Wednesday 30 April 2014

Away days

April seems to gone by in a blur. I've had so much to do away from home that I haven't been able to spend much time in the garden. And it's changing so quickly this year - it's as though spring is happening on fast-forward.

I'm just back from a trip to Snowdonia with photographer Drew Buckley for a book-in-the-making for the publisher Graffeg. We went to the mountains to the east of Harlech, known as the Rhinogydd or Rhinogs, which I reckon is the most exhilarating bit of National Park. 
We needed pictures of feral goats. So far, they've eluded us but this time the visit didn’t end up as another wild goose chase and Drew managed to get a first-class set of images of billy goats in the setting of the range’s peaks and lakes.
My camera wasn't up to getting a good goat picture, but I like this one of Drew closing in on his 'prey'. It gives a feel of how unforgiving the countryside the goats live in really is.
What made the outing that bit better was that down in Cwm Bychan, where we left our cars, a cuckoo was calling. Sunshine, the oaks in new leaf, lambs everywhere and a cuckoo - it couldn't have been better.


Monday 21 April 2014

One swallow

Doesn't make a summer, I know. But it does make my weekend. I've just been out to the garage and though it's dark, cold and rainy now there is good news - a single swallow roofing in the roof beams.

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Fur's fair

Still no sign of swallows here, although we saw them at the coast at the weekend. Someone told me that they move along the coast and then head inland along rivers, so they should turn up soon.

In the garden, there's a sudden interest in our rabbits. The hutch and run collects their fine hair, which catches in the wire mesh and on spider's web, and at this time of year it becomes a valuable commodity. Sparrows have been dropping by to collect a little, but the most persistent fur-gatherers are the great tits that I think are using the nestbox on the old apple tree. Each morning they are at the hutch, one going inside to collect fur while the other keeps watch nearby.
That nest should be especially soft and warm.  It's amazing just how much material the bird manages to pack into its beak; quite a feat. I'm reminded of those pictures of puffins holding half a dozen fish at a time.