Noddfa: a Welsh word meaning sanctuary or refuge; a place of renewal. Don’t we all need that at times, right? We certainly did, so when we were looking at AirBnB places for our latest escape without the kids and we stumbled across somewhere called “Noddfa” near Cowbridge, we knew it would be the right place for us.

Now we’re not particular fans of stereotypes and generalisations, but Wales really didn’t do itself any favours on the journey. The skies were clear… then we got to the bridge and couldn’t even see it because of drizzle on the Welsh side – come on Wales, you can do better than that! We battled through the drizzle, dumped the kids with the grandparents, had a quick lasagna made by our niece and nephew and then escaped (via Co-op for supplies) towards the Coed Hills Rural Art Community, where we were met by Andy, the owner of our home for the next 3 nights.

What a place! With some AirBnB places you just have a short interaction with the host… or just pick up a key. Not here; we were treated to a full on tour and history of the site (and its residents) over the next hour – a community of similarly minded folk who have chosen a rural, creative way of life that’s alternative yet adjacent to modern living. The closest we’ve come to something like this was when we visited Bussana Vecchia on our trip. The woodland site is dotted with small, low-footprint dwellings with a large gathering space, allotments, a hand-crafted sauna and shower block and a 20 year old stone circle! And the cabin itself? Nestled at the furthest end of the site, a totally off-grid wooden structure with a 40 litre water tank, a few electric power packs, composting loo and wood burner; equivalent to motorhome living, but static!

It being February, we set to work making the place warm by lighting the wood burner… which got hot so quickly that we had to open a window and take off our jumpers! And then… well… nothing really. We tucked into a Welsh dragon scotch egg (leek and chilli) for dinner, followed by beer and chocolate (which melted in the heat!) as we played KingDomino. Although it was still really early in the evening, with low light outside it felt much later, so we spent some time praying together, then just sat enjoying the stillness. The silence was punctuated occasionally by a nearby owl, but that was it. Peace. And then bed.

We’d been warned as part of the introduction to the cabin that we might be woken by squirrels and indeed we were, but there are worse alarms! There was a squirrel feeder directly outside the kitchen window of the cabin and the chattering and quarreling of the bushy-tailed rats was quite amusing to watch… although we did question whether squirrels should be encouraged, because of the damage they do to native woodland? Once the stove was lit, the space was again warm and with a coffee and egg on bread inside us we settled into a slow and uninterrupted routine. We love the simple life; granted some things are more effort (such as composting loos, and having the charge the lights), but that’s just part of the rhythm.

We wandered through the partially managed woodland back to our car and off to meet a family introduced to us by mutual friends. Katie and Chris are in the process of setting up a social enterprise in Tonyrefail to improve mental health through the growing of cut flowers (obviously they’re cut after they’ve grown). They’ve got a 3 acre patch of land with a semi-level area, along with a hillside of small terraces, all previously grazed by horses. They’d just got tulips in the ground when we met them and it was so exciting to hear their journey and vision. As we wandered the site they patiently and enthusiastically answered our many questions about contacts, training, networks, ideas, experiences and culture within the valleys as we could see ourselves doing something similar (maybe with woodland) in the coming few years. They very kindly invited us for lunch and it was a joy to share food together and have a slow afternoon with them and their delightful children (a little younger than ours) who taught us the Welsh words for ladybird and woodlouse!

Fired up and excited about both Coalfield Flower Farm, but also whatever might be in our own futures, we popped into Lidl to get some stuff for tea (no fridge in the cabin!) before having some down time. Kiri had her head in her sketchbook, I had mine in the Big Issue. A simple tea of fritata and vegetables was followed by a time of reading our bibles together where we chewed upon a meaty passage about submitting to authority as a means of glorifying God, even when that might lead to those who are submitting being subject to unjust suffering. Much conversation and debate ensued which could only really have one satisfactory outcome – prayer!

