Welsh Country - Your Countryside Magazine for Wales

Derek Brockway was born in Barry, south Wales in 1967 and is a weather forecaster employed by the Met Office. As well as preparing and presenting the lunchtime and nightly TV forecasts for BBC Wales Today, Derek also presents weather bulletins for BBC Radio Wales. He was only eight when he became fascinated with the weather and confesses to driving his parents bonkers insisting he sat and watched every weather report on the TV. But his ambition became to work with the weather and he’s achieved that. Kath Rhodes met Derek to find out just a little more about Wales’ best loved weatherman.

"Some people think I turn up to work at 5 in the afternoon, slap on some make-up and then pop up and present the weather before going home again. If only!"

sea-swallows & shingle

Wildlife

By Ben Stammers
Even within a very special stretch of coast such as that of northern Anglesey, Cemlyn nature reserve stands out as a fascinating place and its dynamic landscape and open, windswept atmosphere catch the imagination of many visitors. A unique kilometre-long shingle ridge (Esgair Gemlyn) dominates the site, dividing the open water of Cemlyn Bay from a shallow lagoon, and forming a perfect elliptical sweep which is echoed in the smooth curves of surrounding drumlins. The drumlins were sculpted by the dragging movement of receding glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, whereas the ridge was first created by a violent storm in the 19th Century and is subtly re-defined by each tide. Cemlyn’s wildlife is similarly outstanding: the shingle of the Esgair is home to specially-adapted maritime plants, while in summer the two islands within the lagoon are a setting for the spectacle of a large mixed colony of breeding terns – the only one of its kind in Wales.

John Byrne VC

Stories in Stone

By Geoff Brookes
In war it comes down to survival of the fittest, especially when the fighting becomes personal, when you stare into the eyes of your enemy and you try to kill each other. The fittest is often the brutal killer, the one without compassion or understanding. This one was a brute; he was a killer and he was very good at it, so they gave him a VC. Say a big hello, then, to John Byrne.
There are obvious similarities between John Byrne and Charles Lumley, one of the other Crimea veterans buried here in Wales. They may have come from entirely different ends of the social spectrum, but both were awarded the Victoria Cross for their bravery in the Crimea; they both eventually shot themselves in the head. But they arrived at their unfortunate and sad deaths by entirely different routes. John Byrne was an ill-disciplined brawler. He was a fighter, not a soldier. But it was this that won him his Victoria Cross and his DCM.

Colourful Crocosmia

Gardening

By Richard Cain
These late summer flowering perennials are often known by their common name of Montbretia, which causes occasional confusion. The common name itself honours the French botanist, Jean Antoine Coquebert de Montbret, who accompanied Napoleon on his Egyptian expedition in 1798, but the correct botanical term is Crocosmia from the Greek krokos meaning saffron and osme meaning smell, referring to the saffron scent released when the dried flowers are placed in water. The common Montbretia was actually bred by crossing two Crocosmia species, namely Crocosmia pottsii and Crocosmia aurea. This first hybrid was bred in 1879 by Victor Lemoine of Nancy, France and was called Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora. It is these plants which have become naturalised along the western coasts of the British Isles and they are now considered to be a ‘naturalised’ native.

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