I think I am about to make some of you a bit envious! This a.m, I was at the sink, looked out and saw…gwiwer bach coch! I rushed to camera, new - hate it,(I am old and have shaky hands), manage to turn it on, but can’t find how to hold it to get him/her in the picture…then, he/she has run off, and I realise Janet is back from the shops.
As I am telling her, “You frightened a squirrel away…” back he/she comes and poses peering at me through the window! (From under the bird table, but over the top of the edging, a lovely clear view!). I virtually threw the camera at Janet. By the time it was turned on and working, the squirrel was busy eating seeds, back turned.
I cannot be certain, but I am almost sure it was the one I called Wiwer, who had a damaged tail. This tail has had time to regrow some fur and still looks a bit scraggy. It may be Pwiwer, son of Wiwer, but I am nearly sure he was the genuine article, because he stayed so long!
Janet patiently waited for him to turn round. She tried with her iphone. She went and got a stool to stand on to get a better angle.
Whenever we were not in a position to photograph, he turned his head and peeped at us!!! Honest he did!
It would help if we had cleaned the window more often!
He’ll be back. When, I’m not sure, but he will be back! meanwhile, here is the best Janet got:-
He may be Flyffi apWiwer, but I still think, to stay so long, to come back so quickly after Janet disturbed him… I think he’s my Wiwer!!
Mae 'na wiwer bach yn fy ngardd tra la la, la la la.
We are not jealous honest. Da iawn .
Cheers J.P.
That’s me for sure. Happy though to be able to be part of your very good fortune. Tell Janet we appreciate the efforts she went to to get the picture!
I’m sorry, cannot find ‘mardd’?
to @pippapritchard Diolch, I’ll tell her!
Now, she took this one on a well trod path where many dogs are walked and where, now, it seems others come… this has been diagnosed as having been chewed by beavers! They were settled nearby, but not that close!! None of us have seen them yet, they come out in the dark!
drw gen i : there was mis-mutating again off the top of my head.
dylen i sgrifeni ‘fy ngardd’ (thanks as perhaps now i will remember).
A photo of a beaver, that would really be photo of the year (dal ati ).
All i can offer for today is…
Rhew ar dail o Miaren/ Mwyar duon - frost on leaf of bramble / black berry.
Coch dan aden - Redwing (plenty of these have arrived for the winter but getting close for a photo is proving elusive).
Cheers J.P.
That photo with rhew ar dail o Mwyar duon is gorgeous! “All you can offer”, indeed 
Well, there is one difference between us, John! I sit in my lair, muttering against age and misuse of my lungs which prevents me getting pictures of beavers, and you look at a leaf and see the beauty which I have overlooked, as I muttered about the cold!
ps not that it’s so cold here now! The frost has gone down to you!
There are times when i mutter about the cold, the consolation is this means spring approaches.
Bron fraith - song thrush.
In the next week i will probably (time allowing) start putting food in the woodland feeders, so maybe some nice visitors to photograph soon.
Looking forward to any garden or elsewhere wildlife that others may capture an image of.
I have just learnt something new from welsh tv.
If you would like a gentle entry to sky watching at night then watch this ‘Sara a cwac’.
http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/e_level2.shtml?programme_id=514747321
I didn’t know that shooting stars came from the great donkey in the sky !!!
Cheers J.P.
Took me a while to sylweddoli that these are probably scarlet elf cups. I didn’t know that they had stems.
To coin a phrase, “You’ll be lucky!”. As I said they come out at night. Even if Sheila was fit enough to drive Janet somewhere near them, I doubt if any of our cameras or phones or i-devices could detect them in the sort of light available! They are on TV quite often, Iolo has been up here to see them, I am almost sure. Almost certainly available on Google by searching for Argyll beavers…
Tried it, found them
http://www.scottishbeavers.org.uk/
Other links are available!
At one stage, the young couple involved in monitoring the trial were renting a house just across from us!
The thing about mushrooms is that they do keep still & you can get very close to them.
The same cannot be said for the socan eira - fieldfare.
or the dringwr bach - treecreeper.
