Electric Vehicl…

Electric Vehicle Charging Station

It’s been ages since I have posted a blog but the winter months are hopefully behind us and perhaps we will all be looking forward to getting out and about again!  And, if you are the proud owner of an electric car and are visiting us here, we can now offer you a charging point, powered by our PV panels and free for guests.

Our charging stations have been kindly supplied by Zero Carbon World who are trying to roll out more charging points for EV users. You can see an example of what the charging stations look like in the picture below. With the range of most electric vehicles currently not giving you enough mileage to reach us here in The Brecon Beacons, it might be a while until we see a guest arrive in an EV but we hope the technology will come on in leaps and bounds to enable longer driving distances very soon.  We are ready for you!

In the meantime, the B-Bug electric buggies will hopefully be successful in continuing with their mission to give visitors the chance to travel locally in a fun and carbon free way.   We are always happy to welcome a B-Bug here for a quick bit of charging.

Dark Skies

Here at the School Annex we are getting very excited about the prospect that the Brecon Beacons National Park may well be getting Dark Sky Status next year.  So much so that not only are we cyclist and walker friendly, but we also are going to be astronomer friendly too!  From 2012 we will offer a star gazing kit for anyone staying here who is interested: use of a telescope, red beam torch to preserve your night vision, blankets, compass, planisphere (so you can work out what you are looking at if you don’t already know) and of course, lots of hot chocolate.

We do have incredibly beautiful skies at night and many things you can see with the naked eye.  You can literally just sit outside in the garden and get a brilliant view of our stars and planets. The National Parks and Dark Sky Wales have produced a guideto help locals and visitors to get the best out of star gazing around here so check it out.  There are also organised star gazing events taking place.  It’s possible to book a place on a special Stargazing Night on Saturday, March 5th, at the Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre, in Brecon.  Set to last from 19.00 to 21.00, and suitable for all ages, the event is being organised in conjunction with Cardiff Astronomical Society.  If the skies are clear then all telescopes will be focussed on the night sky. If it is a cloudy night, then there will be some lively indoor lectures. To find out more, and to book a place, call the National Park Visitor Centre on 01874 623366.  (Cost: Adults: £6.00, Children minimum age 10 years: £4.00. Price includes parking, hot soup and a roll).

The first meteor shower in 15 months taking place where the moon will be absent is the Lyrids and will peak on 21st and 22nd April.  The fact that there will be no moon should make this very special if the nights stay clear.

On August 12th, the annual Perseid meteor shower will once again light-up the night sky.  Again the National Park Visitor Centre will be hosting a stargazing event with Dark Sky Wales from 19.30 until 11.00.  The Centre will be transformed into a mini-observatory, with a portable planetarium, telescopes for visitor use and experts on hand to explain and help.

And of course, when you have spent a lot of the night out in the fresh air, you will need a warm and cosy place to come back and lay your head.  That’s where we come in!

The Bunny Hop

I am telling you this as a non-biker but apparently, to get the most out of your mountain biking and take it to the max you really need to be able to bunny hop!  I think Wrighty should have realised this before going out with his cycle buddy last week.  He mastered the ‘flying over the handle bars’ move and Ian the ‘lollop off to the side’ move.  What are they like?  The legs pic (and what legs!) is really to demonstrate that mud can be found even after a stretch of very dry days.

 

Mind you we have made up for now.  Just passed about 80 road bikes on a race pounding up the Beacons in monsoon conditions – at least it would have cooled them down!  Wrighty also pegging it back on the Taff Trail on his road bike as I dropped him off on the way to Cardiff Airport earlier with number 2 son who is off to visit mates in Ireland. No sign of him yet!

Anyway, this Bunny Hop business doesn’t sound easy and obviously needs a lot of practise but if there are any other tips on making your mountain biking more exciting (and I suppose that doesn’t mean safer) then it would be good to know and share.  Talybont, as a cycle hub, is heaving with cyclists, especially on the weekend. It was also the base camp for the Bearded Man 3 day mountain bike endurance event last weekend.  If you are gutted you missed it, stay at the School Annex and you can do all the routes from here and get back to a comfy bed!  You would also have the luxury of some offroad parking.

The number of cars double parked up the village makes it very hard for cyclists and all us locals to get around so great tip:  try to use the Village Hall car park.    Take the right turn just after the village shop and it is right there. For a small fee in the honesty box you can help Talybont stay less clogged up and help our local village hall. It also means that you won’t be getting your bikes on and off your car with other vehicles scraping past you – phew!  And lets face it, you are on two wheels so being just another 100m off the Taff Trail doesn’t really matter.

Right – go practise those bunny hops!

 

Films Galore

You could never say that Talybont is a sleepy little Welsh village.  We have so much going on and we seem to be a filming haven at the moment.  If you walk or cycle up to Trefil Quarry you will find a huge film set for the Clash of The Titans 2.  There was a scary moment when they thought an endangered species of bat might actually defeat the Titans before filming started but all is well now!  If you are a tall white male then you might even get the chance to be an extra.

Also filming around Talybont are Tidy Productions, Ruth Jones company from Cardiff.  My hubby got stopped coming back from work the other night as they were shooting a scene.  He did offer up his services as an extra but wasn’t needed!  Some of the friendly production crew have been in our local The Star so, if you want to catch up with the goss, that’s a good place to spend an evening.

And to cap it all, Talybont Flicks, our green energy funded film nights have an impressive line up of films over the next few months including, The Lincoln Lawyer, Third Star, Sunshine Cleaning, My Sisters Keeper, Thor.  Some new and some good oldies!  Look out for dates of our film nights but normally they are around the third Tuesday of the month, starting at 7.30pm in our village hall using our brilliant new film equipment.  Just make sure you bring your own drinks and nibbles – anything goes!

But hey, you can still sit quietly and hear the birds singing so we aren’t quite the next LA yet.

Ducks Away

Well, what a difference one week makes.  Blazing sunshine today which would have been nice last week when we were floundering around in the river in Talybont collecting 1000 ducks in the rain (although as you can see we did have a tiny patch of sunshine for a few mintues!!).  Was really fun despite the weather and we even managed to sell some cream teas to some intrepid visitors – we did let them sit inside as our lovely hosts at The Malt House have a huge conservatory.  Raised £700 for our local village hall which was a great effort by all concerned. Thanks everyone!

Talybont Flicks

Had our monthly Talybont Flicks this week showing the fab film ‘The Kings Speech’.  You wouldn’t believe how good the film equipment is in our Village Hall.  Big drop down screen, proper speakers and overhead projector makes this a really good film experience.  Plus, it was all funded by the hydro electric turbine down the road at Talybont Reservoir – how green is that?!!  Watch this short promo on Talybont Energy which shows one of our film nights.

Great fun to come along to if you are staying here – bring your own wine/drinks and nibbles and chill out.  No annoying adverts and, so far no annoying crunchy popcorn, although someone did have to suck their crisps during a particularly quiet film!!!

Pedal Power

We are right on the Taff Trail here.  Literally just cycle out of the garden and ‘hey presto’!! Wrighty (the old man) was game enough to pedal off yesterday with our two lads and get up high over Talybont Reservoir.  I don’t know what it is about mountain bikers and mud but there does seem to be a strange attraction.  They all came back plastered with the stuff.  Anyway, they had a good time and my washing machine will recover!