An Extended Garden
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"The field became our extended garden and made for an amazing play area."
Transcript
"My parents came to North Wales from Leicester in the late 70s, to escape city life and so my Dad could study at the horticultural college.
They eventually bought a small quarry man's cottage in Rachub, a two-up, two-down, where I was born in 1984.
Coming from the city suburbs, they were balled over by the mountains and I was bagging peaks before I even knew I was born. They'd take me and my older sister, Alice, out at every opportunity.
We'd spend hours looking for quartz in the slate on the hills, messing around in the woods and rolling around on the beaches.
When I was six, Dad decided to set up a small horticultural business with mum, growing and selling a variety of plants and veg. This took us over to Dwyran on Anglesey. He found a five acre plot of land, just outside the village, and got growing.
The field became our extended garden and made for an amazing play area.
It was continually hard gruelling work for Mum and Dad, and they'd be busy up there come rain or shine, but they still managed to retain their sense of humour.
We helped out where we could, cutting and boxing courgettes in return for the odd bouncy ride on the old ford tractor. Life was simple, but great.
The business has since long gone and times have changed But I'm still here, enjoying the same special places, and through my work, sharing my enthusiasm for local landscapes with local school children, as my parents did with me."
