Indeed, who does need a chain-saw when one has a clutch of willing boys with hand-saws? We had a most satisfying day again with the boys from Cardiff. These children with difficult 'issues' in their lives were brought by their wonderful teacher Mr. C. for another day of discovering life in the countryside.(
www.countryside-alliance.org/ca/campaigns-education). The Farmer had spent the previous evening sharpening a couple of very old two-handed saws, a small single man saw, some axes and a machetes. Was this wise you may well ask...giving dangerous items like these to a bunch of disaffected 13-15 yr olds? It was great! The boys set to sawing up the old apple trees in the orchard with gusto, they really put energy & enthusiasm into the work and were thrilled when the trees were reduced to a pile of logs through their own efforts. They were greatly amused when the Farmer then produced his chain-saw and demonstrated that the whole job could have been done in 10 minutes! But the point was that they learned about the old ways of cutting wood, handled old implements and appreciated that hard work can be fun and rewarding. For boys who rarely expend energy in that way they did really well and apparently slept all the way home!
Last night the Farmer, KT our daughter-in-law, and I went to Cardigan to the excellent Theatr Mwldan (
www.theatrmwldan.co.uk) to see a production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' put on by the brilliant Mappa Mundi company (
www.mappa-mundi.org.uk). It was wonderful, we thoroughly enjoyed it and have not laughed so much in ages. The production was set during the Second World War and it really worked with Bottom being a busy-body air-raid warden, and all the main non-fairy characters as service men & women. There was a magical set of transparent curtains of trees and backdrops of starry skies and the lighting was very clever, the whole thing was beautiful. It was a lovely pre-Christmas treat.
