Trapped in a Tree

I wonder what this fella did to deserve being trapped in a tree?

running

I've taken to my winter routine of running round Caerwys in the dark after  I give Pippin a toy chase on the Marion and it's a great way to see an alternative side to the stony cottage  village and how the amber street lights make the swirly windy trees look so beautiful. I do miss my daily dose of the woods though but its too dark and scary to go down in the evenings.
I hate the thought of going as it is so cold but love it once I start and get some music in my ears.
I love running to Muse- Knights of Cydonia and Problem of the Mathematic, any G+R stuff, Boston's More than a Feeling, KOL and Foo Fighters
....and I feel quite happy about sofa surfing and eating a crunchie after : )

Tom Crean- Antartic Explorer

I have just finished reading 'An Unsung Hero- Antartic Survivior' by Michael Smith and am amazed at how a boy of 15  years of age who left his remote village in Dingle could succeed in  becoming   a trail blazing explorer in Antartica only to return to Anascaul, Dingle, Co Kerry, Ireland and settle down to  humble, unsung quite life once again.
He accompanied Scott twice and Shackleton once. As a  member of the crew of the Discovery, Terra Nova, Endurance and the James Caird he demonstrated an ability to ensure his survival and that of those around him. He was a giant of a man in body, mind and spirit. In the midst of adversity and ice bound wilderness he was known to keep his companions spirits up by joking and bursting into random irish tunes in the midst of sub zero temperatures.
He saved many lives and he lived his own to the full.
Well worth the read...but you'll feel as if your right there with him in the freezing cold so wrap up in cosy jumpers and a wooley hat by a fire.

Rock and Roll

Tortured anticline rock formation north of Port Dafarch

 A small possie of four hit upon a perfect day in November to paddle from Port Dafarch to Abrahams Bosom and then back to play on the tidal race at Penrhyn Mawr, North West Anglesey.

The bright winter sun intensifies the colour of the rock and weaving my kayak in between small narrow spaces shows off stunning sights around every corner

Snacking spot in the sun

Geo that splits deep into the cliff

John surfing the rucked up races at Penrhyn Mawr

The tidal races off North west Anglesey at spring tides with a strong wind can build up to monster proportions.
We visited at neap tide with light breeze so played in a gentle trundle.

Will on the outside race with Lleyn Penninsula in the distance

Chris and Wil on a glassy sea

Moon over Port Dafarch

A Walk in the Woods

Illiff planting an Ash

 I spent a day as a volunteer with The Welsh Wildlife Trust in Nant Y Gain Woods, near Cilcain in Flintshire, Wales helping out with planting an Ash Dome.  The ancient woodland is owned by Iliff Simey, or should I say the woods are shepherded by Illiff in a way that cares for the wood almost like an entire society of plants and creatures all living in a way that they give mutual support to each other. The result is a place that is beautiful to be in with sounds, smells and sights that vary from ground to sky, small to giant where time seems to pass as slowly as trees take to grow or as fast as it takes a fungus to burst out of the ground.

Illiff uses natural forestry practice to support a woodland habitat rather than 'farm trees'  for further info see this link....http://www.naturalforestpractice.com/

 Our little gang used picks and mattocks to dig holes into a hard limestone plateau which has been surrounded with arena like seating with a rope cobweb over head.
It will take decades for this to grow into a dome shaped through cutting and weaving to shape the trees to create a living arena.

Old fallen trees are a food source for fungus, insects and birds as well as providing shelter

wood for warmth and ..

wood for music..children play on giant xylophone

I find it a relief to put work into a project like this and support small local conservation work as sometimes  worrying or complaining about  'The Environment' is too distant and large scale to deal with.

Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

The onset of Autumnal Evenings has encouraged me to write a new post. Somehow, |I don't feel the need to blog about all the amazing outside things I get up to in sunshine  but captured moments in the midst of wild weather seem like moments to treasure and think about.
I walked with Tim and Pippin (dog) along mile after mile of unsurfaced shrub lined lanes from Lixwm to Rhes y Cae. The lanes were joined by field and woodland. We only occasionally could see the beautiful landscape rolling off to the Clwydians Hills but being closed in focused my attention to the microcosm of songsters and scurriers that live in our hedgerows....what a cosy way to be sheltered from the wild wind that whipped over our heads as we walked along the ancient lanes of Flintshire.

Robin's Pincushion or aka Rose Bedguar Gall- contains larvae of small gall wasp

Hen Caerwys: Archaeology Dig Last Day

The archaeology digs at Hen Caerwys Woods today finished and as both sites were covered up I felt a little sad to see all of what we uncovered closed up like a book to be opened to read again some other day.

The first site which comprised of a huge embankment of loose limestone, possibly once face with dressed blocks in places, enclosed a large rectangular clearing in the woods. Not a lot was found except for a possible shin bone of an animal discovered in some fallen inner wall and a early (likely)  medieval horseshoe. The archaeologists on site though it to be from the 1200s or thereabouts. Also in the box of finds was a flint and a whet stone found by the landowner a few years ago. The limestone pavement that the embankment sits on is beautiful and has smooth curvy hollows and pits carved out by weathering and reminds me of the Burren in Ireland. The experts on site thought it quite a positive thing that not many finds turned up as it suggests the site is indeed very old and makes it likely to be early medieval or older...who knows..it's nice just to wonder about it.

The second site where I spent most of my time was on the site of a long disappeared late medieval house which is though to be one of four close by each other sitting on a limestone bank overlooking pastureland with a stream on the lowest part of the landscape. We kept digging down in waterlogged root infested soil trying to find floor but just came across layer on layer of fallen stone and it was hard to make sense of why the stone wall had fallen in every direction. Subsidence was one theory, an earlier botched dig by amateurs in the 60s was another ( apparently the two men involved did not get on and were thought to have hidden finds from each other..indeed the one big collection of pot and domestic bits and pieces found around that time  has been 'missing' for many years..intriguing stuff!
While we were digging we chatted and pondered over how these people lived. We thought them to be poor families, the kind that work hard for not a lot and prop the richer layers of society up. We wondered if the stream which is quite a walk down and up a hill was there only water supply or whether it came from a limestone spring , one of the many that come and go without warning leaving people without a water supply. Someone suggested that these people were not farmers but were a small mining community possibly mining limestone for an unknown nearby kiln......we were left with more questions than answers but then again that is what makes the past so magnetic as it appeals to our instinctive curious nature.

Butterfly Orchid I found at Hen Caerwys a couple of years ago

Needless to say I am achy this evening from digging, trowelling, carrying bucket after bucket of soil and stones to waste heaps. Everything I wore is caked in muck. On day two I have never seen so much rain fall in one place while people carried on happily working away. No one seemed to mind the horrible weather but buzzed all day about what an amazing place Hen Caerwys is. The devotion and determination of the family who own the land to discovering more about the history of the place and their generosity to making the space available to the community is remarkable.