To the woods, the woods I tell ye!

I do love our local woodland at this time of year, especially on a warm sunny morning like the one we had today. The wood anemones, celandine, violet, cowslips, primrose, bluebells and wood-orchids are all in bloom... sadly of course you never see them all together, but it is common for the orchids and bluebells to bloom in close proximity and for bluebells to be found with wood anemones too.

English Bluebells

English Bluebells are quite different from the Spanish Bluebells that are colonising many areas and in my eyes are preferable simply because they are native. I'm not saying I dislike the Spanish variety of course, I just wish there was some control over the ever-growing population.

Wood Orchid and English Bluebell

I may be a trifle odd, but I really do enjoy seeing beds of celandine despite the majority of people regarding them as weeds to be avoided at all costs.

Celandine

  Tilly says she doesn't care about the flowers... she prefers her walking snacks!

Just gimme the biscuits!

To me though the flower beds make the woods an even nicer place to walk during the Spring and early Summer months.

Bluebells among the trees

Meet Usky's new friend

I spotted this guy while out cycling this morning, took a shine to him and stopped to pass the time of day... then I thought you might like to meet him too. Let me introduce you to The Celtic Warrior

The Celtic Warrior

Pretty impressive isn't he? Carved from a single hunk of tree by a local artist - you can view him at the end of Isca Road, Caerleon.

Facial Close-up

 Seeing this guy today reminded me of an old friend I haven't spoken to in ages... her name is Rosemary and she's an artist and sculptor who I know would appreciate this piece of work.

In other news I got my India Badge recently for having walked 1997 miles in my attempt to get fit!

India Badge - 1997 miles walked

Crossing the border

It was a lovely morning for a quick trip over the border into England...

Second Severn Crossing

Sadly you can't cycle over the Second Severn Crossing, but you can grab a nice image of it from Blackrock. Fortunately you can still use the original Severn Bridge (M48) to cross back and forth over the water.

Bound and drowned, but not beaten

Walking with Tilly along the Severn flood plain this morning and simply had to capture a couple of images of this piece of flotsam...

Ivy-bound tree

I just love the way ivy had bound this old tree, no doubt helping suck the life out of it. However having fallen and been floating around in the Bristol Channel for lord knows how long, the tree has finally washed up on the Welsh side of the Estuary where new life is slowly taking over.

New life takes hold

I find I am always impressed with the way Nature works... in this case the ivy having made perfect footholds for new plant growth. Neat, eh?

Welsh humour...

Loud but Fun!

I had an interesting evening out at Tramshed in Cardiff with the Daughter last night and properly enjoyed myself in one of Wales' newest rock venues. On the bill were three bands, Alestorm (Bacon Powered Pirate Core) from Scotland and Bloodbound (Power Metal) and Sabaton (Heavy Metal) both from Sweden. I just thought I'd share a little of their music with you...








Just a little taster of course, but you can always look these guys up on YouTube and explore more of their music.

1600 miles = Great Barrier Reef

Since I started wearing my free Fitbit Flex fitness band back in July last year it seems I've clocked up something over 1600 miles just walking... that's the same as walking the Great Barrier Reef from end to end apparently, not that you can actually do that of course... wouldn't mind swimming along some of it though.

Anyway to commemorate my 1600 miles Fitbit have awarded me this badge:

Great Barrier Reef badge

Am I supposed to be the fish d'you think?