Heath Flowers

 Craig and I had a great time inspecting every speck of color in the landscape, and we found these treasures.

Sedum anglicum, English stonecrop

Photographing this next exquisite specimen in its natural habitat necessitated getting my shoes and socks soaked. The deep, spongey vegetation and substrate holds a LOT of water - very deceptive!

Bog asphodel, Narthecium ossifragum

This display tank at Lake Vrynwy illustrates how deeply soggy the heath can be, whilst looking like dry land to our feet. When you put your weight on it, the top sinks down into the wet below.

Common cottongrass, Eriophorum angustifolium

Round-leaved sundew, Drosifera rotundiflora

Tormentil, Potentilla erecta

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.

 

Caterpillar up Close

This is the front end of an elephant hawk-moth caterpillar (Deilephila elpenor) - one of the rewards of working in the yard is getting up close and personal with all manner of creatures.

It's one of countless species that appear to have enormous eyes, but these are merely markings, not functioning eyes

This larva will transform into this beautiful pink and gold moth

Photo from Wikipedia

NHS Shout-out

The NHS is the U.K.'s publicly funded health care system. We've heard so many people expressing dissatisfaction with the organization (it IS overloaded), and I had such a comforting and satisfying experience last week that I thought I should share. Granted, my experience is only one data point. 

We have a local surgery/GP in our town that is a short walk away, right next to our landmark St Myllin's church.

I've had a resurgence of allergy-induced asthma for the past 5 weeks or so, and have been using medications I already had on hand to control it. It has been almost 20 years since I'd had an attack (I'd had the 4 years of allergy shots in the U.S.), so at Dale's continual prompting, I decided to inform my GP of my breathing struggles so they'd be able to provide meds when needed. I described the situation on their online form, saying I had it under control and wouldn't need an appointment, just wanted to give them a heads-up about the meds I'm taking.

Within minutes of submitting the form, I got a phone call to say they would like to see me that day at noon, just 2 hours later! Now I was regretting sending in the details - "there's nothing really wrong with me, I'm not really sick, I don't want to make a fuss, I know what this is, I have this under control, others are more sick than I am .....blah, blah, on and on." 

The doctor I saw said my reaction is exactly the same as happened to him when he moved from Scotland to Wales, which caused him to suffer too. He was knowledgeable and sympathetic, and listened to our input. Of course, he could also hear the wheezing with each breath. So he recommended 2 medications to bring it under control (he didn't seem familiar with the serum-injection method we had in the U.S.), with a follow up in about a month with the asthma nurse. Now I'm glad I went - I really needed that prodding - the following day, after beginning the meds, I had the best breathing I'd had in weeks.

Oh, and all prescriptions are free of charge in Wales!☺

Severn Rivers Trust

 We went to our second invertebrate ID workshop run by the Severn Rivers Trust last week.

I saw a lot of things that looked like this - these are the freshwater shrimps found in our local river

And this is one of the mayfly larvae

Lots of bodies and exoskeletons to examine and count

Alluring Lilies

 The delicate perfume of lilies from our garden has been delightful.

I love the shadows of the stamens and pistil

This common green bottle fly found it attractive too

Home Improvements

We've got our new, louvred-roof pergola up! Dale worked on it bit by bit over the last few weeks and now has it firmly anchored to the pavers. It provides a large shaded area right up against the pond. We have a selection of grills and two stainless steel tables in this space, which makes a wonderful outdoor kitchen and dining area. So comfortable!

We'd removed the rickety, past-its-prime, and too small version that served more as a plant support than a shade generator or rain protector a while ago, so we were without any shade at all for a few weeks.

This new addition is fantastic

Sheep Trim

Grazing sheep have trimmed the lower edges of these trees very precisely and neatly at their base,

because that's as high as they can reach 

Blast from the Past

A friend of ours from University in South Africa drew this sketch in about 1982, depicting a 'character' often spotted around the computer services division on campus. My friends and I referred to him as John the Baptist (how ironic), while my youngest brother couldn't remember his name as Dale, but described him as 'a guy who looked like a bird watcher'. 

Peacock Butterfly

 Look at these gorgeous wings on the peacock butterfly (Aglais io)- stunning

This is a common butterfly whose eggs are laid on stinging nettle for the larvae to feed on. It overwinters in buildings and trees.

This one was trapped in our conservatory, so I placed a jar over it and then slid an envelope across the opening. When I tried to release it outside, it sat on the envelope in the sun, giving me a perfectly plain background on which to photograph it.

Repair Cafe

We spent part of last Saturday at the Repair Cafe in our town. It was actually a very nice informal way to socialize and meet new people with the repair work as common ground. 

Here's Dale bringing his toolbox up the stairs to start tackling his new role as Fixpert

Lunch is provided for volunteers during the 3 hour session, and people bringing broken items in are encouraged to watch and learn as their appliance is being fixed. They are also provided with tea, coffee and cake to while away the time.

Dale took a hedge trimmer apart and got it working again (he says he didn't really know how he fixed it)

We were also given this 15 page booklet of rules and expectations for volunteers of Repair Cafe Wales to peruse

A few of us walked over to the pub afterwards for a beer and catch up. 

A Decisive Day

It is done. Paradise has been transferred - today we relinquished ownership of our paradise in Maine. While the sale has taken a load off our minds, I couldn't help but feel tearful at the finality of it.

We understand that the new owners are excited about acquiring a natural paradise, so we feel that it's going to be in good hands.

Here in Llanfyllin, we still have

'A Paradise within thee, happier far.—' (John Milton, Paradise Lost)

Invasivore

We've all heard of omnivores, carnivores, insectivores, but what about invasivores?

Yes! It's really quite obvious - someone who eats invasives to help curb their detrimental environmental effects on an area when they become aggressive and outcompete natives.

Anyone have any recipes for Japanese honeysuckle kebab?

or a yucca milkshake?

I know people have tried various ways to use milfoil ... but I'm not sure it tastes any good.

Bisged, Dewi and Trebor

I found this item on my saucer after finishing my tea at a local inn - if you think creatively you can clearly tell what it is!

It's a biscuit, aka bisged!

We also came across a new Christian name we'd not encountered before - Dewi. It's not pronounced like the Dewey decimal system, but more like 'Debbie', but as if you have a speech impediment and can't say your 'b's:  deh-wee. It's a common Welsh masculine name!

Here's another weird one:

Trebor Jones, not Trevor! I think the name was given by someone who'd just had anesthesia at the dentist and couldn't form their lips properly to say Trevor and it stuck!

Water Meeting

We attended the Chester University's CLiCC (Center for Living with Climate Change) forum to discuss water availability, controls, preservation and quality last week at the Cross Keys coffee house in our town. 

The research project sought input from community members and locals in an informal setting.

We met many interesting and like-minded people from our community, and heard more about the Cain Valley River Group. They are looking for someone to take up the reins as they have run out of steam and leadership ... 

Does it have my name on it ... ? I need some time before I jump in and get my feet wet, but I'm thrilled to hear they want volunteers to help in the town's wetland project, and removal of ... Japanese knotweed. What am I waiting for?