Tuesday 31 July 2012

Blaenau's new website


There’s a new website for Blaenau Ffestiniog which has lots of information about the area and useful things like opening times of cafes and shops. It has a section on places to stay and I was looking for a new photo to illustrate our cottage. One quaint cottage looks much the same as another so I thought a nice picture of the platform. Many trains later this was the final choice:

Campbell's - the cottage with the platform

Star jelly and dog vomit

Today I had a phone call from the Discovery Channel, they are making a new programme and wanted a photo of star jelly. I’d taken the photo last January in the nature reserve and this is what it looks like:

What is star jelly? Here’s a link to an interesting article from BBC Scotland.

Yesterday I found some dog vomit slime mould on a log I was chopping, but the Discovery people were not interested in that. 
Dog vomit  or Fuligo septica

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Shorn sheep on the line

The 13:35 from Porthmadog sent freshly shorn sheep racing from the line. Traumatised from yesterday’s near miss, one lamb defied the sheepdogs and refused to cross the track. This was the scene:


Monday 23 July 2012

Sheep on the line

The 10:15 from Porthmadog was steaming up towards Blaenau Ffestiniog while farmers gathered sheep off Moelwyn Bach. They met at Tank Curve. Dogs working against the clock and sheep leaping like lemmings -  this was the scene:



Wednesday 18 July 2012

Getting your goat

The other day I was telling a friend about finding a gang of goats in our garden and she (Jem a.k.a. Janet Baker) made it into this poem:

He had moved to an old house that was bedded down,
Sitting in a valley, out of sight of any town.
He lovingly created a garden of delight
But it was desecrated, all eaten over night
As down from the mountains came the hordes of goats
And all his blooming blossoms went down their greedy throats.
Every pea and bean and each cabbage eaten too
Just like a plague of locusts were those goats, passing through.
He shouted, cursed and pleaded, all to no avail
The behaviour of those goats was just beyond the pale.
If he could just afford it, a goat proof fence he’d build
But he didn’t have the money and with gloom was filled.
Then suddenly the answer came, lightning from the blue  
He turned to his computer; he knew just what to do.
Using all his writing skills he worked hard all night
And luckily a magazine said it was just right.
From that goaty story he made the cash he needed
He bought a fence and so at stopping goats succeeded.
His garden blooms, his veggies now, are his joy and pride
Goats stare through the fence and drool but cannot get inside.

In the wigwam of sweet peas and beans