A visit to Westonbirt

The year turns ever onwards and the leaves have turned to glorious flame:
Once again a time to soak up the slendour of autumnal hues in Westonbirt Arboretum

I am here taking the opportunity to make a shortcut, with this link to my facebook photo aibumn, which, on balance you may find more "user-friendly" for viewing than scrolling up and down here on blogger.com!

Give it a try and click this link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036326&id=1454649011&l=ea50736092

Easter among the anemones

A patch of woodland near Whitfield (Kent) glistens with anemones, and the sunshine on Easter day made a visit to it a must:

At the furthest edge of the woodland a fallen tree was an ideal place to stop and appreciate spring glory of an english woodland

Next we look forward to the beautiful bluebells, now just begining to open out

Red Kite feeding frenzy at Gigrin's Farm

Whilst I was in the area, and having abandoned more walks for the present, I had a browse around the Hay bookshops in the morning and then drove up the valley to Gigrins Farm in good time to watch the spectacle of the Red Kites feeding. It was certainly fast and furious!!

Here's my video:

Red Kite Feed
Uploaded by agracarter2

Holiday in Pembrokeshire: floral fiesta

May is certainly a month not to miss in Pembrokeshire, with the coastal wildflowers at their most lovely and prolific. Here's a little gallery of some I encountered:

Holiday in Pembrokeshire: Coastal walks 13th- 19th May

After a beautiful holiday in Pembrokeshire, herewith some images from
my walks around St. Bride's Bay:

St. Bride's Bay
Video sent by agracarter2

And here are a few I particularly like again:

Lydford Gorge

After a dreadfully wet day in Falmouth (and down a tin mine to escape the rain!!) I headed homewards from my Eden trip, stopping en route to visit another botanists paradise: Lydford Gorge near Okehampton, on the northern edge of Dartmoor (the blog title links to National Trust page about it).

Not surprisingly, after all the rain there was a lot of water around.......

Great news for the mosses, liverworts and ferns....

and bringing some little streamlets a lease of life they might not have had in a summer like last year (remember the heatwave....? http://carter-in-gloucester.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html)

But the gorge wasn't gouged by little trickles....

At the southern end of the gorge is this spectacle....

A truly lovely spot.

But note: not even this torrent made the gorge, that was the combined effort of the Lyd and Burn, carving through rock like a knife through butter creating precipitous slopes where oak woodlands cling beautifully....

and thundering through the narrow confines of the descent from the Devil's Cauldron.

Its truly a dark, damp, noisy hell-hole. Truly Wicked!!( in both senses!)........but above: oh so green!!!

After the noise of the Cauldron a short walk further up the valley brings you to Tucker's Pool, where brown trout swim, and (though it might have tempted me on a hotter day, were that allowed!) I did not. Afteral, I had just seen what was down stream. This was the water's calm-before-the-storm moment and I left the waters, and trout, in peace.

I went and had a cream tea instead!!!!!!