Saturday's Trip - Cors Caron National Nature Reserve

This was at Tregaron, so first we took a trip into the Red Kite Centre and Museum, lots of stuff to see, lovely enthusiastic lady volunteer to tell you all about things to do in the area, she was a gem!

So then onto the Nature Reserve, built on and around an ancient peat bog. Again, will post the pics straight from the card, but it was another great place, been past it lots of times but never stopped by and walked it. There's a mile of boardwalk over the marsh, saw lots of insects but not many birds until the car park area, swallows in the nest and the lovely little fledgling Spotted Flycatcher being fed by its parent, thanks for the help from the bird forum again!

Here's the website address again if you want to know more about the place, worth a visit, and it's free!

http://www.ccw.gov.uk/landscape--wildlife/protecting-our-landscape/special-landscapes--sites/protected-landscapes/national-nature-reserves/nature-reserves-of-west-wales/cors-caron.aspx?lang=en

Sunday's day out - Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park

Fabulous place, been there before with friends a few times. Alan hadn't. It was a lovely day, great place to go with dogs, nice walk, lots of animals, and the icing on the cake - if you are lucky - Atlantic Grey seals in the wild. We were, there were two. Will just post some of the pics, I'm not going to edit them, just as they come off the memory card so apologies if they are too large and take forever to load on your pc! The last ones are all the seal pics, so it's not just a photo of the sea, you will see them if you click on the image. ;o)

Here's the web address, you can see for yourselves all the other stuff!

http://www.cardiganisland.com/

























Okay so on the way back, we called in at Mwnt, an unspoilt little place with just one tiny shop selling some snacks and buckets and spades etc. We climbed right to the top of the mound, very steep and quite a feat being as we'd already walked a fair old distance. There's a quaint little church and the bells were ringing telling people to come to the service, a nice end to a Sunday, as was the sunset on the water. :)

Oh Gawd!

I don't know what's up with me, well apart from a massive dose of lazy-itus I suppose. I had a great weekend again. And I took something like 80 photos from the two very different places we went. But I just can't be bothered to download them off the memory card, edit the size and then load them 5 at a time on here. Sigh. I suppose I will get round to it maybe eventually. Like Anna with her holiday photos from Scotland last year! It's a shame because some of them are great, domestic animals mainly, saw some Atlantic grey seals in the wild too. Just feeling very lethargic. Not been feeling that well really for a while, digestive problems like I've not had for a few years now, and constant niggling headaches. Been getting me down, but still trying to soldier on bravely.

So all I'm going to do for now is the thing which has excited me most this past few days - a baby robin who has taken a liking to me. He's named Pepper, thanks to a suggestion from a bird forum member. He's so tame, I am sure he must be related to Sausage, who's not been seen for a few months now sadly, but I live in hope. I actually have three here, but the other two aren't interested in me or my food, and shoot off as soon as I appear. Not so Pepper. He hung around me all day yesterday when I was out in the garden. Nearly trod on him a couple of times, almost threw the mower box full of grass cuttings on him too on the compost/rubbish pile. I was outside eating my lunch and he was nearby, when a bird made an alarm call, and all others vanished into the holly bush in seconds. Not Pepper. He flew to me for protection! Later on, when I was bringing in my guinea pig bowl of food, there were some ants in it, and I was standing in the doorway with the dish in my hand trying to flick them out, and Pepper came and perched on the bowl. I was absolutely so thrilled. A first for me. This morning, I went out with my normal dish of mixed bird goodies, and showed him and he again came and perched on the rim and took a look. However, nothing took his fancy and he flew off and grabbed a fly from the fence panel instead as if to say, huh, no thanks, I'll eat some proper food! He does like bread crumbs though, and I almost got him to take some from my hand. A couple more days and I'll be there I think. Birds are so afraid of hands aren't they? Even my cockatiels in the aviary will tolerate being kissed or nuzzled with my nose, but put a hand anywhere near them and they shriek with fear and are away!

Baby Pepper



Baby Blackbird having a sunbathe

Baby Bluetit on the Sky dish

At last....

I'm getting worse at this I know. I can't make the excuse of no time really because I could've done it last night, Monday night, and anytime since about 5pm today. Just can't be bothered I suppose. It was easier when I was doing it every day, but once it gets to be a week between posts, and I have to stop and think what I've done, it just becomes a chore and not a pleasure. So many things happen in the course of a week, some interesting to me, some trivial, but I feel I want to record them here because I like to look back from time to time and think, ah yes, I did so and so then. Well after all that waffle I suppose I'd best put something down then.

Okay, so I have just finished a 12 trip stint at the farm (6 days) was great as always, lots happened, Alan helped with 5 of those over the weekend and we had fun with the dogs, with some stray sheep from the other farmers fields, with some new kittens which have appeared from the feral cat, Kate is not amused! Without a doubt though of all the times I have worked up at the farm over the course of the last year, this time was the worst weather I've encountered. It's been crap on the whole, rain, wind, cold, apart from a couple of early mornings when I could manage with just a sweatshirt, otherwise it's been wellies and wax coats, hood up and still getting soaking legs. Have had to light my fire at home one night, now out of logs, and I've now resorted to putting on the night storage heater in the hall, unheard of before in July.

