A YEAR ON.

It is amazing to realise that I started Dafad's Days, a whole year ago yesterday. Muddle brains here thought it was today (that's what age does for one). So I had been planning a "birthday" post for today. It matters not that I'm just twenty four hours out of synch with time, let's face it in the world of etheral cyber space it is almost immaterial  anyway.

It all started off with wanting to post a comment on Shep's fascinating blog, but first I had to get a google account, which I managed successfully, then the screen suggested I could "Blog for free.". What me? I had thought of Blogs as rather chattery, trivial spaces on the internet. So I walked away, made a mug of tea and thought about the idea more seriously.

Yes there was much locally I could write about and use my photographs to illustrate the text, it seemed a good way of telling family & friends about how life is for me in Wales.

And so ... Dafad's Days was created. I remember my first "toddler blogger" steps into the rather daunting navigation of "techno speak" which I didn't understand at the time and to be honest, I still struggle with more than just the very basic skills involved in blog creation.

Just choosing which of the many photographs I take, working out how to fit the text to the chosen few and hardest of all is just how to try to make the text as interesting as I can.

As I take my camera out to capture a scene, my mind is thinking of the possible wording to use ... then all that pondering tends to get binned when I'm sat here in front of the screen and the text I wanted to write, doesn't fit neatly within the confines of available space.

Today had obviously started frostily as this patch of dead nettles in the deep shade of an old stone wall, quite clearly show. But, the day itself was sunny and bright. Many folk I spoke to (In our Sunday congregation up the pub) said that it was more like a summer day than one turning on the hinge of autumn into winter. It was really glorious today!

Cattle and their calves were peacefully grazing on the newly sun warmed grass.

And remember this guy from last year in the post "Limbering down."

Well he like so many other tups are starting to create the new generation of lambs. This is a Mountain Welsh ram, but we also have Texels up here to improve lamb & fleece weight.

Yesterdays gather, managed to catch most of the sheep that had escaped the last gather.

Many of them had been hiding in the still quite lush green bracken and an almost inaccessible places on the mountain, now all but the very last few have been flushed out. They are gathered in all together and then the various farmers identify their own and using sheepdogs and human hands they are separated into those belonging to which farm. They now all have had to be checked, vaccinated & inoculated  before returning to the in bye fields of each farm where ... they will be mated with the tups to breed next years lambs and the whole cycle will begin all over again. I sometimes wonder, what new, interesting things I will be able to bring to this blog over the forthcoming year.

But here is an example of littering of the Commons ... bonfire night is two weeks away! 

Now. I don't really mind the fact that some young folk want to have a bit of fun, put on an early display of fireworks, but ... I would be grateful if they came back the next day and cleared away the remains of the packaging and expired firework cartons. When we did our Bonfire Beacon for the Jubilee celebrations in June, the whole area was litter picked prior to and after the event. Even the nails & bolts left over from all the wood in the bonfire was picked up by various volunteers. All that was left after a wonderful night was a charred grass, now suitably recovered and greening over. In other words ... responsible fun enjoyed be several hundred people. Forgive the pun but ... it was one of the highlights of quite an amazing year. I know I didn't comment much on events so very well covered by the worlds press, but we in U.K witnessed all the Jubilee Celebrations, The most amazing Olympic and Paralympic games, plus A Grand Slam win for Andy Murray and mixed reults in rugby, football and cricket. In that respect it has been an amazing year. On the down side of world wide events the world seems to be in turmoil, both climatically and politically. I leave it to the press to discuss politics, I tend to just focus on life local to me, the dog and the many friends I have made since living here. Dad has amazed the medics by coping with his diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer, with a mixture of determination and a wonderful sense of humour. I will be back reporting on the flat Fenland scene over Christmas. Hey ... it adds a new dimension to the mountains an valleys of Wales!
In this last year, I have sadly lost contact with old friends, but also made many new.

So ... it has been a year to remember in so many ways and I want to say a big thank you to all those who have followed my blog throughout the year. Some I know, others I don't, but I have been amazed by the massive response to a very new to the scene, blogger. I so hope that in the year ahead, I will be able to bring new insights into the world around me.

 

And here is a muted colour sunset to end this kind of Dafad's Days, birthday day!

Thank you all who have regularly followed my rambling posts.