When the world whispers When the world whispers, then words feebly trace Memories and visions of light, time and space. No need for speaking, so silence is best. Walking or seated, our minds need to rest. Switch off … Continue reading
Winter’s World of White; Crumping, Schwelping and Schliding before Gorreti.
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This gallery contains 8 photos.
I was surprised to see the Met Office forecasting in mid-December that 2026 was likely to be one of the hottest years yet (since their records began – in the mid-1800’s). After the exceptionally sunny, if cold, Christmas we enjoyed, January … Continue reading
A Cheerful Christmas; Cast.
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This gallery contains 1 photo.
Another brief post to record that this year’s Christmas weather was unusually benign. It had me trawling through past blog notes, which confirmed that it was indeed our best ever – for lovely light and lack of rain, if not … Continue reading
A Thrill of Hope, and Happy Christmas
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This gallery contains 5 photos.
A brief post for Christmas Eve. “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious dawn.” “O Holy Night” originated in France in 1847, when the poet Placide Cappeau wrote a poem ‘Minuit, Chrétiens’ … Continue reading
Wanderings and Wonderings: New Lights, Dying Flames; Records.
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This gallery contains 25 photos.
Our knotweed is rusting. I see that it’s another one of those garden plants which now has multiple, different names: rock, whortleberry-leaved, or rose knotweed. Or if you prefer scientific names, Persicaria (as I’ve always known it), Bistorta or Polygonum … Continue reading
Bees and Double You; Dawn Fireworks; So Far Away.
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This gallery contains 25 photos.
November 6th already seems an age ago. It arrived as a wonderful change after 48 hours of continuous rainfall, which saw 116 mm fall locally. The Met Office forecasts had suggested 2 wet days, but gave no hint of the … Continue reading
Honey, Mushrooms and Fairies; Backdoor Foxes, Murderous Crows, Saturo Experience.
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This gallery contains 36 photos.
It’s recognised by mycologists that West Wales (and parts of Scotland) are some of the world’s hotspots for grassland fungi, in particular the colourful range of waxcap fungi which typically fruit in late summer through autumn. In part because there … Continue reading
Quietest moments: Feelings; The Blob; Rhydcymerau – an Elegy.
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This gallery contains 20 photos.
After a deluge on the first day of a week’s break in Pembrokeshire, the weather perked up, and we had six days of glorious sunshine, light winds and fairly warm temperatures. A delight and a much-needed switch off for us … Continue reading
‘Shelob’ and the Killing Zone; Golden Rings; Drought and Hurricanes.
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This gallery contains 27 photos.
After all these years, I’ve created a killing zone. Right outside our back door. And not simply covered and stabilised the shale bank with spreading plants which flower for a small part of the year, which was the original intention: … Continue reading
Kingfisher Poems; Fairdene Gardens and Gallery; Memories and Creativity
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This gallery contains 19 photos.
Look at the NBN Atlas map for the distribution of kingfishers, Alcedo atthis, in Wales, and if you zoom in, it’s obvious that although it’s a widely distributed species, there are currently no records for the hilly terrain around us. The … Continue reading
Endless Summer; Roving Moth and Static Butterfly; Reunion; Toil and Sweat
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This gallery contains 41 photos.
This morning, at dawn, it felt like autumn is nearly upon us. Early. In less time than it took for the kettle to boil for our first cuppa, the nearly impenetrable mist filling the valley below us had cleared enough … Continue reading
Solstice and Light Eaters; Stung into Inaction; Meadow Orchids – Butterflies and Moths
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This gallery contains 14 photos.
Last week was quite something, in this insignificant part of the world. Culminating in me managing to watch sunrise on the summer solstice from the peace and quiet of our shepherd’s hut. A first for me, and an evolving couple … Continue reading
Blue and Green, Sarn Helen, Welsh Daffodil Seeds and Plant Suicide
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This gallery contains 40 photos.
