The Rest of June

I’ve been lucky enough to have a friend trace my ancestry back to the middle of the nineteenth century (I have neither the patience or the organisational skills required) – thank you, Janice! This picked up a few surprises as I never realised that my maternal grandfather (who died before I was born) came from Mid Wales and that branch of the family were farmers, flannel weavers, railway labourers and slate miners from Mid Wales.

I didn’t want to find relatives, but I decided to take a look at the villages and towns where they were all born, married, lived or died so I spent four nights based near Newtown. I visited almost all the places of significance – Llanidloes, Trefeglwys, Newtown, Carno, Llanbrynmair, Darowen, Machynthleth, Pennant, Talyllyn, Abergonolwen, and Dolgellau – and found graveyards full of significant names like Humphreys (my mother’s maiden name), Rowlands, Bennet, and Tibbot. I took the nopportunity of meeting my friend Judith for a nice lunch at Penhellig on the coast, visiting Powis Castle (a magnificent national Trust property and gardens), and seeing a lot of this beautiful countryside.

My base was a magnificent Guest House called The Old Vicarage at Dolfor which had wonderful food and the weather was mostly lovely, so it really was a great experience. I’ve been jokingly calling in ‘getting in touch with my inner Welshness’ after watching a Rob Brydon programme where he coined the phrase. In truth, though, there was something moving about it all.

During my brief visit to Liverpool for Macca at Anfield, I managed to fit in a lot of art. The Klimt exhibition at Tate Liverpool was terrific, mixing his pictures with art and design pieces from his contemporaries. At the Walker gallery, an interesting exhibition – The Age of Steam – linking together 19th century pictures of steam trains and stations from around the world, plus modern cityscapes (including Liverpool) from Ben Johnson. By train to Crosby to see Anthony Gormley’s cast iron men along the beach, which I’d first seen on the Belgian coast a few years back and I can’t say a second visit added much to the experience. The highlight of the day-of-art was another one of Richard Wilson’s inventive ‘sculptures’ – ‘Turning the Place Over’ – where he has cut a large sphere out of the side of a disused building and mounted it on a rotor. As you look up from the pavement outside Moorfields Station, it completes a 360 turn in just over a minute. 

Back in London it was a lean month for art. Psycho Buildings at the Hayward Gallery was a fascinating collection of installations on the theme of architecture. There’s a boating lake on the roof, a room full of doll’s houses lit like a minature vilage at nightime and an inflatable sphere you can go into or bounce on top of. After a few excuses-for-exhibitions, this is the Hayward back on form. The RA’s Summer Exhibition, with the exception of the room curated by Tracy Emin!, is better than usual and worth a visit. This year it seems very bright and summery and it made me smile.

The annual pilgrimage to Taste of London, where restaurants showcase small portions of their signature dishes surrounded by food and wine related stalls, was my third and it was again fun, if a little expensive. The gang is growing and this year we numbered five.