Seeing Things

I see the face of a small rodent in this butterfly wing. Black circle is the eye, hole in wing is the nose, bottom hairy edge of wing is the jawbone ...

Reflecting Pool

 

Mirrored pool of grey -

Wall, both fluid and solid,

Reflecting craftwork

Did you Guess?

 Yesterday's close up was this: a beautifully speckled pink fruit on the snowberry cultivar in my yard.

Guesses included: a gumball, a mushroom, a radish or some sort of bulb, a piece of fabric, and a botanical item. Some were quite close and on the right track!

Can you Guess?

 What have I focused on here?

A piece of candy? A skin rash? A fabric pattern?

Let me know what you think - answer tomorrow ...

It's Called Rain

Oh joy! We had rain today, the first measurable amount since the beginning of July, and I'd forgotten what it sounded like, running in the gutters above our conservatory as it does. The parched fields around us will hopefully be rejuvenated and less crispy, less volatile.

This has been a scary drought for rainy Wales - we all forgot what it's like to have to bring a rain jacket wherever we go

Raindrops on roses look good

There were puddles for kids to jump into at parking lots

And then we had a magnificent show at the end of the day as lightning sporadically lit up the clouds.

English Pastoral

In his powerful book, English Pastoral, chronicling the life of a farmer amid changing farming methods and economic necessities ('An efficient landscape was required to make food cheap'), James Rebanks notes:

"We are choking to death on our own freedoms. The merest mention that we might buy less or give anything up and we squeal like pigs pushed away from the trough."

Close Encounters

Is there a face here?

Spagnum moss suffering in the drought, up close

Umbrella's underbelly

I'll leave this up to your imagination ...

The Magic of Grey

Speckled wood butterfly beautifully enhanced by the grey background

Silverweed shadow

Wall lettuce over grey water

The Cats of Llanfyllin

We see a few cats quite regularly in and around our yard, especially the all-black one (maybe we should call it Kiwi!). We always have to qualify whether we're saying we've seen a blackcap (bird species) or black cat (yes, our hearing is also part of the problem 😂). I'll have to learn to specify Eurasian blackcap in future.

This spooky cat is almost friendly!

This little rascal was seen hunting birds on our lawn one morning

This beauty keeps its distance from us, but comfortably uses our front lawn to leisurely clean itself in the sunshine.

Photo: D. Schultz 

These next cats live quite a bit further from our house, and aren't skittish

I've yet to capture the friendly 3 legged cat with unique markings on its face. We've see it at the bottom of our lane, and it has permitted some petting.

Needle in a Haystack

After having spent so much time looking at tiny details on butterfly hindwings, insect mandibles and plant serrations, my discerning eye noticed a sewing needle lying in this dry grass near the town well. It was the glint in the sun that caught my eye

I took it home, because well ... nuns at school taught me that everything was valuable since someone had made it!

Blood-vein Moth

What a beautiful moth! This beauty landed on me and I had to call Dale to capture it without me disturbing it.

It's a blood-vein moth (Timandra comae), widespread in Wales, with beautiful, fringed antennae which you can see against my sleeve if you look closely.

Restored Wetlands

Our town was permitted to put in a tarred carpark near the local store, provided we also established a wetland habitat as a buffer between the asphalt surface and the River Cain. It's become a beautiful spot full of butterflies and other pollinators that buzz.

I'm learning not to panic when I see stands of Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria ) - they're native here, and I don't need to pull them out (though the urge is strong!).

 Which route to choose?

The willow being trained over this part of the walkway is progressing nicely

The Blues

Ever since Rachael drew a rare Welsh butterfly for me on Mother's day, I've been on a mission to see the silver-studded blue in real life. I haven't yet achieved this feat, but captured one of the other 'blues' along the way, the European common blue, Polyommatus icarus

This little beauty is ... little, with a wingspan of up to 1.4". Only the males are blue. And they don't seem to want to settle in one place!

To see this rare version illustrated below, I'll have to examine the underside of the hindwing when its wings are closed to see the silver studs! I'm on it.

Thrilling Find

We're so very excited that our outdoor camera finally captured a hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus, a protected species) in our yard! This is brilliant news - we'd been finding scat that we'd had confirmed as hedgehog, but ... seeing is believing 

We'd put a covered feed station outside, with a narrow maze of bricks threading inside it to deter cats. The food has been disappearing for the past 4 nights, but this is the first camera capture!

We've also been placing shallow basins of water outside for it because of the current drought.

Woohoo!

The way it stretches and contracts its body makes me think of a leech's movements!

These nocturnal omnivores are often killed on roads as they forage and are also declining in numbers through habitat loss.

About Town

 We spent another day strolling through town to show off the historic sights.

I love this elephant door knocker

St Myllin's church, oh ye of the bell-ringing practice

Old homes back onto the churchyard

Extinct post office building

Welsh stonework, door and poppy

 

Can you guess why I had to take a photo of the art exhibit in the Workhouse Gallery?

Beers in the garden at the local inn wrapped up the day

Low Lake Level

On our scenic meander with Craig, we visited Lake Vrynwy. 

We were astounded to see how low the lake has become since our last visit one month ago. Our drought conditions this summer have been brutal to the landscape in all sorts of ways - so many plants look burned to a crisp.

The water usually reaches all the way up to the small bushes in the foreground. There is usually no gravel bottom exposed like this at all.

Lots of beautiful rocks and trees were visible (I've mentally added this next one to my birthday wishlist)

Dried, baked on vegetation decorated some of the exposed rocks

The extent of the shrinkage and exposed shoreline was shocking

I saw two not-very-grumpy, old men stop to read about the flooded village in an identical stance

Not too grumpy, see?

A very short walk gave us excellent views of the sculpture called the giant hand of Vrynwy, carved from the remains of a Douglas fir that was once the tallest tree in Wales.