With perfect timing, for once, our week away on the Pembrokeshire coast coincided with the final week of unbroken, dry sunny weather of this record-breaking spring. The Met Office has now confirmed that not only has it been the warmest … Continue reading
From a Distance:- This Lush Spring – Stories and Records
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This gallery contains 70 photos.
Inevitably, over time, this blog has shifted and drifted in topics and style. Just like the garden has morphed and changed. Sometimes diary, sometimes investigative, sometimes creative, sometimes science-based, sometimes poetic. I can’t discern any obvious pattern for these changes, … Continue reading
Of Mice, Men, Kids, Lambs and Hog; Blackbird Lament; Daffodil Final Call?
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This gallery contains 59 photos.
Before lambing started, I had several sessions collecting dry Purple Moor Grass, Molinia caerulea, from the uncut wet area of our lower hay meadow. I’ve mentioned this before since we use it as bedding for our sheep lambing pens. But this … Continue reading
Dramas, Challenges, Llamas; Soft Goodnights, and Daffodil Contraception.
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This gallery contains 63 photos.
It’s not often that one goes to bed reflecting on having saved a life, but yesterday was one of those days. (So much has happened since I sat and wrote this, that yesterday, it wasn’t) Or maybe it wasn’t just … Continue reading
March Morn, When Flowers Return, Rhapsodies
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This gallery contains 38 photos.
At last! March has broken the weather run that stretches back an awfully long way, into 2023. We’ve enjoyed multiple dry days in a row, with just enough rain to keep the soil moist. And a fair bit of sunshine, … Continue reading
Fickle February
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This gallery contains 5 photos.
A brief post to record a memorable weekend. Saturday saw some warmth (perhaps 12 degrees C), sunshine, light SW winds and at last the garden came alive with honey bees and other insects. Though I’ve still to record the first … Continue reading
Fleeting Moments; Exciting Visits; Trees and Power; What3Plants 10.
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This gallery contains 17 photos.
Let’s get the fleeting moments out of the way. It references the very brief periods of blue sky and sunshine we’ve experienced thus far this February. In the main we’ve had a lot of cold, grey, dry weather. And now … Continue reading
Hunkering Down, Pushing Up, Rushing Off; Mid-Winter Starlings.
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This gallery contains 16 photos.
One of my most dramatic local wildlife experiences comes later in this post. But firstly, I should record that the extended ‘dunkelflaute’ period has now well and truly passed (from the German dunkel – ‘dark’ and flaute – ‘lull’). Storms … Continue reading
Looking Forward, and Back; 2025 and Garden Opening; Starling Roost Flights
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This gallery contains 41 photos.
January, named after double-headed Roman God, Janus, is a special time for both reflection and anticipation. (Picture of Janus feasting – from the twelfth century Fécamp Psalter). For looking back at 2024, and forwards to what the New Year might … Continue reading
Three Christmas Tales; Beeched Whales.
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This gallery contains 66 photos.
We were due a change of weather fortune. Two out of three Christmas dates put smiles back on our faces, with their own special tales, and made an end-of-year to remember. Christmas Eve: As soon as I popped outside, I … Continue reading
Storm Darragh: Dimensions – Death, Destruction, Shock, Survivors, Scents.
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This gallery contains 137 photos.
What’s in a name? This name. Darragh. The seven letters which gave this Storm its identity. Perhaps reflected its massive personality. Chosen long before the computer models showed something brewing out in the Atlantic. And eventually barrelling towards Ireland, with … Continue reading
November!
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This gallery contains 4 photos.
I thought after this last unusual month of November weather and sights, it was time to move on from the often-quoted poem ‘NO!’ about this month on page 44 of Thomas Hood’s Complete edition of Comic poems, written in 1844. … Continue reading
Before Bert; Altered States; November Novelties, and A.g.o.g. update.
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This gallery contains 13 photos.
