Critters!

I was delighted to find these three newts huddled under a concrete birdbath I moved during my gardening foray. I was sorry to have disturbed them, but they seemed too confused/cold/sluggish to move away and hide. We got a good look at them, but forgot to look at their undersides for spots.

This is probably the common smooth garden newt, Lissotriton vulgaris

These bramble leaves indicate the presence of a critter having been there, most likely the caterpillar of the golden dot moth (Stigmella aurella). The larvae are often referred to as leaf miners.

The last critter is a beautiful sketch by Rachael for Mother's day - the silver-studded blue, native to Wales, but declining due to habitat loss. I really hope to see one in real life soon

Pant Cudd

A few of you have asked if we're learning Welsh. There's no real need, since we haven't encountered a single Welsh-speaking person thus far. Everyone speaks English automatically, so we're very fortunate in that regard. All road signs are printed in Welsh first, with English underneath. Yesterday I saw a road sign that warned:

PANT CUDD

HIDDEN DIP

As you can see, it's not very easy to decipher meanings. Even searching through our knowledge of German doesn't help us figure it out. 

We have had weather mostly like this next photo since we arrived. It's our village from a footpath (we are down in the PANT CUDD in the foreground, between the bluebells and the maroon foliage of what appears to be a copper beech on the right).

There have also been some blue skies and very little rain so far. It means I've been able to savor working in my garden just as much as I like! I'm in heaven! Except that, one afternoon we kept getting wafts of manure across our yard - we hope it's a one-off thing and the odor doesn't 'hang about' all summer 🤞.

We walked up to Myllin's Well, supposedly the site of the first immersion baptisms in the 6th or 7th century, which is on the hill behind our house. It's quite a steep walk, but short and manageable, with opportunities to stop and admire the breathtaking views/catch your breath!

Here is the deeply indented path to the top of the hill - you can see how centuries of foot traffic have compressed and compacted the path to now exist below the ground level of the tree roots bordering it. It is much deeper than this in some places

We had some grand views of the countryside from the top of the hill.

All the white dots in the pics are sheep (Hmm, I wonder what the ratio of people to sheep is?). I think this must be where the idea of counting sheep to help one fall asleep must have come from.

Decades Old Landscapes

My garden is an old, established and fancifully exotic collaboration. I have decided to manage and nurture what is already here, despite my 'nativist' leanings. This garden landscape has been like this for decades, has high biodiversity and is home to many creatures. I have to keep asking myself 'what does native mean in a landscape that has been shaped and molded by human civilizations for centuries'? The entire landscape that we drive through and which I think is scenic, is actually ancient cultivated land, not wilderness at all. 

What I hope to do, once I have the old, neglected garden neatened around the edges, is try to incorporate and allow native meadow plants to reestablish on the far bank of our property that doesn't get mowed. Right now, it's a mix of briars and climbing roses, almost impenetrable. That is, if I can uncover what is truly native ... 

As I probe deeper and deeper into the mass of vegetation, I'm finding there are many plants sheltered behind and beneath that appear to have been out shaded and overshadowed, forlorn and forgotten. I've been very busy having fun hacking my way through undergrowth and discovering hidden treasures. I've found where the mint is growing in our yard, so all we have to do now is slaughter a sheep and we'll be all set for Dale's favorite dish, roast lamb with my mint sauce. I don't think he should have let that lamb go after he freed it last week.

 

There's a quaint mix of ancient landscapes and modern features everywhere in this land. The old has remained, and the new just finds a way around its edges.

Local Walk

We took a round trip into the village this week to drop off our medical papers at the local doctor's office. Before we set out, I watched the local farmer driving down the lane, trimming the hedge with his tractor and attachment.

This is what it looked like after he was done

We walked down Narrow Street (yes, they have the audacity to declare this one as narrow, as if it were distinctly different or more narrow than all the others). On the way, we passed a home where they seemed desperate for some outdoor space to call a garden - they have a fenced in segment of greenery protruding out into Narrow Street.

After handing in our medical enrolment papers, we visited the SPAR convenience store, checked their offerings and continued our walk back up to our house.

The footpath entrance that leads up to our house is just around the blind corner next to the hedge 

It's a short walk uphill, and is a little overgrown right now. There's a metal gate at the bottom, which we were careful to latch very quietly after a neighbor admitted that their "horrible little dog" barked incessantly when it heard the gate close. We didn't want to have to listen to that.

And then we were back home, approaching our house from the other side.

We walked past the Pub on this route, but we didn't plan our time properly, so still haven't stopped in for a pint.

P.S. Our container set sail today, heading south to other American ports before steering towards England.

A Little Excursion

One of the many things we did today was take a short trip to Lake Vrynwy just over 11 miles away. What a majestic dam wall! It was built between 1880 and 1890 and is still operational, providing water to Liverpool via aqueduct. The road runs along the top of the dam wall. Very impressive indeed.

Those yellow blooms are cheery marsh marigolds, which I also had at my lakeside home.

We thought this next stream habitat was perfect for wagtails, but we weren't rewarded in our expectations at this point. We saw one later at a puddle in the road! There are also some bluebells on the shore in the foreground. Some hillsides were completely blue with bluebells!

The arboretum walk below the dam looked very inviting. I can't wait to go back there when we have more time in hand (as it is, we canceled our planned shopping expedition after spending more time here than anticipated).

I'm enthralled by the depth and diversity of greens! I loved this sentiment engraved into a fallen tree on the site:

"When we stand, and when we fall, we are home to creatures large and small."

Look at what the human foot traffic has done to this surrounds of this tree! It does show though, how the root network forms a kind of 'net' to hold soil in place.

No Events Scheduled

My calendar said I had no events scheduled for today, so I could relax, rest and imbibe my new surroundings as much as I wanted.

