A rather misty and chilly morning saw us all gather in Llandovery Carpark for our mystery walk with Phil. He did explain before the walk that there were some steep climbs through fields before some excellent views back over the town and then there would be some wet places through woods, followed by very wet and muddy places and then a downhill tramp over a road back into the town where we could all enjoy a coffee and cake! And lo …it all came to pass!
After walking up through some woods and up the side of a hill we stopped and turned around to admire the view below! It would have been so much better if it wasn’t so misty and murky but it was still pretty special to see the whole valley below. The church took central stage and the townscape expanded from there.
After going up we started going down passing lambs and ewes grazing in the fields.
Next came the wet and muddy part of the walk! We passed the time chatting with some off roaders, on trail bikes, who had ridden from Newport and were completing a circuit on green lanes before heading back home.
It was down hill all the way from now on still seeing some hills in the distance and passing through some more woodland, where teapots were hanging from trees, all ready for birds to nest in them….very pretty and great idea.
Nature’s art was everywhere to be seen and enjoyed!
Thank you Phil for a wonderful walk and for taking us to West End cafe where we all enjoyed our cake and coffee! Great idea of yours to do the walk in reverse next time…look forward for that!
We enjoyed a lovely day out to celebrate Jim’s birthday on a visit to Shrewsbury on the Heart of Wales train line! He was really spoilt as I had also ordered online some Staffordshire oatcakes for him….his favourite ! They duly arrived and filled with cheese and heated in the microwave, they were his best present…apparently!
We set off from Llangadog station early in the morning in the pouring rain but by the time we arrived in Shrewsbury the rain had stopped and it was a pleasant day.
We enjoyed our walk around the town delighted to see many of the shops still open and we eventually ended in the museum. We always seem to end up in museums! Amazing places!
We later visited some of the churches and in one we were given a very interesting guided tour by an ex teacher. He certainly hadn’t forgotten his ‘teaching’ ways and would gain top marks anywhere!
The sign below details the sad tale of Cadman who in 1739 aged 28 tried to fly off the top of the church spire but didn’t succeed. Poor Cadman!
It was late when we arrived back at Llangadog station but we’d both had a great birthday treat!
A visit to the Botanic Garden of Wales to listen to an interesting talk about Plants on the Mekong was followed by coffee and cake in the Great Glass House.
Back home the sunrises, sunsets and sky nights have all been amazing to watch and enjoy.
Our pond is also filling up with all our amazing regular visitors! There are two mallards, two Canada geese and two moorhens and an occasional heron! There are birds on our feeders but not as many as before.
The garden is continuing to look more spring like with crocus and snowdrops all out and daffodil buds are slowly opening up too.
A painting of Saskia by Rembrandt has been lent to Carmarthen Museum by the National Gallery . I’ve enjoyed my visits to view it and my walks around the grounds.
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Hope all is well for you, your families and friends. Enjoy this time of year wherever you are in our world.
Lletty's Blog 
There were so many interesting pictures in this post that it was hard to take them all in! All the same, the long tailed tits stand out for me. I love to see them, though I wouldn’t mind a visit to Shrewsbury after seeing your report on the town. I am sufficiently fuddy duddy to hope that I never have to share a track with motor bicycles.
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Thank you for reading. I have taken dozens of photos of those long tailed tits and only a couple turn out! They move so quickly that I have lots of photos with bits of tails, no birds at all and maybe a wing or two! Thank goodness for the delete on the camera it would have cost a fortune years ago to send them off to Truprint to be printed to find that there were none suitable to use! We love Shrewsbury and it was interesting to find the streets were busy and nearly all of the shops still open. Our towns around here have suffered and lots of businesses have had to close which leaves shopping quite difficult! The best part of the day though was travelling through the beautiful countryside on a single unit train over viaducts and through tunnels…magic!
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I would like to travel on that train too. I love rural trains. You are quite right about digital photography compared with sending off prints and getting expensive failures back. It does mean that I can spend even more time taking failed pictures which may not be a good thing.
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I agree with tootlepedal – lots to take in.
Jim got really spoiled. I loved the teapots.
Actually, I loved the colours, the wet, the birds in the pond – everything.
š„øš
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Thank you for reading Clive. As you mentioned Tootlepedal you must read his blog! It’s really interesting and he writes a post every day! Jim enjoyed his birthday and all the trimmings and pleased that he has some oatcakes left over for this weekend! Last year the Canada geese came back on the pond on February 2…they were late this year…maybe it’s the weather! Hope your autumn is going well and your beautiful garden is still giving you lots of pleasure.
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Some lovely scenery on your walk, despite the mist and mud. Nice capture of the ewe with its lamb. Shrewsbury looks like an interesting place to visit, especially those beautiful churches. Poor Cadman! So nice to see your flowers starting to bloom, there. Nothing showing here yet and we had more snow last night so maybe it’s just as well that the flowers are staying underground for now.
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Thank you for reading. I wish our flowers had stayed underground too as last night it was minus 2 here and very chilly all day. This cold snap is going to last a few more days and alrewady our daffodils are lying face down on the ground. On Wednesday it’s St David’s day and everyone tries to have their daffodils flowering but this year it’s going to be difficult! Shrewsbury is a lovely town especially all the little alleyways and timber framed houses. Hope you stay warm and cosy in the cold.
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