Nature Reserve Walk.

There was the very occasional shower this morning but the day has mostly been characterised by strong winds.

Maybe not the best day for a walk but as it's so rare that we manage to find a time that suits both of us to go walking we took a chance anyway. And it stayed dry.

 

I've been wanting to try the boardwalk around Cors Fochno (Borth Bog) for some time as it's so close and gives the chance to be right out on the raised peat bog which once covered all of the flat land between the hills and the sea here. 

It is possible to drive right down to the start of the nature reserve 

but as the boardwalk is only one mle long we decided to park just off the road and walk along the half mile track to the reserve. On one side of the track were blackberry bushes with already ripening blackberries. If we get a sunny day in the next few weeks I might go down to pick blackberries for the freezer and look for more wildlife at the same time.

The first part of the walk takes you through light woodland, mainly silver birch and willows. It was lovely to hear the wind rustling through the branches.

Then the boardwalk takes you right out onto the bog, a vast expanse of heather, bilberries and sphagnum moss. Over time men cut the peat turf for fuel and later dug drainage ditches to create dry fields at the edges of the bog for stock. 

The raised peat bog is full of specialised plants and small wildlife. Adders are common, too cold today though I did catch the swish of a lizard's tail as it scurried off the path. You can read more about the flora and fauna here.

A red-veined darter.

This noon fly was almost one inch long.

Back home I gave the concrete by the back gate another coat of paint. The brick-red paint which I'd got from the dump had dried to quite a vivid red which I'm not that keen on and is possibly why the can had be taken to the dump. Always up for a challenge I mixed in some black paint which has dried to a maroon brown. It still doesn't fill me with joy so next will be either black or dark grey. Even better, I've just been to check and another of my dump finds is a tin of navy blue which should do the trick.

I had been planning to go to choir tonight but in the afternoon my knee began to be very painful. I'm sure that's not from the walk but maybe either from working on my knees to do the painting or one of the random exercises I've been doing to make up for the lack of exercise classes this month. Peter's gone off for a quiz night with the rowing club and I shall be at home with an ice pack on my knee and some ice-cream inside me. That should take my mind off the pain.