Dafad woke up late this morning, opened the curtains and saw blue skies and sunshine, so ... when we eventually got outside and considering this is mid November the temperature was mild enough for just a light fleece. I guess we are lucky, other sheep can't choose the weight of their days wool as the days differ so dramatically. Parking up, this was the scene ... bathed in seemingly summer sun were it not for bare autumn trees.
A winding track, that is a footpath which leads down to the bottom of a deep sided cwm, where the many remains of two old collieries are still scars on the valley landscape despite natures efforts over the many years to hide the ravaging effect of industrialisation. That said it is still a wonderful area to walk and full of sounds of birdsong, especially cuckoos in the spring, & green woodpeckers can be heard like riveters guns resounding in it's depths.
But this was not where we headed today, but a gentle slope up the road leads to a trig point that measures a height of 489 metres. Not so high you might think, but the 360 panoramic view from that area is amazing. Looking eastwards one can on a very clear day, see the gantries in Bristol's Avonmouth docks, white in the sunlight and also the Chiltern and Malvern Hills beyond that. Looking behind one can see the Brecon Beacons.
This is all shared commoners land, though today bare of all the local sheep because they have all been gathered in for the tupping season and are safe behind the retaining fences & walls. I just love the contrasts between age old stone work and long rusted gates that form the old sheep pens. And what a view northwards over this vast expanse of Commons
As the clouds above seem to race their own shadows below. Who wins I wonder ?
Inserted into this stretch of wall are two small "doors" that someone just had to explore ... but it gives you an idea of the size of these openings that were once used to let the sheep out and back onto the mountain where they roam freely during the summer months.
Busy taking these photo's I hadn't noticed three curious onlookers wondering what on earth this humanoid was doing. There was a roll of fence wire atop the drystone wall ...
the sun lit up not only the sheep and the their green grazing but also the rusty larch and evergreen-forest pine behind, beyond that the mixed woodland slopes of The Arail over the other side of the valley. Having shot the sheep ... photographically speaking of course, we headed back towards where the car was parked, near a place locally known as Grannie's. Hard to believe now, but this area was once a tiny cottage where the now trees
formed a boundary that enclosed livestock or at times where she looked after pit ponies when they came up from the mines. Apparently, so I'm told ... she smoked a clay pipe.
All this has seemed so summery-light and bright, but on the way back I stopped to take some photo's of one of my favourite gates leading to a path through the trees, that I love whatever the season. This was a reminder that our late autumn still has warm colours.
Then ... just as I thought I had taken enough photo's for today, I spotted something that definitely looked summery. There is a stretch of high banking, beneath the rugby pitches that is a tenth of a mile long, where the Crowned Vetch has become an aggressive weed which has colonised the whole length of bank from top to bottom. An amazing sight.
It has been flowering for months now and is still adding summer colour in mid November
A day full of bright sights!
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