Named storm Bert arrived overnight on Friday 22nd, and by the time rain eased off 36 hours later, we’d had 103 mm of rainfall.Fortunately, I’d done preparatory work on our access track, clearing out chevron channels and the central main … Continue reading
The Last Man in Europe (2024)
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This gallery contains 3 photos.
Earlier this week I received a letter with a strange small knobbly item lurking in the envelope. I tried to work out what it was by feeling it. I couldn’t see any obvious sender identification on the letter, and without … Continue reading
Friday Night Fever; Coloured Leaves, Sky, Sheep; A g.o.g. Gigs.
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This gallery contains 13 photos.
Friday Night Fever Night Drew me, etched my stretched back lines Night knew me, warm on chill cast iron No thoughts were passed, no words were said We were alive, yet could have passed for dead No shooting … Continue reading
Tossed and Found; Waste Not, Want Not; October Views.
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This gallery contains 8 photos.
After all this time, why did it surface now? That’s just one of the questions I’ve been asking recently, after finding another object earlier in the month for what we’re now going to call our ‘Tossed and Found’ shelves. Which … Continue reading
Anniversary Stars; Spreading for Diversity; Bayesian Links.
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This gallery contains 3 photos.
I see it’s been over a month since I wrote this: Anniversary Stars Why now, this day, this swallow time? The flight swoops, riveted I gulp Their bubbling kettle richness. Count, Or try as back and forth, High and … Continue reading
Swansongs
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This gallery contains 21 photos.
Swansongs. Where did this word with familiar connotations of final performance, arise? It’s strange how many innocent words one might use over a lifetime without ever giving them a second thought. Until in the case of this word, for me … Continue reading
Fire Weather; Where Have all the Insects Gone? Bat Chasing Bees: Gender? This much I know.
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This gallery contains 28 photos.
Fire weather? The four crows of the anthropocene apocalypse, perhaps? Sitting in a leafless, dying ash tree. In our part of West Wales, this July certainly hasn’t lived up to an obvious Fireweather description. The Met Office summary for the … Continue reading
ReflecTions: Special Places, Tall Trees and Silent Spaces
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This gallery contains 13 photos.
Hats off to anyone who can identify the material above with its own aged patina, which we found during a recent garden visit. The complete element is shown later on. “To know fully even one field or one land is … Continue reading
Decisions, Decisions. The Old Man with the Hats.
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This gallery contains 44 photos.
The recently compiled Met Office climate summary for May, and spring 2024 confirms my own limited observations. Once again records have been broken for the highest mean daily temperatures in a series dating back to 1884. But this was mainly … Continue reading
The Power of Words. An Idiot’s Tale? Breakfast Bees.
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This gallery contains 18 photos.
For once we timed a short break to perfection. Not only did we enjoy a week without a single drop of rain, but our return trip to Felin Hescwm, just beside the sea near Dinas Cross in Pembrokeshire coincided with … Continue reading
This Silent Spring; Lights, Throats, Beards and Bedroom Tricks.
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Write some first words. Now, Julian. While the memories are as clear as the cool May air on the morning of the 16th. A dawn of such clean freshness, blue skies and sharp shadows that my ‘quick’ garden walk extended … Continue reading
Lights at the End of Tunnels; Will Kang Do? Juvenile Play.
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This gallery contains 16 photos.
At last. It may not be warm. Let alone hot. We may have had very few early morning sunrises when a golden glow seeps past our tiny bedroom curtains around 5.50 a.m. But at least we’ve had a few days … Continue reading
Resignation; Green Sheep; Neonatal Notes and Narcissophiles
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This gallery contains 175 photos.
We’re used to things turning green in our climate. The default colour for our lush grass and vegetation, vibrant lichens, moss, freshly whitewashed walls towards the end of winter, unwashed car. The list goes on. We’re used to regular rain. … Continue reading
Looking for Rainbows, Spring Tales/Springtails; Avoiding News and Intelligent Transparency
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This gallery contains 59 photos.
