A Day Borrowed from Summer

 I couldn't wait to get out and on my way to the Elan Valley today.  It was just such a beautiful warm morning again. I parked in the quarry car park, as always, and strolled along beside the Caban Coch reservoir.  The sun was glinting off the dark waters and Robins, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Chaffinches serenaded the walkers.  

A place of real history too, for Barnes Wallis did a test run for his "bouncing bomb" which destroyed the Nant-g-Gro Dam here.

There was plenty of gorse in bloom and if you dared to put your nose close enough, that faint perfume of Coconut could be smelt.

Butterflies out too - I saw several over-wintered Peacock butterflies.

As you can see, the hillsides above the reservoir are very steep.

Beneath the waters, the remains of Nantgwyllt Mansion lay - they can be seen when the water levels are low.  In 1811, the poet Shelley lived here and wanted to buy the house.  The Cwm Elan estate belonged to his Wiltshire uncle.

No leaves have been tempted out yet.

I turned around at the bridge.  This is the Foel tower (or pumping tower).  I walked for an hour in all, with a couple of rests on a bench on the way - it was just so lovely to sit in the sun and listen to the birdsong.

The church which was built to replace the one at the bottom of the reservoir.

A little water is still escaping over the top of the dam.

I stopped for lunch at the Visitors centre.  Needn't have bothered - the "Steak Pasty" turned out to be mostly potato and so a not-very-good Cornish pasty really.  At least I enjoyed my Elderflower Presse drink.  The trees the other side of the river had the sun on them and absolutely gleamed.  The very tips of some had spider silk drifting from them in the breeze.  Oh, and I was just on my way back to the car when a lady was at the back of her car, speaking to a dog.  I thought, I know that face - and it was my friend Nia!  Talk about serendipity.  We had a nice chat and will meet up again soon.

I came home and took two Panadol as my back was complaining (post-gardening ache) and went out and did just half an hour before my back began to complain again.  Progress though . . .

More weeds out, roses fed with muck heap, as is the Paeony.  Then a couple of trugs of mulch.