walking and planning

Went for a pre-lunch walk at the nature reserve/ex-opencast coalmine by Drongan. The farm by there has alpacas, one newly brought in from New Zealand.

 
 There are benches around the paths, used for walking, cycling and riding

 This is "Kenny's View"  over the site and towards the village

 We found a gate.....

 and I foraged

I didn't pick any of these...

The shortening days mean we get out as much as possible.  The Pirate is getting a little sad, partly because of less light,partly because getting over his treatment takes a long time.He is running out of being a patient patient as he sees himself getting older.....riding his bike helps massively.

Meanwhile we do have something to look forward to...airline tickets booked, lodgings reserved (a garage sleepout!).

Hesitating while confirming lodgings cost us £200 each as the pound sterling continued to fall...and "Brexit" hasn't even happened...the Gods help us if it ever does....we are too old and too skint to emigrate.  My Irish ancestry is just too far back to get an Irish passport. We don't have family anywhere we want to go.....

So inertia must be fought, art done and sold so we can feed ourselves while we are away.   The Pirate has already sold some bike kit, now to sort,clean price and photograph the next batch.

pony walk

I spoke to Mountain Man on the phone as usual this morning, thinking that he'd be in his home, having his Farmer's Breakfast ! ie the second one at 10am..the first is just a break fast at daybreak. He was miles away, looking over Cwmbran, having been walking since 6,30 am. By then he hadn't seen even one pony.
I beat the housework into submission, adjusted the position of the burners on the kiln and was about to go to the garden when he phoned...could I meet him at our usual parking place near Twmbarlwm to give him lift down?

It was a good thing that I'd taken a warm gilet..when I phoned to say I'd arrived he said...want to go up Twmbarlwm to check?!!
Welsh Black Cattle also graze the Common Ground
The motocross and 4x4 vandals have been busy


It is a bit steep...

A nice boggy bit, with more wheeled damage to the ecosystem
The foot of Twmbarlwm!! With the fence cut to the side of the stile
There he is!!
On his way up!! We both did the tump for a change!!
Looking down on the Nantcarn and Graig parts of Cwmcarn, the Spitefull in the distance on the left and the roof of the Forest Drive Centre just visible above the trees in the middle
Spotted them!!!!

This one was last year's runt and it had been expected that he wouldn't survive the winter.
He still isn't that big, but he has come on well. (I've tried to find the picture with him in, from last Autumn. Failed! He was a fairly dark grey colour then, and much smaller than all the other foals)

It was lovely to be up on the mountain again together in the sun, despite the chilly wind, listening to the birds and checking the ponies. He saw well over half of them and we have a good idea of where the others are!!