“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
Thomas Merton
Just as well I put my phone alarm on, I probably would have slept through. I had time for the briefest of meditations for the day before heading off for breakfast. Some of the walking group still around, getting ready for their summer school. Had interesting start to the day discussing the Bardo realms over breakfast, shame my jokes about (Brigitte) Bardot don’t resonate…partly an age thing, partly me being non PC I guess. We skated across quite a lot from the weekend – the Tao, Shamanism etc. before going our separate ways.
I took my time finishing breakfast and headed off to reception to return my keys, casually enquiring whether the chapel was open and available for meditation. Sometimes it was, I’d need to check and come back if not and arrange to have it opened for me. It was open so I headed in for a ‘proper’ meditation. Job done I came out and almost immediately met B, who’d disappeared before I had chance to say thanks for the walk yesterday, so another box ticked. Then I bumped into N, who asked about my plans, I explained the (liminal) space between the end of the conference and where next – hearing about my session in the chapel he also thought to go in, but It was now locked…curious.
I left for Dinefwr, time was getting on and I thought of going there for ‘a National Trust lunch’, coffee and cake in other words. Nearing the outskirts of Llandeilo I saw an ancient monument sign to an abbey, my next port of call after Dinefwr I think. Several photos, a wander around the house and garden with its deer park (with deer herd) and White Park Cattle – and coffee and cake - I headed off to Talley Abbey, a short detour off the main road.
The Abbey remains date from the 12th century, built by the Premonstratensians ("White Canons"). As with so many other abbeys, after dissolution they were cannibalised to build the parish church adjacent (a few hundred years later), which has ‘box’ pews, numbered to identify who’d paid to use them. Seemed like the earliest form of corporate hospitality to me.
I wandered over to church hall nearby, where there was ‘self-service’ coffee and biscuits and a terrace overlooking the abbey remains. A couple from Liverpool were enjoying the afternoon sun so I joined them, enjoying an extended chat before the church warden came across to throw us out at about 4.30 (it was due to close at 4pm and the sun had slipped behind the clouds by then).
 
Taking the leisurely ‘country road’ back – the A40, my mind was in neutral when I suddenly noticed this ‘mini-cenotaph’ looking monument on the other side of the road, which I thought was a war memorial. A quick about turn and I was soon parked up alongside it - it was the drink/driving memorial D had suggested I look out for; I hadn’t found it on my way down three days ago and now it had found me! The Gloucester Carmarthen mail coach had careered off the road with the drunken coachman at the reins just before Christmas in 1835! It was around this time my ancestors came across to Wales from Tipperary.
Had some lovely views of Pen-y-Fan and the beacons in the late afternoon sun on the approach to Brecon on the way back, a perfect end to a busy weekend (well it was once I’d settled down to my curry).