Silence and stars in the Radnor Forest

We’ve just got back from a short holiday in Wales, where we stayed in a cottage with no television, no mobile phone signal, and no stress. I think it’s the seventh time we’ve been there but we never get bored of it and the dogs love it. There are walks in the Radnor Forest and farmland all around, and a splendid wood burner to keep you warm when you get back.

Labradoodle or sheep? Fargo blends in with the locals.

One amazing thing about such splendid isolation is that the nights are really dark. We city-dwellers are used to our stars being obscured by light pollution, so it's magical to step outside and see nothing but stars in the night sky.

There was one element of the peace and quiet that I wasn’t so happy about: the neighbouring farm was silent. Where there would usually be the sound of barking sheepdogs and cattle looking over the garden fence, there was nothing. It turns out that the farmers, who’ve been running a small but highly-respected organic meat farm, have had to call it a day. They’ve loaned some of their fields to other farmers for grazing sheep, but their own livestock is gone. It’s a real shame because they couldn’t have tried harder to make it work. Country life might be idyllic if you’re on holiday, but it can be incredibly tough if you’re trying to make a living and I admire the people who do it. And I miss those barking dogs.