New month, new vibe. Briefly. March came roaring in, first with big wet snowflake flurries, and then, in the afternoon, a fabulous rainbow, right outside the front door. It waxed and waned in intensity, and I’d taken several photos, twice … Continue reading
A Soggy February for Frogs
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This gallery contains 85 photos.
So far, it’s been a February for Frogs. There are concerns that nationally, in Great Britain as a whole, our frogs (mainly Rana temporaria), are having a tough time with habitat loss, pesticide/insecticide use and a relatively new viral disease, … Continue reading
Hanging on – Patience and Survival
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This gallery contains 8 photos.
Food. And warmth. Two vital elements for surviving winter. Always have been, and always will. The buzzwords for this post which attempts to draw together at least four special sightings here over the last ten days. Let’s begin with the … Continue reading
Annual Review; Worth the Wait? Garden Opening in 2024 and Snowdrops For Sale List.
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This gallery contains 30 photos.
I always complete a review of all my blog photos from the whole year, in the first few days of January to whittle them down to just 3 to illustrate my annual hard copy blog book. These are the top … Continue reading
Geminids; Woodcock; Wild, Feral, or Free-Living Bees; Decumulating and Looking Forward
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This gallery contains 25 photos.
For an occasional, ill-informed stargazer like myself, I think the only pastime that comes close to watching for shooting stars around the time of a known, annual meteor shower is waiting for a fish to take a fly or lure. … Continue reading
Autumn Leaves, Looking Back and VITT – an Uncomfortable Truth
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This gallery contains 27 photos.
A garden is never the same from one year to the next – a big part of its delight. But if one season highlights this more than any other, it’s that final part of the deciduous tree’s year, when the … Continue reading
Fishy Tales; Sewin; Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
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This gallery contains 18 photos.
Anadromous, or even its Greek etymological meaning of “running up” (from ἀνά /aná, “up” + δρόμος /drómos, “running”), don’t really do justice to the life cycle of the sewin/sea trout/Salmo trutta. Like salmon, these fish return to spawn in the … Continue reading
Bog Standard? Honey Bee Watch; The Theft and Brief Encounter.
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This gallery contains 4 photos.
Bog standard seemed a dubious title for this piece, and its very origins are murky, judging by the interesting blog “Not One-off Britishisms”, which suggests that it may have originated in Britain in the 1960s. Certainly, this September’s weather wasn’t … Continue reading
Slow Motion; Morfran’s Refuge; and Mole Hill Meadows.
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This gallery contains 47 photos.
The unexpected weather window at the beginning of September which saw blue skies, high temperatures, and excessive humidity at last persist for long enough to allow everyone locally to make some very late-season hay, now seems a long time ago. … Continue reading
Eaten Alive; Devilish Obsession; and Ballooning Crabs.
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This gallery contains 123 photos.
There can be few more unpleasant tasks a sheep owner has to deal with than a case of blowfly strike. Or to use a more scientific term cutaneous myiasis. Or much more simply a case of maggot infestation. Over the … Continue reading
Listening to Lionel; Stamina and Hunting the Horny Back Toad; Daphne Update.
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This gallery contains 23 photos.
After an end of July with many visitors and one of the best action photos I’ve yet managed of any of our grandchildren… Fiona and I were fortunate, this week, to be able to hear a speaker whom Gardens Illustrated … Continue reading
Daphne Bholua Seed Germination; Scan the Scene; Clouded Linings; I’m Not Making Hay
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This gallery contains 56 photos.
Over the years, I’ve often made reference to mean reversion, at least as far as the weather is concerned, so it’s no surprise for me to report that after the exceptional “Lotus Land” experience of unbroken dry weather recorded in … Continue reading
Lotusland, Mad Hatters, The Storm – Early Summer 2023
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This gallery contains 20 photos.
What will we remember from June 2023 in 20 years? Will we still be around, or even have the power of recall? Will I remember the sublime morning spent up in the shepherd’s hut? The timer set. The trickling sand … Continue reading