Well ... it's rather ironic that I called my last post "Taking a break." because I quite literally have to take a break from uploading photo's to give you all visuals to break up the jottings. Why? Because it seems I have run out of "storage space" and until I can get that sorted out there will be no more illustrative oddities to accompany my script. Botheration! (& worse,) It seems I have to buy storage space for a monthly fee, to be paid in dollars and of course this is bank holiday weekend, so no-one available to ask advice about the best way to move forward with Dafad's Days. Meanwhile some small updates from these last few days of weather soaked Welsh wanderings.
Cuckoos, were first heard last week and are becoming more numerous as they arrive back from their hot winter holidays in Africa, I have heard them mid April in previous years and we are lucky that we get quite substantial numbers around here.
The swallows also started arriving back on the 13th April, that's the earliest anyone I know says they saw them flying around locally. It is a lovely sight to see them swooping low over the heather, diving under the hovering skylarks and giving the lambs a bit of a start as they fly past their noses. I imagine during last weeks torrential, wind battering weather, they wondered why they had bothered to return here, hungry after flying all that way, only to find all the flying insects sheltering as best they could. At least over these last few days they have been able to recharge their energies after a good soaking.
The ground on the moors is sodden as the sphagnum moss has absorbed much of the rain and there are ale dark pools everywhere, so wellies are still the required footwear. Yesterday, the daft dog did something he has never done in all his five years, I caught him rolling in what looked like cushions of moss (not unusual) he loves the big shagnum cushion like mounds when they're wet ...until I saw the look on his face ... cheekily defiant! Why? He had, I discovered by the new scent he was wearing, rolled in a small rotting carcass!!! Now luckily sphagnum has several worthwhile properties ... it makes a good sponge and has antibacterial properties. He was not so cheekily amused after I had rolled him in a deep puddle, gave him good soaking and then sponged him off vigorously with moss. I stood well out of his way as he shook the excess off and bounded away to get air dried in the blustery wind, he seemed quite defiantly happy, I had the last laugh though, because on our return, he got very lightly sprayed with fabric freshener and thoroughly towel dried. His facial expression of disgust, probably matched mine earlier!
Today he has been even better behaved than usual, a good lesson in who's the boss.
Today has been breezily dry and tomorrow the same, Monday's forecast, back to getting a few more days of soaking again. At least my wellies and wet gear are temporarily dry!
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