In 2022, when Shirley and I had to clear up the detritus of my brother Simon's life, I saved a few of his books. One of them was titled "Deep Country" by Neil Ansell. It is an account of "Five years in The Welsh Hills". I have just finished reading it.
Earlier in this millennium, the writer lived in a remote, abandoned house in the middle of Wales without electricity, running water or even a telephone. In place of those things, he observed the nature that he found himself amongst - most especially the bird life.
"The place was a Victorian gatekeeper's cottage. ... You could cross two fields and you were on open moorland; you could walk west for twenty miles without seeing another house, or a road, or a fence. This uninhabited swathe of the Cambrian Mountains right in the heart of the country has been called the green desert of Wales, its empty quarter. Just downhill across the track there was once a farmhouse, presumably Penlan Farm.."
He writes about birds - not like a matter-of-fact ornithologist but with tenderness, curiosity and joy: "My days were spent outside, immersed in nature, watching. I saw as much as I did because of two things: the first, quite simply, was time, the long hours spent out in the field; the second was alertness, a state of heightened attentiveness. My attention was constantly focused away from myself and on to the natural world around me.”
I found "Deep Country" a very peaceful read with almost zero attention paid to world affairs, human relationships or modern technology. It's just one solitary man whose only companions are goshawks, ravens, yellow hammers, wood pigeons and the bats who live in his roofspace. Most days involve chopping wood and a walk down to the river. He notes the signs of seasons evolving and then changing. He is pretty much at peace with himself though I noted that he never once mentioned his parents, his siblings, his past history or the natural quest for romantic love.
In the video below, you get to meet Neil Ansell briefly and to taste more of the rather sweet flavour of "Deep Country":
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/CHUlrGe
