As you learnt last month Chris wandered (with friends) to Wales to look at quilts and a tapestry. But wanderings on foot happened as well – the weather may have been largely grey and damp but there was too much to see down the lanes and across the fields, inching over the rickety bridge and then the rather narrow stile which was a little too close to the swollen river for comfort. (a side note – the photo of the gorse bush reminds Chris that her dad apparently told her mum, when they were courting, that if the gorse was flowering then kissing was in season and allowed. Mum – being a city girl – was unaware that gorse flowers all year round!)
Lots of birds were seen and heard (but no photos of them, they kept flying away!) including plenty of red kites – magnificent, and huge, birds when seen close to – as well as ravens, crows, rooks, magpies, and buzzards. Among the smaller birds the chiff-chaffs were chiff-chaffing away all day every day while blue tits, sparrows, pied wagtails, chaffinches, greenfinches and yellowhammers joined in from the hedgerows and nearby trees. A heronry gave the opportunity to watch these birds at (relatively) close quarters – their beaks are very very big from close up! Another highlight was a pair of great spotted woodpeckers.
All this wildlife and plenty of mosses,flowers, ferns and even a fungus not seen before made Chris a very happy wanderer.
On the way home again we stopped for lunch at a cafe Chris knew of, slightly off the beaten track, but a beautiful spot to visit with plenty to see, a few lovely walks (no time!) and lots of things for small children to do. Not that we had any to entertain that day.
But where is it? Llandrindod Wells Lake. And that isn’t the Loch Ness monster – its a dragon.
chris & barbara quilts 