Apart from the norm of shopping, housework and bird feeding, the nicest thing I've done since last blog was on Sunday, when Alan and I had a day out between the farm shifts, at the Teifi Valley Steam Railway. (http://www.teifivalleyrailway.com/Events.htm) We were lucky with the weather, despite the forecast being lousy, it wasn't too bad, had sun for much of the day. The railway is run and maintained by volunteers, and the journey takes about 20 minutes each way, with a turn around wait of about 5 minutes whilst the engine shunts down the track away to pull us back instead of push (apparently it's illegal to push carriages whilst passengers are on board, so we all had to get off, learned something new there) We had a lovely lunch in the cafe there, sitting outside with Emma, the cafe is run by two nice ladies who do all their own cooking and buy local produce. I had a nice ploughmans and salad which had some delicious chutney with it and found out that one of the ladies makes it, it was Banana and Date so bought a jar, and also some Apricot. Absolutely yummy. We had our trip on the train, Emma petrified at first but was okay once she was sitting on my lap. We got back to the cafe and had tea and cakes, and then went on again, but this time disembarked at one of the stations on the way back, and we could walk back through beautiful woodlands with a gorge and waterfall, takes about 20 minutes to walk. Was a lovely day out. Oh, and btw, the name of the station is pronounced Pont-pren-sitoo!

Yesterday I took Emma to see Damien again. Her allergies are really bad at present, she's scratching like mad, eyes running and coughing. I'm fed up with paying out so much money for the vaccine she has to have and obviously there are other things that she isn't immunised against, so wanted to ask Damien if she can be tested for the pollens that are prevalent from May to September when she is at her worst, and then they can be added to her vaccine for the next batch. The stuff in question seems to be Dock and nettle. Up at the farm the fields are full of dock, and Emma has been much worse since we've been walking up there. He is going to get in touch with the people in Holland to see if this will be possible and get back to me. If I don't hear from him by next Tuesday, I have to go and see him after surgery, so I have a date with him at last.... if only.... He was bloody drop dead gorgeous again yesterday, I was only kidding myself last time I think that I don't fancy him any more. Oh dear. Oh well, I can still dream. Won't get me anywhere but still, lol.

A few photos to post so will call that it I guess. Can't think of much else to report except still have at least four hogs coming to feed, no sign of Squirt anymore sadly, but Cass and Jack every night, plus two unmarked ones. Mice still scampering around in the shed. Bloody sparrowhawk killing lots of things in my garden, seem to be forever chasing it away, but it had a collared dove yesterday by the looks of things, loads of feathers up by the bird table. It's had a couple of blue tits too. Grrrrr.

And finally, please when is it going to be summer? It's cold, grey, pissing with rain, and I am so, so fed up with it now. :o(


Emma on the first journey on my lap




Emma on the return, enjoying the scenery

Another update

Okay so since last time, not counting the mousey stuff from the other day -

Wednesday - had a nice lunch at Pat's, walk with the dogs, lovely afternoon. Then to Alan's for the evening. A first for me, a man cooked me a meal, and very nice it was too, bless him. And he did the washing up after.

Thursday - Went to Docs in morning, walked Emma round the park as we were forecast bad weather for the afternoon. They weren't kidding. It was bloody awful. Sat and watched Wimbledon.

Friday - Housework.

Saturday - Alan came over, went to the nice baguette cafe for lunch in Newcastle Emlyn, then to Henllan with Emma, walk down the river and across the farm fields. Called in at the Steam Railway station on way back to check out train times, always wanted to go on that, so maybe will at last get the chance.

Sunday - Went to Beaulah car boot sale am, not much doing, not many stalls, weather wasnt too good, it chucked down when we were about 5 minutes from seeing all the stalls, and we got bloody soaked running back to the car, well there's a surprise.... Cwm Tudu for lunch, it stopped by then, and we sat outside the cafe, after the owner had wiped off the seats for us! In the afternoon, we went to visit some of Alan's relatives who live close by, he'd not seen them for years (they were relatives of his wife) We've been invited to a barbie in two weeks time, looking forward to that. Oh, don't faint, but I cooked us a Sunday roast - first time I've done that for many a moon I can tell you. Turned out good though. Oh and a bread and butter pudd for afters. Yum.

Monday - went back over to Alan's and then headed off toward Caerphilly to see his dad and sister again. This time though we went via the Brecon Beacons, and the scenery was breathtaking. I couldn't take photos really though, as it would have meant getting him to stop too often. Hope we can go again though and I will definitely take some. We went into a forestry place that had an activity centre and cafe, but the cafe was shut until next year! So we ended up with a burger from a roadside place, which was very nice anyway. Stopped on the way back for a MacDonalds, so had a really healthy eating day - not! Got home at 11pm. Dirty stop out.

Today - Supposed to be a heatwave, ha bloody ha. Well it's been fairly warm I suppose, I could actually be outside in a tee shirt whilst I cut all the grass, cut back lots of brambles and stingers. Went up the farm to help Kate trim a ewe's hoof who is lame. Had two machine loads of washing out on the line which would have been dry before I went up there at 4 o'clock. By the time I got home again after the dog walks and coffee and a chat, it was peeing down. Washing now drying in the bathroom, wetter than when I put it out. We have had torrential rain since then, like I've never seen. It was coming off the front gutter in the porch like Niagara Falls. So dark in here I really need to put the light on. Sick of this sodding summer already. Fed up with feeling cold half the time and having to have at least one of my heaters on almost all the time, bar about 10 nights so far. Grrrrrr.

Got the farm coming up now from Thursday, right through to following Wednesday now, no lambs to feed this time though. Oh went and saw my little Daisy for the first time in weeks, she came for a cuddle, and she kissed me and nibbled my neck, awww, hope Alan doesn't think I've got a lovebite, haha!

Cwm Tudu


Alan found some other boys to play skimming stones with....



Water water everywhere....