February 9 Walk Around Dinefwr and Coffee at The Works Vintage Cafe Llandeilo February 9, 2018

Woke up this morning  and looked out  the window over our garden  towards the   snow clad Carmarthenshire Fans  and saw  and heard the  …  wind, rain, sleet and noisy hail. After  a phone call from a walking pal  we were undecided whether to attempt our Walking Well walk around Dinefwr Park as everywhere looked bleak. My pal lives a few miles up the hill  from us where it’s  colder and  in her garden there was lying snow and potentially more to come. With black clouds overhead and dressed in full waterproofs I decided to have a go and see what it was like at Dinefwr Park and whether Philip’s remarkable run of ‘good’ walking weather would hold true today!

Honestly, how does he do it? Cold and damp it may have been but the sun came out, the blue sky appeared   and off we went! 

We all set off  from the carpark at a steady pace getting warmer by the second. It was noticeable as we went though the woodland area how may trees had recently been uprooted.

After climbing up a number of steps  it was lovely to see a mat  of snowdrops ( not enough to call it a carpet) flowering amongst the curled autumn leaves. Even some daffodils  were peeping through too.   Taking a photo of anything interesting is always handy and a great excuse to catch one’s breath!

As we emerged from the woodland we saw Newton House in the distance. We followed the pathway over the fields towards the castle and kept up our steady walking speed. I think we were all loving the walk, the views and the company but were mindful of the fact that all that horrid weather wasn’t far away!

We overtook a group of nordic walkers…to be fair…they were standing still and doing their pre-walk warm ups. We decided that although it is good to have a warm up before any exercise to get joints and muscles moving, doing warm ups  as well as a walk  might just  be too much exercise for us!

Hope these tree roots are strong and hold these wonderful trees in place for many more years

 

Stopping to take photos of Newton House, Paxton’s Tower on the hill  and the deer meant that I fell behind the group so I had a bit of a jog to add to my exercise to catch up with the others!

Carefully avoiding a tractor carrying a load of turnips I caught up with everyone just in time to see the White Cattle being fed in their winter quarters.

You could  hear them nomnomming  away and  see them enjoying their treat with their head and horns buried in their hay.

The kites and buzzards were also enjoying the sunny spell and were heard calling in the blue sky above.  The black spot is a kite not a fly on my lens!

Following the potholed muddy track …well it wouldn’t be a proper walk without some mud… we  made our way back  to ours cars. A  3 mile walk …well nearly…in dry conditions…don’t know how you do it Philip but thank you again. The Vintage Cafe, next  to the garden centre in Llandeilo was todays choice for our  after walk refreshments. The coffee and cake were all delicious  and the icing on the cake was enjoying seeing all the beautiful  plants that are  for sale in The Works Garden Centre.

Now this is what my photo of a kite should  have looked like! This print is  by artist Kathryn Harvey  for sale in The Vintage Cafe. 

February 10 A Mosey Around Dinefwr February 10, 2017

Shall I, shan’t I go walking today as the forecast was dry but very chilly?! Pleased I chose to go  so arrived at Llandeilo station with my pal, Jane,  wrapped up warmly ready to start with everyone on our walk around Dinefwr. We set off  crossing over the railway line and down through the muddy pathways   crossing under the Heart of Wales line again before we climbed the hill back  up into Llandeilo  getting  some great views over the Towy valley on the way.

In the future this view might be dominated by a bye -pass which has  recently been given the go ahead after many years of promise. Still not sure of the route but this may be one of them!

At the top of the climb we reached St Teilo’s Church.The church building  was completed in 1850 and  the tower is late medieval.

Across the road from the church was the kind of bike that I understand!

There was  some activity on the church  roof. I kept quiet…well tried to….as I didn’t want any accidents to be blamed on me!

We continued  down the road  passing many colourful houses  and  the excellent fruit and veg shop stopping briefly to look inside and say hello to Gerwyn.

 

We admired the beautiful bridge over the river Towy  and then crossed the road to continue into Dinefwr Woods.

Following the path through the woods we could hear the sound of woodpeckers but sadly no sight of them.

The charming little Llandyfeisant Church is hidden amongst the trees, brambles and bushes and  has a wonderful history. It is still standing but needs  attention. The  small churchyard has much to admire and holds great interest for folk who enjoy finding  out about the past and looking at the flora and fauna.

 

One of my missions today was to  try to photo  the different trunks of trees. In  an art group I belong to we have been experimenting  with  techniques  to use mixed media to produce   woodland scenes with different textures which means lots of gluing  and sticking …bit like being back at school…in fact a lot like being in school!

