This is one of my few rather dark and gloomy tree paintings. It's part of the same forest that covers the steep-sided valley that I described yesterday and on the map it's called the Mynydd Du Forest - the Black Mountain Forest and it certainly does look pitch black as you enter it.
But we always refer to it as the 'Where's my Teddy Woods' ever since my toddler grandson kept looking up at the trees and repeating 'Where's my Teddy?' We eventually twigged that one of his favourite bedtime stories was called 'Where's my Teddy?' and that there is a somewhat similar wood somehow involved in the story! Such is the impact of the illustrations in children's picture books!
More recently my son and I went for a 'walk' up through the forest but it's very steep and slippery underfoot so when we came to a proper track that circled the mountain horizontally, I was much relieved and there were some stunning views where the trees cleared.
However, after a while we realised that the path was not leading us back down in a circle to my car, which was parked down by the river but in the opposite direction. I would have happily gone back by the way we came but that was too boring for my son and he set off straight down the mountainside with me following as best I could.
I was not dressed for this sort of adventure as we were planning to have lunch at the Skirrid Inn after our walk; it was very wet and slippery so I was also a bit worried about spraining an ankle and as my son isn't insured to drive my car and of course there is no mobile signal out there, that could have been tricky! But I survived, apart from travelling down some of the distance on my backside and having to make sure I kept my back to the wall at the inn because my best trousers were so muddy from the slide!
I've heard that the SAS train in that area but I've never spotted them. Perhaps they were hiding behind the trees. It's not hard to imagine!
