Just returned from a fabulous week with friends camping at Towyn Farm near the village of Tudweiliog on the LLeyn peninsula. This is the third consecutive year that we been there and the third great week.
The coastline is beautiful:
The lanes are full of colourful flowers:
(Is this a scabious of some sort or other?)
There’s plenty of wildlife to see, like this six-spot burnet moth:
More about our trip in a while.
More sunshine! I was out early with S (who woke up just after 5). He was in the pushchair, eventually asleep, so we stuck to the lanes and went through the village and then round Bottom’s Lane. I was busy thinking, preoccupied with a maths problem, when this Meadow Brown caught my attention…
Walking is a great way to see the flora and fauna on your local patch, but stopping is often even better. Now that I had my camera in hand, and had stopped, at least for while, trying to calculate the difference between the cubes of thirteen and eleven, I realised that the the trees and shrubs alongside the road were bouncing with families of young birds, particularly Blue Tits and Long-Tailed Tits.
One of the latter led me on a merry dance as I tried to catch it on camera. It hopped and fluttered from branch to branch. I took several photos of twigs which it had only just vacated. In the end I did get some pictures…
…but only incognito shots. It would never quite show its face…
Meanwhile, on the verge the brambles are flowering. Not spectacular to look at, but obviously very attractive to nectar seekers. The plants on the verge were also heavily populated by…
..these splendid fellows.
When they are buzzing around my face, keeping me awake on a hot summer evening (not that we’ve had any of those recently), or in my kitchen, frankly they drive me mad. But I have to admit that the colours and the wings are very impressive.
On the opposite verge there were tall spikes of Limestone Woundwort:
Your ordinary, bog-standard Woundwort is very common in this area, its flowers are smaller and darker and it’s not half as showy as this close relative.
Although I had an early start I can’t compete with these guys:
Having cut the hay yesterday, today the fields and roads in the area were busy with tractors turning and then collecting it before more forecast wet weather arrives off the Atlantic tomorrow. When I started writing this post they were still out there working with floodlights.
For me the rest of the day held a puppet show and a charity garden party with the family and my Mum and Dad, so a pretty lazy day:
But Farmers and Bees are always busy:
Apparently, Bees can count to 3, but perhaps that’s a story for another time.
Now: 13 cubed minus 11 cubed……
Managed to get out for a couple of short strolls today, for the first time in what seems like far too long. Meanwhile the local farmer James was able to cut the fields at the back of the house. After very dry weather in April and May, June and July have been decidedly soggy. What price summer?
S/he was back today, sadly looking pretty ill, slumped on the slabs, letting us approach without trying to move away. Angela had the bright idea of putting out some cat food, which the Hedgehog soon polished off and then when it started to rain, moved away looking for shelter. It did seem to still be struggling with one of its legs.
Beating The Bounds 