Some of you have asked about our container and household goods, and I keep forgetting to update you. Dale (of course) put a tracker on the outside of our container during loading, so we can follow its progress online. It was at a railyard in Worcester, MA for about a week, but has now moved to NJ, where it is presumably waiting to be loaded onto the ship. We have no real indication of when it will arrive here.

In the meanwhile, we're "camping" at home, in style. We have 2 mugs, 2 forks, some drinking glasses, a few plates, computers (but of course), sleeping bags, some towels and pots. We have a bed, desks, a dining table and chairs, as well as some comfy chairs that we got 2nd hand in January. Everything else that we need, we already own, but they're on their own seafaring journey, so we must be patient for proper bedding and a TV.

We're discovering little things all over the place - pails, baskets, gardening gloves and shears, a walker, cement garden ornaments, and two wheelbarrows. We knew that the previous owner had 'a thing' for roses, but I think that 'rose-hoarder' might be a better term. They're everywhere, beautiful yet very, very thorny and overgrown for someone who likes to bushwhack her way through the yard... also a big danger when you're tall and walking along a narrow path or trying to sit down under the pergola. They've GOT to be trimmed back harshly in order for us to coexist. I might have to invest in some chain mail or a suit of armor to tackle this thorny growth, because the thorns have gone through my gardening gloves and my breathable sneakers.

Many shrubs and flowers in the yard are held up with little clips but my purist philosophy can't handle them. They look jarring and unnatural to me. I really don't mind a wild garden (when it's not thorny) that follows natural lines; it really doesn't have to be upright.

The pond liners are leaking, so the water level keeps going down. There are hostas, irises, astilbe, yellow azaleas that smell wonderful, mosses and rough horsetail near the pond.

Only a few spots of rain today. Working in the yard was awesome!

Waking Up in Wales

We wandered far over the last 2 days, spending almost 35 hours in transit, using a car, train, truck, bus and plane. Everything ran smoothly and perfectly, despite there being many waiting periods, connection points and sundry other mini "detours" along the way like buying a car and groceries, returning items to Home Depot and shipping a parcel via UPS. There were no panics either, but also barely any shuteye. Our only hiccup was not being allowed to pay for a spot in the lounge in Paris, where we'd intended sleeping whilst waiting 7 hours for our connecting flight. We were turned away because "there may not have been enough space for their First Class passengers." I was able to lie on the floor of the transit hall and snore heartily, while Dale found the ONLY two seats without an armrest in between them and fenagled a way to sleep there, with his knees bent up over the next armrest - there was no turning over.

Waiting for a train

I'm happy to report that Immigration was a breeze

We were so lucky that there were no flight delays, and that the trains were running on time. This meant we got to the car dealership, as planned, an hour before closing. What a lovely feeling to have our own car here for the first time. 

The countryside on the last leg of a journey was a gleaming mass of green hills in the late afternoon glow, and our garden was an amazingly beautiful array of vivid colors in the golden light. Inside were welcome cards and gifts from neighbors and family. What a soft and happy landing for us!

Somehow, we managed to sleep through till 6:30AM today, which was a surprise. We were expecting jetlag to do a nasty on our circadian rhythm, but maybe I'm in for a rude awakening tonight ...We took it easy today, and did a small bit of gardening (with minimal effort), in between visits from neighbors, unpacking our bags and finding places for our belongings. Dale even rescued his first lamb that had its head stuck in a fence. The birds are gregarious and cheerful around here. On this, our second day in Wales, we have yet to see rain ...

We took a short walk into town to get our bearings, and though we tried stopping in at the pub for a pint, it was not yet open, but we've taken note of the hours now! This is the road/lane that leads up to our house from the town. It's the road you will travel on your visit to see us!

Paradise for Sale

While we sat in Charles deGaulle airport, waiting for our connecting flight to Birmingham, we tried to catch some zzzs.

I'm appreciating public toilet cubicles where the door opens outward.

I won't miss our neighborhood dirt roads and the fine powder that creeps into every nook and cranny of our car.

And now, onward ho! To Birmingham we go

In the meanwhile, there's this to consider:

If you know anyone looking to move into paradise, please share this link with them:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/197-Old-Country-Way-Limerick-ME-04048/300193984_zpid

Paradise for sale

The Fourth, Our Last Day

The End of one Journey, and the Beginning of Another

Plans have all gone well, we were fully packed and ready before bedtime last night.

We ran some errands this morning, then found ourselves on an earlier bus to Logan

This is not the Firth of Forth (Scotland), it's the Piscataqua on the Fourth, the day of our last trip across this bridge between Maine and New Hampshire.

We are now waiting to board a flight that leaves at 5:10 pm. Others are 'confiding' in us here that they are leaving too!

It'll be a while before any updates I suspect.

  

Loons, Trilliums and Eagles

Our Penultimate Day

We are packed for tomorrow! Bags are labeled and ready. 

My trilliums are giving us a beautiful send-off display - isn't this gorgeous?

And then, on our nostalgic boat ride yesterday to see our house one last time,

we were lucky enough to have uninterrupted views of the bald eagles busying themselves at their nest with their offspring. Before we returned home, a lone loon warbled its soulful call, adding another joy to our gloomy weather day.

Photo: D. Schultz

Mark and Su graciously loaned us their downstairs apartment for our last "homeless" week here, and took us around the lake for our final goodbye. This is their beautiful cove, where an osprey gave us a fly over.

Of course, our last days wouldn't have been complete without a visit from two of my "bunnies," Linus and Rachael, who were equally welcome and included in all our activities at 'La Casa Cartisano'.

We are so indebted to all who have helped us complete the last few weeks' chores and errands, with a particular shout out to my PALZ team of superb volunteers.