Saturday's walk - part 1

The start of our walk - Keith dropped us off two miles from home.  To walk up this far would have added at least an hour to our two hour walk, so we cheated (and the car did need a run . . .)

You'll know where you are shortly . . .

Yup - it's that view again.  We never tire of it, and as you can see in the close-up below, it was clear enough to see the flat-topped (courtesy of the Glaciers in the Ice Age) peaks of the Brecon Beacons.

The farm you can see by the tree on the right is on the valley bottom lane we often walk.

An unfurling fern which managed to escape being zapped by frosts last week.  Those were SO late for us here but now the weather is warming up again although it is overcast today (Monday).

More scenery - we are so fortunate to live here . . .especially in these difficult times.

Laburnum  trees grew beside the road.  All parts are poisonous to livestock, so you might be thinking, why on earth would these be planted beside grazing?  The story goes that back in WW1 there was no wood for fencing posts - it was all being sent out to support the trenches in France instead, and so farmers had to make do with anything which came there way, and apparently took deliveries of Laburnum.  The stakes were duly used but then began to grow and this is why you will still find them in roadside places today.

Going downhill, we then turned left and along the little narrow lane which snakes to the bottom of the valley this side of our river.  As you can see, it is a wonderful green wilderness. I will post part II of the walk tomorrow.

I was up around 7 a.m. but then got distracted sewing more hexis for the charity quilt, and watching a brilliant programme with Dr Alice Roberts called The Lost Tribes of Humanity, about the DNA of our human ancestors still being present in us today.  Fascinating stuff.  When I did my degree, prehistory and Pictish Art were my passions, but I love any archaeology, and this programme had me spellbound.

So, a couple more flower blocks of hexis sewn together, another unpicked (by mistake I used some recycled paper pieces that had been used on another project and they were too small).  I just about managed to get the pieces I had cut to the smaller shape to stretch to the larger one so all is not lost.  I would have been very cross had they not have been salvagable as I don't have many pinks and this quilt has hot pinks and random pale colours (and I am unpicking the lacklustre blocks and replacing to make it a bit more interesting.)  Something of a labour of love, but I have the time right now . . .

Time to try and make a credit card payment by phone now . . . I know how to have fun!