Yr Derwen heddiw - the Oak today. (that’s a once a month image over the year).
Pippa is doing better than me with wildlife so today i though about architecture (so many welsh words to learn).
Entrance to a local church, looks like an addition to me.
The tower certainly looks older and in itself different ages (note changes in building technique with height). (also note half way down left hand side is a sun dial, which i don’t think would work in that position).
I will be asking locals if they know anything of the history of this.
Cheers J.P.
Actually, assuming it is facing more or less south, it would work fine in that position. It is laid out so the rising sun would hit high on the left side (as we look at it) and then work the time down and around as the sun goes up and over. If you look at the roman numerals, the numbers go up as they go around counter-clockwise.
Very good points you make there, it’s the metal cleats holding it that make me think it was moved from elsewhere, but of course now i give it more thought it may have originally have been where the clock face is now.
Hopefully i will take a compass with me on Sunday and explore direction, if that is good then fingers crossed for the shortest day being sunny, it would be interesting to catch an image with the shadow on it.
Anybody else noticed a sundial - (deial haul / cloc haul) on their local church.
Cheers J.P.
At our village church on Gower, the sundial was on top of the left hand gate post, as I recall. Whether this was the original location, I do not know, but I do know that the church, and in fact the whole village had once been down on the ‘raised beach’ below. It was buried by terrible sandblow in a storm or storms. Everyone knew this, You could walk along the old streets with what were clearly the buildings beside you. all covered with sand, soil and scrub plants. The porch of the church and the font were said to have been brought up from the old one, whether the sundial had been rescued too, I don’t know! (That would have been in about the 13th century, which is the date of the current church). The fact that all the people still ‘remembered’ the old one and the village and the sand…shows how stories pass on and on and on, if people stay to hear them. Writing them down wasn’t necessary!
Eventually, when a lot of rain caused a stream to change course and start washing away one of the old buildings, rescue archaeology money was found and excavation began. I was in London and was thrilled to hear and go down to ask about it. They weren’t looking for volunteers. When they took all their pictures and covered everything up and went, I was very, very disappointed. You could (can) no longer see the streets. You cannot even go into some parts of it. It was a lot better, in a lot of ways, before they started. (In my opinion.)
Bora da buwch - good morning cow (should i give her a name).
For several days this cow has been staying in the woods (with her calf) away from the herd, they seem quite happy so why is a mystery.
First to the feeders.
Titw’r wern - marsh tit (this dull light does not make for good photo’s).
Yr lleuad heno - the moon tonight (craters starting to show on the shadow line).
Cheers J.P.
How do you photograph the moon?
Yes, I think that would be a nice thing to do. What about Moofanwy?
Well setting my (old battered) compass on a tombstone and making a visual estimate, i would say the sundial (church wall) is within 5 degrees of compass south (old builders are still impressive).
diolch Sionned.
Well, this camera has a 30X zoom, so as long as there is enough light from the moon for it to focus on then a photo is possible.
To get that crescent image i had to center the lens on the lit crescent (not the center of the moon), then crop the image to make it look like i was centered on the dark area.
When i have tried imaging a smaller crescent, there just isn’t enough light and i failed.
One annoyance with this camera is the complete failure to get an image of stuff like silhouette trees on an evening skyline with the reddish sky and moon in the distance. This is because there just is not enough light for the camera to decide where it will focus, and for some reason unknown to me it does not default to infinity and just produces an unrecognizable blur. (i’m not the only person to whinge about this and of course it may well be cured in the newest models). never the less i am overall thrilled with the camera at such a bargain price.
Mae’r Eglwys heddiw - the church today.
Hen fynedfa - old entrance (i imagine this is an original entrance in the wall facing west). (note the whole flints set in mortar wall).
Porth a estyniad - porch and extension. (i imagine this porch was added at a later date, note napped flint with less mortar construction, to the right is what looks like an even more recent extension using mostly bricks and mortar).
nenfwd - ceiling (this is just one of the ceilings and really impressive (to me)).
ac rwan, un aderyn - and now, one bird.
Delor y cnau - Nuthatch.
Cheers J.P.