.

The plan is continue to thin out some of the Ash trees that are growing too densly and remove any freshly fallen wood from our existing woodlands. To enable us to work in a sustainable way we are planting new areas that we will coppice in 10 to 15 years time. So yesterday Sarah, Johnny and I planted 20 Ash trees Fraxinus excelsior .

I also planted one special tree for my mum, a Bird Cherry Prunus padus. This tree has been planted on the wild bank on our touring site and will be flowering in early May, which was my Mums birthday.

We also had a large delivery yesterday, 16 boxes of our new leaflet. Sarah has been working very hard with Fiona Bird to redesign the leaflet which now looks fabulous. If you are one of our regular visitors you may find yourself appearing on one of its pages. After tree planting we whizzed down to the estuary field to fill up the leaflet rack. A job that is never a chor as you never get bored of the leaning on the five bar gate and looking at the view.

Ups and downs, mud and rocks, lots of fun. Coed y brenin Dragons back.

Spring must be in the air because just like a hibernating hedgehog the yurts are back at Graig Wen, answers to why this is like a hibernating hedgehog on a post card please.

A big thank you to Jonny first of all who has made it his mission this winter to give the yurts their annual working over. He has been sanding and oiling yurt poles, doors and any bits of wooden structure he could lay his hands on. He came up with the good idea of pressure washing the canvas, which worked really well. Once this was all sorted we all cracked on with reproofing, still some more of this to do, but decided that last week’s dry spell was the ideal time to get them up.

The reason this is so late in being posted is due to Tom’s house party, and the last few days spent with Peter and Kath the photographer and writer sent from Coast magazine, more on this nearer publication.

Back to the yurts - our big thanks go to Heath and Aiofe from Firefox Bushcraft who once again answered our call for help. As usual everything went smoothly, making no mistakes along the way. Or ….we tried to remember the order that things went back together, making mistakes along the way, solving these by wacthing the videos we took last year where we made the same mistakes but got there in the end. You decide.

We have made a few improvements to the decking and the wooden skirts that we hope will make the yurts even more cosy. The stoves have been cleaned and resprayed, and Jonny and I have been liberally applying silicon (to the stove plates) which has stopped the slight leak that happened to the small yurt flue last year.

We are now sorting out a few new touches to the interiors: a new piece of furniture from Sylvantutch, and some soft furnishings from Trefriw Mill. Our first bookings arrive on the 1^st April. If we manage to sort out the last bits of reproofing we might be able to let them out a bit earlier, call us if you’re interested.

We were delighted to help Tom and a dozen or so of his friends celebrate his birthday here at Graig Wen over the weekend. John pulled out all the stops with his cup cake baking, there was an Indian food feast in the B & B courtesy of Indiana Cuisine, and the last of the chocolate trifle was smuggled off around midnight to the holiday cottage...  Mountains were climbed, rugby watched and stunning sunsets photographed.  Even doggies Jasper, Grace and Leo had a ball and a whole lot of schmacko treats. Thanks for being a great bunch of guests.

Planting trees  Growing trees  Felling trees  Chopping tree to lengths  Spilitting to logs  Stacking logs  Lighting the woodburner  Burning logs  And then start again.  Satisfaction guarenteed.