Solstice Blessings

...from me to you all, whether you celebrate or not.

Our kidnap of the aged one went to plan this morning and we have spent the day travelling around the Welsh Borders viaThe Marches, Powys and as far as Rhayader.  We had breakfast at Harry Tuffins, and then travelled on to Newtown.  We had a wander over the little bridge at the back of the car park into a lovely green park space.  I took a couple of photographs of the water:

The aged one and my bruv.

 and cooed over the tiny baby conkers forming on the huge horse chestnut tree which was overhanging the river.   How cute!

We stretched our legs for a while up through the town











I had a serious case of the wanties when I saw a) this window display

 and b) THESE SHOES!!

 Back on our travels again, we headed towards Llandrindod Wells and stopped at a lovely little pub just outside Llanbadarn Fynydd  (where its currently all kicking off about the wind farms) where we sat in the garden and took in the sunshine.  A tiny waterfall provided a pretty little back drop along with splendid old trees and swathes of buttercups/kingcups.

Red Kites abound in this area and I was absolutely thrilled to see a pair hovering just above the car, instantly recognisable by their deeply forked tails and huge wing span.  A little further on, we saw too many to count, all wheeling and stooping above the valley. The sky was alive with them and I was transfixed - apparently it was feeding time at the Red Kite Centre hence why there were so many. See here for the website http://gigrin.co.uk/  We didn't have time to stop and visit as we were intending on travelling onwards to the Elan Valley, but it is a place I would love to visit at some point in the future.

I was also lucky enough to see two Jays (each of them in different areas). I don't think I've ever seen one as close as they were today but of course there is never enough time to stop the car and focus the camera properly so my birdwatching activities were sadly not recorded for posterity.

Unfortunately, Mum didn't feel too well and we had to stop for a while to find a convenience as she felt very sick.  Its very unlike her to be sick like she was and we're putting it down to the fry-up she had which she's not really used to anymore, half a pint of shandy a little later, and sitting cramped up for a couple of hours.  She didn't feel well enough to continue on our adventure and so we made the decision to turn around and head back towards home.  After the poor old girl's fourth episode of being sick (!) she finally began to feel a little better and so as we were travelling back towards Pembridge, purely by a stoke of luck we happened upon Westonbury Mill Water Gardens.

It was a very spontaneous decision to drop into this  absolute gem of a place and as I took nearly 100 photographs whilst walking around, I think I shall designate it a post of its own once I have weeded out the rubbish blurry shots (which will probably leave me with 3 and a half decent photographs to show you!).

We got home at around seven and it was good to sit and unwind for a while with a couple of cups of coffee. I was starting to shake from caffeine withdrawal by then!!

After LM went to work this evening, I ventured out to the garden to light my solstice candle.  As it is still very breezy in our garden, I used my hurricane lamp and lit a pillar candle inside to shelter it from the wind.  I placed this on some fronds of ivy in the middle of the sun circle which I use as my little altar outside.  Once the candle was lit, I sat quietly on the garden chair, just watching the candle flame gutter and dance behind the glass.   I have a glass orb in the garden which hangs from some wind chimes and inside the orb is a solar powered light which changes colour and softly glows from blue to yellow to red to white to green.  The chimes are very soft and tinkle beautifully.

I was joined by Charlie cat who sat beside me, trilling and chirruping his daft little furry head off.  He's a very vocal cat but doesn't miaow at all - he just makes these weird chirping noises like he's trying to miaow through a purr! The breeze was just lifting the leaves; a gentle whisper through the trees at the edge of the garden.  It was still quite warm at 11pm.

The skies were still quite light on this longest day of the year, and the clouds were tinged with pink.  Suddenly from no where a huge gust of wind stormed down the garden and absolutely took my breath away, ruffling my hair as it went.   It was just one single, sharp gust - and then nothing else  Just the gentle continuous breeze again.   It was most odd, but (and you can call me strange if you like) that single, sudden gust of wind was quite comforting. Like I'd made a connection somehow.  I guess you had to be here huh? ;)


The moon is stunning tonight.  A waxing gibbous moon, just two days shy of being full.  As blooming usual my stupid shed of a camera wouldn't step up to the plate to ensure a decent shot - so I took a lot of blurry blobs instead.  Pah!

Love and Light, my friends.





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