When (sadly) our guests had to leave us, they were heading off for another family get together. We did the same – taking a long drive down to Snettisham, near the north Norfolk coast, to meet my parents, my brother and his kids and a gaggle of assorted Aunts, Uncles and cousins from my mum's side of the family.
This courtyard, where we enjoyed many sunny breakfasts and also several barbecued meals was one of my favourite parts of the trip: it was a very relaxing spot in which to sit and relax.
…were taken in Snettisham Woods.
As well as Snettisham Woods this woodland is called Lodge Hill Plantation – it seems that somebody has been collecting exotic oak trees. I thought that I might find something about these oaks on t'internet; I didn't, but I did find this leaflet which covers exactly the same route that we came up with.
More Norfolk adventures to follow.
Hard on the heels of our trip to Wales followed the further excitement of a visit from our American cousins. Is it really two years since we went to visit with them? Tempus fugit and all that. Anyway, one of the many exciting outings we went on whilst we were in Virginia was to Washington Zoo. Now, don't get me wrong, Washington Zoo was mighty fine – they have a Komodo dragon! – but we thought (and still think, not that we're biased or anything) that Dalton Zoo in our humble little corner of the North-Wet of England would, at the very least, run it pretty close in a face-off, zoo vs zoo.
…were photographed on a long zoom.
…including, as well as the wolves, snow leopards and two kinds of jaguar.
Professor A was so enthused he even wore his Casey Jones cap for the occasion. (OK I may be stretching a point there).
Funny how the pain always returned, and the sling was pressed back into service, whenever there was washing-up to be done.
I waited a while for the punch line to come, but S seemed confident that his story had finished.
"So, what was her name?" I asked.
Summer comes and once again we're camping on the Llyn Peninsula with the usual suspects.
We had a couple of very wet days early on, but after that the weather was fine, but not particularly hot and often very windy.
Small Tortoiseshell enjoying Purple Loosestrife.
As usual our 'radius of activity' whilst we were there was pretty narrowly focused; we mostly stuck to the field where we were camped and the beach below it.
After 10 years of annual visits, it was quite surprising to find the beach quite markedly changed; superficially because of the waves, the seaweed and the jellyfish (including the 'sails' from By-The-Wind-Sailors which I've never seen before) which the stormy weather was bringing in, but also more substantially because the beach seems to have steepened, with a considerable bank of sand around the high-tide mark. One consequence seems to be that the tide doesn't go out as far as it did, making it more difficult to walk around at low-tide to the 'secret beaches' beyond the main strand. The beaches were also more stony than they have been in the past.
B found this little chap in our tent when we were packing up.
I've searched through my field guide but to no avail; I can't identify it. Any ideas?
And the sling? He broke his Radius just below the elbow, on the trampoline in our garden, shortly before we came away. He must have thought I was missing Lancaster A&E. He's fully recovered now, although he gets occasional twinges, usually brought on by imminent washing-up duties.
Anyway, it was a great trip. Not sure what will happen next year when late school holidays and other planned trips look to be squeezing our window for a Tudweiliog getaway. (Imagine a suitably miserable looking emoticon here, since my technical know-how is insufficient to provide one).
Very common in our garden on this particular sunny day. There were a couple of larger dragonflies quartering the airspace above the garden, but they weren't so obliging in posing for photos as the damselflies.
Flowering Currant leaf on a fern.
The flowering currant in the bottom corner of our garden doesn't look very well. I don't think that it appreciates the shade it sits in beneath the large hazel.
This looks like another specimen of the dapper fly that had me confused a few weeks ago. It looks quite like the Empis Tessallata in my field guide, but when I search for images on t'internet the resemblance isn't half so strong. So I'm stumped.
Still having lots of fun with my new(ish) camera however.
A brief window of opportunity…how many times have I used that phrase on this blog? This is the internet age, the era of textspeak and limited attention spans, I ought to be using an acronym…BWOO! How's that?
So, I had a BWOO because the boys had been invited to attend a cub-scouting event in Whinlatter Forest; they were scheduled to kill and gut a bullock before roasting it over a blazing 2CV. Possibly. Anyway, leaving them with their favourite paramilitary organisation, I parked at the Spout Gill car park and, with three hours before I needed to pick them up again, set-off in search of some Birketts to tick.
Mr Birkett suggests a circuit here which takes in 6 tops, but I knew I would never get around all of those. In fact, I wasn't really sure, at my standard Almost Snail's Pace (but not quite that speedy), that I would make any tops. In the end I managed to snaffle two: Broom Fell and Lord's Seat.
It was a hazy day with very limited views, but there was a pleasantly distracting diversity of insect life about, seemingly enjoying the clammy conditions.
Looking back from the ascent on Broom Fell – the hill on the left is Whinlatter Top.
I had quite a game getting a sharp photo of this distinctive little chap (or chapess). It's a Mother Shipton Moth apparently. Look at those dark profiles on the outer edges of each wing; apparently they resemble the famed Yorkshire witch. She was a prophetess. Predicted that the world would go to wrack-and-ruin, destroyed in a conflagration sparked by small boys and blazing 2CVs. Or maybe that's a load of bullocks.
The Cairn on Broom Fell.
Looking back to Broom Fell from Lord's Seat.
Anyway, a grand (half) day out. Roll on the next BWOO.