Cloudy.

Cloudy today with a mild wind and the rain holding off until the evening.

Another good day for a walk with my new walking friends though I very nearly didn't make it. When Peter told me yesterday that we'd be meeting up at Tre'rddol [trare-thol] (he gets the emails too) I was happy that I knew where it was. What he failed to mention was the fact that the time was being switched from 1.00 to 12.30 for the winter meet-up time. This morning I got my things ready and then just to make sure there weren't any last minute changes checked my email. Shock, horror it was already 12.20 and the drive would take 15 minutes, would I make it in time? I threw all my stuff into my backpack and flew down the roads. Luckily the majority of the way is on straight roads with no side roads so I was able to travel quite fast and arrived before the group set off. Another reason to put some credit on my phone (the initial month ran out yesterday and I haven't worked out how to put pay-as-you-go credit on, they make it easy to sign up for a monthly contract which I don't need) and join the walking group's Whats-app group.

Today's walk was more of a woodland walk. It started with the usual steep climb up a stream bed (don't let the photo fool you into thinking it was a gentle slope.)

At the top of the hill we walked through a magical silver birch wood and then along the edges of fields filled with sheep.

The footpath lead us past these holiday rental cottages. Our fearless leader marched through the stream but the rest of us used the stone footbridge.

Through more fields and past the ruins of old stone buildings to our lunch spot in a field with views across the Dyfi [duh-vi] river to Snowdonia. As I looked for a spot where the damp grass wasn't so long I saw that the grass was hopping with tiny creatures of some sort. I fished out my glasses for a closer look and they looked like grasshoppers but only a few millimeters long. As far as I can find out they're not grasshoppers or groundhoppers but as to what they were, that's anyone's guess. There are so many species and stages of small insects no wonder entomologists specialise in just one or two families.

From our lunch spot the original plan had been to follow a circular route through either of the two fields on our right but ........ one field housed a bull and the other had cows with small calves, a far more dangerous prospect. We decided to be safe and retraced our way back through the woods until we could pick up the path lower down the valley.

We had walked along the far side of this field (from right to left) on our way out and were now walking to the right on this side of the field.

The recent warm and wet conditions have been ideal for fungi of all sorts and we saw many kinds on our walk. It would be interesting to find out more about the ones we came across, there are some organised fungus forays but I can't see anything for this year.

By the time I got home there was just time to re-wrap the open bag of cement and put another brick on top of the tarp that's over the whole lot as we're due for rain tonight (I can hear it already). 

We like to watch Strictly and the results show on the same evening but they take so long we've had to start watching really early unlike our usual hour or hour and a half after supper. As it is there's not enough time in the day for all the things we want to do. Thankfully neither of us seem to be suffering any ill effects from yesterday's vaccinations. Now to do my Duo Lingo.