Light Rain.

Mostly grey today with light showers in the afternoon.

This week one of the air plants suddenly began to turn red. I wondered if maybe last Sunday they had had too long a swimming session but when I checked on-line I found out that it's a sign they are doing well. The red colour indicates that the plant is about to flower and sure enough when I looked closely there were a couple of flower buds. Sadly the plant usually dies afterwards and this one hasn't produced any plantlets.

Another walk with the Headless Wanderers group today. This time in the woods/ nature reserve above Cletwr. (cle-tour), Straight off we headed up a very steep track which had signs that in wet weather water runs down the middle.

Up through wonderful beech trees until we took a steep downhill diversion to cross over the stream, (officially a river). In the past, medieval times I think, the water had been channelled to run a water wheel. We could learn a few lessons about harnessing green energy from those days.

We walked beside the stream with frequent small waterfalls before heading up the side of the valley.

At the top of the valley was a silver birch wood. We found numerous puffball mushrooms and later a large boletus aka penny bun aka cep aka baravikas.

In the woods, though I didn't take any photos of them, were many small bird boxes but only about 3ft up the tree trunks. A bit further on we found out that they were in fact dormice boxes as the current UK population is very low. More info here.

From the woods we emerged into rough pasture land,

with views to Aberdyfi,

across the bog to Ynyslas and the sea

and of Cader Idris in Snowdonia. 

We stopped for our break as it was a good spot to enjoy the views. One of the group shared some pumpkin seeds that she had fried in oil and soy sauce. We were sitting spread across a rocky outcrop and she had repeated enquiries as to where she got the seeds (Lidl) and exactly how she cooked them. This turned into a bit of fun especially as it happens each time she brings the seeds to share. They were extremely tasty too. Unfortunately it began to rain, only lightly so we followed the narrow road back into the woods, picked lucious blackberries and down to the village. Another very pleasant walk.

Back home Peter was out coxing one of the two club boats I could see out on the sea along with a wing and a wind surfer. I was glad that I was watching from indoors as the rain began to fall in ernest.

Two flower buds.