Early morning by the river

One morning this week I woke up very early and decided to have a walk before breakfast. I set out about 7 a.m., just a short walk down along the river, in the hope I might see an otter, but there were none about this far upstream.

The light glanced off the bank and the water. . .

. . . and I tried to capture the sunlight on the leaves and the boulders mid-stream.

Another neighbour's farm can be glimpsed through the trees, up on "top o' bank".

Our neighbour's house has had his roof ladder on it for quite a while now - two years probably. He reckons Pevsner would now consider it an architectural feature!!!

No Dippers to watch on this occasion, but the swirl of the water captivated me, and I watched a leaf being sucked up in a contra-flow of water against the rocks. It progressed several feet upstream until the swirl of the current captured it and hurled it back towards Carmarthen again.


That scourge of river banks and damp ditches the length of the country has finally reached Carmarthenshire and spread wherever it can. Say what you like about it, but the bees and other insects love it, so it serves a useful purpose. It is, by the way, Himalayan Balsam.


These come in a deep rose pink, a paler pink and pure white forms. It's other country name of "touch-me-not balsam" arises from the exploding seed capsules which ensure it is spread far and wide.


Up the hill and a last glimpse through the trees at the hillside across the valley, where Iron Age feet once trod to and from the hillfort atop it.




Sp. Cantharellus? Dunno - Roger Phillips' site not so as helpful as his books so will have to come back with an ID.