We cracked into beer and chocolate whilst we played a couple of games of crib, before Kiri spied a box that said “do not touch”. This is where Kiri and I differ – I’m massively compliant and was happy to accept that whatever was in it wasn’t for guests to explore. Kiri on the other hand is more like a cat, so her curiousity was piqued. She claimed that as she didn’t technically touch the box to peer inside it, all was well… which led to a well-mannered musing on the difference between the spirit and the letter of the law; the kind of philosophical conversation that we don’t seem to find time for in our child-filled lives. And what was in the box? Well, I’m not going to say, because I didn’t see what was in it, and coming from a place of compliance, it wouldn’t have been right to ask! Although it can’t have been much after 8pm, it could have been midnight what with the stillness and deep darkness of the woods, so we decided to tune our bodies in with nature and settle down for the night.

It worked, as the following day we woke with the light (despite the blackout curtains), lit the fire, popped the coffee on and had breakfast. Today all we had planned was a circular walk to the Bush Inn for lunch in the nearest village, so we dug out phones to find out opening times. Oh. It was closed on a Monday and Tuesday. Guess what day it was? Yes, Monday! It was a damp morning and we pottered around the cabin, recording a video message for our kids which we struggled to upload due to poor mobile signal. I got quite excited when Kiri announced “I’ve got a squirrel”, but it turned out it was a photo of a squirrel for the kids rather than the protein for our dinner. I got stuck into a book about the local area, particularly appreciating a section which had lists of derivations of place names in Welsh. Llan = a meeting place or church. Coed = wood. We need to find Llancoed (or perhaps found it if it doesn’t exist already?)

But that’s for the future… on this particular day we would settle just for a woodland walk. It was… well, an interesting walk. The surroundings were lovely (despite the drizzle) including an incredible ethereal semi-submerged glade, but most of our energy was expended on a long, at times heated, debate about leadership. We were in the early stages of setting up a community garden in our local area, and grappling with how much we should be leading it with a clearly defined vision (that others could subscribe to), versus how much we should just start something and see how it grows organically (but where folk might not know what they’re signing up to by getting involved). Both approaches have their merits and I don’t think we landed on a particular conclusion, but the process of talking it through was very necessary and helpful, if a little exhausting!

Walk over, we headed into Cowbridge to find some food with no real plan (that’s us, rather than the food… not sure that food generally has a plan, apart from to be eaten?). We somehow ended up in the Waitrose car park and wandered off to find a nice independent tea room or coffee shop. We were amused that one coffee shop chose to advertise itself using the adjective “strong” as the sole selling point of their coffee. Not all who wander are lost, however we didn’t find what we were looking for and ended up in Caffe Nero for a snacky lunch before returning to our car. Finding that we couldn’t open our boot as a Porsche had parked too close to us (such a cliched Waitrose thing to happen) we decided to pop into Waitrose and get ingredients for a posh burger for tea – venison grill steaks (beats squirrel!) and a cheese and onion focaccia. It was only as we departed Cowbridge that we spotted the “Happy Days” tearoom which would have been right up our street. Next time!

Before our luxury dinner (we cooked the venison in chilli oil with a splash of red wine and accompanied it with lemon and garlic olives!), we had a bit more time to read and sketch. It seemed appropriate to dip into one of the books we found in the cabin “Fully automated luxury communism”, which had some mind-expanding concepts. There was an interesting selection of books, ranging from earthy books on woodland through to philosophy and spirituality – it’s a bit difficult to pin down what this place is – possibly just a retreat from the mainstream into… well… anything that’s not mainstream? Predictably Kiri won at crib again, but Uno was more evenly matched. It was a slightly later night than previously, but in the grand scheme of things it was still an early bedtime!
 

And then it was time to emerge from our short hibernation in the woodland bolt hole. We were woken by my alarm (stupidly I’d forgotten to switch it off!), then we pootled around, having a slow breakfast before tidying away and bidding farewell to Noddfa. We’ll be back.

Our emergence into the real world was complete when we were re-united with the kids! First it was pancake time (it being Shrove Tuesday) and then we had a trip to the beach with a hammer and spoon (as you do… apparently the spoon is to tap rocks with, to find out whether there are fossils inside and the hammer to split the rock). Fossil found (the spoon may or may not have played its part), there was a bit of a tricky bedtime as the kids adjusted to us being around again and then we were treated to a rich, spiced tagine for dinner.

Wales is calling us. Welsh woodland is calling us. The question is what steps we take to answer that call. Do we formulate a clear vision, or do we just take a leap of faith and see how it pans out organically?