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Observations About Wales: From Travel To Business & Politics |
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May 2001 |
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Beauty Can Be Yours With Timely Information Early May rises hot and sunny. The weather is so much the opposite of the past year in the UK that it is like being on another planet. The sky is a heart-piercing blue. It is very hot on the back of my neck as I photograph the lush red tulips in front of the devil-headed fountain in Portmeirion’s piazza.
A walk into the shady woodland was welcome. There seemed to be fewer flowers on the rhododendron trees than ever in early May. Apparently, the winter was so cold and unusually snowy and the spring up until now so cloudy that the buds are now just barely awakening from their deep hibernation. The rhododendrons and azaleas bravest to come out first are the purples. Walking through parts of the Gwyllt is like walking through a hall lined with purple stained glass windows. It helps the illusion if you squint. Down other paths are bare limbs all tangled up bringing to mind the vines surrounding Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Only those had thorns. These are smooth like drift wood. There are gray squirrels running rampant. Wonder what ecological event took place to either a) increase their numbers b) reduce the numbers of their natural predators. Later at night is it the Scorpio full moon that so invigorates the little creatures in the shadows? The woods have turned to charcoal under the moonlight.
As more languid days pass, the ancient rhododendron trees seem to pop flowering eyes over the archways that lead into the Gwyllt from Portmeirion Village. The red tulips in their beds open huge and flat, their weight causing their stalks to bend so the flowers look like clever listening devices. Their black anthers glisten like caviar. Lucky worker bee! Nearby the gorse’s coconut fragrance, fueled by the intense sunshine, wafts like incense.
In stark contrast to this heavenly gardened Portmeirion the reality of foot and mouth disease is still very apparent in the surreal parade of orange and white bollards stationed along the A498, north from home base, to the A4086 where a left turn leads up the Pass of Llanberis and into the coolness of the mountains. Only now there is no cool relief. Every verge, nook and cranny is blocked off with bollards and red tape, literally red tape. The mountain paths had officially been open as of the May 5 Bank Holiday Weekend. But you cannot stop anywhere to walk them. The over all feeling is that of being in the desert and unable to stop at the oasis for a lap of water. At the Pen-y-Pass parking lot the ancient gatekeeper said you can park for a few minutes, but if you park you cannot hike. The only way up the Pyg Track is to park at Llanberis five miles away and then return on regular municipal bus. This seemed a time-consuming and frustrating venture. It occurred to me that, perhaps, the paths and the parking lots are served by different councils, as the trains and the rails in the UK are under different owners. This may not be so, but it’s as good a guess as any as to why the openings are so uncoordinated. |
