A Walk From Cletwr.

The terrace was wet, the wind was icy and I had to look hard to see the few smudges of blue between the clouds but it was still lovely to sit out with my morning cuppa and daydream about garden designs. The birds came down for their breakfast of seeds though the female blackbird beat a hasty retreat when Speedy appeared from under the hedge. He however was only interested in being let into the house so that he could warm up lying across the top of the radiator.

Today's walk was up in the hills behind Cletwr just 15 minutes drive away. The dwarf irises were making a lovely splash of colour in the flower beds around the car park of the local community café/shop.

Our walk started off along the small Afon (River) Cletwr through the native woodland that covers the steep hillsides. There are many small waterfalls as the river drops down to the village.

(Below) This set of small runoff waterfalls was running down the side of the valley into the river. It started much higher up but the photos I took made it look as if it were flowing through almost level ground instead of down the steep 45 degree hillside.

As we took a track that led up the side of the valley to the silver birch woods the sun suddenly came out in sharp contrast to the conditions when we left the car park.

It is in these woods that they have dormice boxes on the tree as well as the usual bird boxes.

The mossy mounds and lush meadows at the edge of the woods are a consequence of the rainy climate here. It was a matter of seeking out the biggest tussocks and hoping that our footwear was still waterproof when we crossed the boggy ground that hid a small stream in the field below.

More sunshine as we went further up the hill.

We all perched on a line off outcropping rocks to eat our lunch and enjoy the view back down to the sea.

The tide was out exposing the mud flats at Ynyslas with the Dyfi confined to a narrow channel.

Looking over to the north the sun was shining on the foothills of Snowdonia. From our lunch spot we followed the lane back down to Cletwr. The sun was beginning to be hazed out by the sea mist making it feel a lot colder and we've already had one heavy shower this evening.