Sightseeing

 A visit from Dale's friend of 55 years prompted a scenic trip with interesting stop-offs along our favorite, dramatic route nearby. This time, with botanizing, birdwatching, butterfly-gazing (and some grub) on the agenda, we spent 6 hours doing the 52 mile route (equivalent distance from Manchester, NH to Boston, MA).

The heath had changed color schemes since our visit last month! Fascinating, and so incredibly beautiful. 

It's hard to believe that the vivid greens are not low groundcovers, but gorse shrubs and bracken that stand about a metre or more above the soil surface, creating a microhabitat beneath.

The orange/red tinge to the heathlands was laid on by the European blueberry (or bilberry) amidst the  swathe of green.

 

Lilac flowered heather added yet another layer of colour to the slopes and hillsides.

I can't get enough of this scenery

It's thrilling when the only sound around is wind

Evening Birds

An evening outdoors -

Rooks and swifts on chimney tops -

And a Nightjar stout.

Coppery Beauty

I was lucky enough to snap a picture of a live slow worm whilst gardening before it scuttled away. What a beautiful creature!

Neither worm (despite its common name), nor snake, this is the non-venomous, legless lizard, Anguis fragilis. They help keep the slug population down.

French Lieutenant's Woman

 An elderly resident of Llanfyllin wrote this book about the known romance between a French prisoner of war (Pierre Augeraud) and the local rector's daughter in 1812. Pierre was sent back to France in 1814 (mostly orchestrated through the efforts of Marie's father), but he eventually made his way back to Llanfyllin to marry Marie (her father had died in the interim) in 1817. They settled and lived in France till their deaths.

'The French Lieutenant's Woman' written by John Fowles, was a work of historical fiction and was not connected to this true tale.

Whilst paroled in the town council house, Pierre painted a series of murals, which remain to this day and are on show during town festivities.