This gallery contains 79 photos.
Once more, January has worked its magic. What?? This image, above, from this morning paints a more accurate picture of the often wet, grey gloom, and sodden ground which limits outside work at the moment. Not to mention the cold, … Continue reading
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
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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
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
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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
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
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
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
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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
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
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
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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
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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
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
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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
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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
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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
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
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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
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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
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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
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
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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
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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
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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
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
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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
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One of the constant themes in the garden here is the ever-changing weather that we can experience in the same month, and from year to year. So no surprise that after one of the sunniest and driest Februarys, March should … Continue reading
This gallery contains 46 photos.
“How are you?” was the familiar greeting down the line. “I’m feeling glum. I’ve just read your email and poem”, was my unusual reply. This the response to our younger son, after a brief email he’d sent me which included … Continue reading
This gallery contains 71 photos.
2023 for us began splendidly – house guests again, at last, over at least some of the twelve nights of Christmas. Conversation, reminiscing, walks, special food, and some favourite films including a much-anticipated second watch of Stephen Macrae and Sarah … Continue reading
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It had to happen. 2 weeks of wonderful freezing cold, but largely dry weather ended and the last 10 days have seen mild temperatures, wind, and winter rains return. Along with the added disappointment of a cancelled family visit, due … Continue reading
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Will you read to the end? Who is this really for? You or me? Do I know? Do I care? A selection of short sentences to begin, since I’ve been thinking about attention spans of late. Probably prompted by my … Continue reading
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I shall forever remember the recent wolf moon. I’ve certainly seen one before, though without knowing that the full moon in January was given this, and several other monikers centuries ago, at least in the U.S.A., by native American tribes. … Continue reading
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No fanfare greets your late return, No chattered dipped inflections, No yearned for sunny silhouettes. No, November’s solitary influx Seeps, a secret spreading stain. A million marvel migrants fled. The chilling landscape, flushed you Fast, by night. Alone. And tracked … Continue reading
This gallery contains 93 photos.
Three questions to begin. Do you like the header image, which is completely untweaked? It’s exactly as it came out of the camera’s flash card. Secondly do you prefer it this way up? And finally, and really the most interesting, … Continue reading
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At last, November 2nd, a dense grey scene greeted me as I drew the upstairs bedroom curtains. But not without hope, as it had the faintest hint of colour seeping through, due East. As always, the next job in my … Continue reading
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Let’s get the plurality of falls out of the way. I’m stretching the meaning to include what we still seem to call autumn, on this side of the pond, though fall is an appropriate term on a day like today … Continue reading
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My last post was rushed out before a frantic but delightful weekend, when our son’s family and 6 grandchildren descended, overlapping with a pre-planned NGS pop-up weekend. This was promoted as part of a BBC Radio 2 event, “The Big … Continue reading
This gallery contains 94 photos.
The weather has continued to be a dominant factor in life here over the last 4 weeks. Culminating this last week in what I can only describe as brutal conditions for several days. However, to rewind, named storm Christoff, battered … Continue reading
This gallery contains 34 photos.
What a strange Christmas this year. No physical visitors, but a wonderful, across the globe, multifamily, multigenerational, even multi continent, ZOOM call. In Wales, a recent apparent surge in Covid case numbers, the discovery of a new “mutant” and “more … Continue reading
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Dream Leaper What a time it was, When beeches wept and Seasons’ memories lay neatly banked and rusting, Deep beneath Caermalwas Fach’s Cathedral sheltering boughs. It was a time For Crow to crown the naked larch And, silhouetted, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 75 photos.
I can’t recall a year like this. Never mind the “pandemic”, I’m referring to our lovely Oak tree, draped over the barn roof. (The valleys though, aren’t singing. Locked down again, for 17 days from Friday. So listen instead to … Continue reading
This gallery contains 132 photos.
With apologies to The Eagles, “Life in the slow stream, Surely gonna ease your soul” seems a suitable line to begin a post typically full of the observations that always happen down here when the weather is wonderful. And DRY! … Continue reading
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Monday March 16th dawned clear, cold with a light frost, and sunny for a good couple of hours. Thrushes were serenading, small feathers drifted across the yard, as house sparrows and wagtails built nests. By 9.30 honeybees were visiting the … Continue reading
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A fortnight ago, we headed down to the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW) for their annual Wales Fungus day event. In spite of a poor forecast, as always there were several interesting talks and events laid on, including their … Continue reading
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September Today I yearn serenity. And on this first morn, Shorn of politics and prorogation, September smiles. Struggling through horizoned clouds, A window opens; golden light floods Distant Pumsaint’s rich veined coum. The hidden … Continue reading
This gallery contains 57 photos.
What halcyon days, the August 2019 bank holiday weekend. A record breaker for temperatures across the UK, and here too with heat and wall to wall sunshine. Yet what of the origin of “halcyon days”? You have to return to … Continue reading
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Just in time for a bit of planned guerilla planting, or more accurately sowing, our eldest son and fiancée arrived at the end of the first week in June. Following the wettest day in 3 months, a quick trawl beneath … Continue reading
This gallery contains 60 photos.
Was it the full moon? Or the sudden warming in temperatures last week? Or impending Easter – which won’t fall this late in April again until 2030? Or the threat of predators? At that stage unseen.We’ll never know, but after … Continue reading
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Seizing the moment on a currently rare March morning, forecast to be dry and sunny after much rain, cloud and wind during the first fortnight of this highly variable month, Fiona had plotted a circular route centred around the coastal … Continue reading