  

   

After passing through the lovely woods which are still littered with the fallen leaves of autumn we saw the silhouette   of the proud  Dinefwr castle on the brow of the hill  overlooking the scene below.

Downhill  we  skidded now…actually I was the only one who skidded on the mud- but it was  rather a spectacular skid which was only stopped by a fellow walker…thanks!

Walking in front of Newton House  we spotted some deer in the distance  and even I could see  a couple of deer with huge antlers. We decided to stay on the path!

 

We stopped to admire the new cowshed  for The White Park  Cattle and as luck would have it the gate was open so we could actually talk to the  inhabitants  to ask them what they thought of the new facility!  They were most impressed and very happy with their clean, fresh and new accommodation.

  

‘We are in a race against time to save the future of our famous White Park Cattle. The cattle have been at Dinefwr for over one thousand years, but we now need to urgently raise £36,000 to buy a new bull and introduce new females to keep the bloodline alive and #SaveTheHerd.’

‘Our White Park Cattle are a living link to our very distant past with records of them at Dinefwr dating back to the year 920 when they were referenced in the laws of Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), who codified the laws of Wales.

With just 750 breeding females left in the world, these animals are rarer than the Giant Panda.’  copied from the National Trust website Dinefwr Park

They are such amazing animals that I hope enough money will be raised to buy the new bull. They are very photogenic  and show their best side to the camera at all times!

Leaving the cattle behind we passed  near some  dells when we espied something moving in the trees…was it a bird? No  Was it a plane? No   Tree surgeons climbing to the very end of not very strong branches…hope they didn’t need the help of  medical surgeons later in the day!

We met some very pleasant walkers on our way round  many of them being taken for their walks by their dogs.

We were very fortunate to be accompanied all the way  on our walk by the sweetest, smallest dachshund ever, who was as brave as a lion when meeting other four footed friends  and as   cuddly as a teddy  when he wanted carrying.

Toasted teacakes  and raspberry cakes with iced toppings were our choices on cakes today in The Works cafe. After our wonderful 4 and a half mile walk we felt we  all deserved a treat  – so we  had one!

May 14 Hello Blossom! May 14, 2016

http://www.llettycottage.co.uk

Why does it always seem to catch me off guard?  Spring arrives  quickly and the garden looks as though I’ve never touched it! The grass is growing ridiculously quickly, the weeds are everywhere, the soil needs digging over  and  I’m trying to sow   seeds for summer  veg and flowers!  Good job I love gardening!

Our little magnolia tree has flowered for the first time today…hooray!

The new visitors on the block  are the moorhen chicks which are scooting over the pond as though they are on hoverboards!  I’ve only seen 4 chicks  so far   but more may appear tomorrow. We have had a moorhen on our pond for eight years. We don’t know if it’s the same one or it may be one of the  chicks that grows up and stays. Through the winter we usually have two moorhens on the pond but last winter  there was only one. So another one must have flown in early Spring.

  The  camera was on full zoom  so poor photos of an adult moorhen with two chicks and a chick  ( the black spot!) running underneath the gunnera  (which shows frost damage on its leaves!)

The Canada Geese and  their 6 goslings  do not like the intrusion of more babies on ‘their’ pond so after a quick feed  this morning  they have walked over the fields to  another  pond.

The garden looks very springlike in the evening sunshine  and many plants are bursting with colour and growing so quickly.

Pretty cowslips in the long meadow grass.

 

                                  

The crab apples and fruit trees are all looking  glorious  with their beautiful blossom – fingers crossed that we don’t get a late frost like last year .

     

I thought I’d try to be clever and start at the first tree in the row  and take a photo of all the trees in order  so I could recall which blossom went with which tree! No chance – as I took two photos  sometimes of the same tree- never mind!

This one is definitely  a crab apple as helpfully  there’s a crab apple left on from last autumn that the birds have somehow missed!

 

Just look who’s coming back over the fields for the night- hope the moorhen chicks are safely tucked up in bed for the night or there’ll be ructions!

We went into Llandeilo today to buy  some plants- two new roses from the Works Nursery.  The Works    http://www.worksantiques.co.uk/  is an amazing place. There’s a  garden centre, a wonderful cafe  and an antiques  shop, which is like a rabbit warren as it goes on for ever with  wondrous things to discover round every corner. I bought two new pretty cups and saucers for the cottage which are now on  a tray ready for the   new visitors tomorrow from Australia.

Happy Gardening everyone!