What's outside

New one for me, diolch am fawr iawn.

This may be the farm hand pastime of making and trying out spray tan mixtures on sheep (this particular mix looks like a failure).
In the early days of this pastime we tried making a mix using gravy granules and chili powder (the result was if nothing else tasteful).

Cheers J.P.

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I had another lovely moment this morning. I was in our shower room cleaning my teeth at about 09.30 - I am not early or quick in the mornings! Suddenly the light came on above me! Not the electric one, which was on already! No, it was brightly illuminating me from the velux in the ceiling! The sun had finally crept high enough over our hill to brighten me there! I couldn’t see the sun. It’ll be quite a while before the sun rises high enough to top the hill directly behind us, but it was a lovely feeling to bask in its light!

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Very pleased for you, & as we say, “daw eto haul ar fryn”.

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I must say the thought of spring approaching has a nice feeling about it.
What are people looking forward to ( first snake, butterfly…?).
One bit of news is, it looks like i have access to a beehive this year (could be some good photo’s)

Cheers J.P.

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Will you get the honey too?

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I had not thought about getting honey, more interested to get photo’s inside a hive (but now you mention it, well i might be lucky. (yum).

Heddiw, maer tywydd yn cael well, felly maer planhigion yn dechrau cael lliwiog - Today, the weather improved so the plants started to get colourful.

Crocws - Crocus.

Cennin Pedr gyntaf - first daffodils.

Cheers J.P.

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Okay, I’m jealous! We have a few things trying to poke out of the ground (because it has been VERY unseasonably mild here most of this winter) but we’re a long way from having snowdrops, let alone crocus or daffodils!

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I already posted a bad pic of our first crocus flowers. Now we have the odd snowdrop in flower. I have always had to pick a couple of daffodils and bring them into the warm kitchen to get a flower for Gwyl Dewi, but it is only 18th Feb and the ones around our Victoria plum tree are looking quite plump in the bud department. I will post if I get a flower out!! It has to be global warming! It really is ridiculously mild this year! We are north of Moscow!

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Fath o seren ddaear - type of earth star fungus. Missed it in all its glory but will keep an eye on this location - byddai’n cadw llygaid barcud yma.

& the remains of a cape gooseberry - not wild, nor native but grow happily here. Not brave enough to eat one. Ddim yn ddigon dewr i fwyta un.

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Beth oedd yn ymddangos heddiw - what had appeared today.

Blodyn cyll - Hazel flower (what i had not noticed when taking the photo, is the egg of a Moth/butterfly on the bud). (click on images for full size).

Scarlet elf cups (drew gen i, dim enw yn cymraeg).

Dail o pidyn y gog wedi dechrau tyfu - leaves of Lords and ladies have started growing.

Grifft broga - frog spawn.

Cheers J.P.

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Helo JP - By lucky coincidence I came across these on Saturday in the Ceiriog Valley/Dyffryn Ceiriog


I was told the enw Cymraeg is Cwpanau Tylwyth Teg, so more or less the same as in Saesneg
Hwyl, John

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What took you to DC @johnwilliams_6? Looks like you had an interesting time.
@ramblingjohn pipped me to the post with Hazel flowers. Mine don’t have an egg, but they do have lichen - cen.

No frogspawn yet but going by the noises the frogs have been making, it won’t be long.

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Oh, Janet told me about a week ago, that we had frog spawn in our pond yn yr ardd wyllt! But I can’t get there to take a picture. However, I am keeping an eye on the daffodils. Showing a little colour! Global warming strikes again!

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Excellent photo, i hope it’s clear to people that the fungal part of your lichen is forming cups full of spores so we can see the relationship (common ancestry) with the Cwpanau tylwyth teg. (many thanks for the name J.W.).
As spring approaches this thread i hope will become diddorol iawn - very interesting, Camera’s ready folks beth byddych chi’n gweld - what will you see.

Cheers J.P.

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Brilliant photo Pippa! Ac, am arlunydd ydy Mam Natur hefyd!
It was Saturday’s ramble efo’r Gymdeithas Edward Llwyd which prompted me to take a long weekend in DC (cynefin fy hen-daid). Oedd llawer o hwyl a llawer o siarad Cymraeg - as good as a one-day immersion course, in fact. Saith milltir i lawer ac i fynny on a beautiful spring-like day with drifts of erlysiau (snowdrops) everywhere and the sun warm enough to release their arogl (scent) - all rounded off with a panaid in a pub. Perffaith!
Must go out now and look at my pond - the spawning of those frogs never fails to take me by surprise!
Hwyl fawr, John

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Some more from Dyffryn Ceiriog:

Derwen hynafol (ancient oak) with a striking name: The Great Oak of Gate of the Dead (“Thought to date back to the reign of King Egbert in 802”). The reputed site of the Battle of Crogen

(sorry about cutting off the part Cymraeg - the sun was in my eyes and I couldn’t see the screen on the camera - good reason for getting a camera with a proper viewfinder next time!)
… and now for something completely different:

On a south-facing slope in DC, eirlysiau aroglus (fragrant snowdrops - hopefully ‘aroglus’ means what I think it means and not simply ‘smelly’!)
Hwyl, John

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I looked in my handy app on the ipad and arogli pops up for smell, smelly gives drewllyd, fragrant gives persawrus (or fragrant!) and fragrance gives - persawr, arogl. I think I’d play safer and use eirlysiau persawrus!

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My ‘What’s outside’ contribution today isn’t quite as nice as so many posted here, just my discovery on my morning walk.
Now I’m assuming that Storm Doris wasn’t strong enough to blow this 1500ft up a Welsh hillside, so it’ll have to rank as one of the worse (or most surreal) examples of fly-tipping I’ve seen in recent years. (and something I’m finding happening increasingly in the lanes of the Ceiriog Valley) still, when the snow comes I may be able to turn the jetski into a sledge?

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Can’t click ‘like’ because I hate what someone did! Finding a garden shed in the middle of a Gower road after a high wind is one thing (a bit unnerving at the time, but not surprising), but what the hell was anyone doing taking a jet ski up there??!!! I reported the shed to the police to get it shifted off the road, but I’ll bet nobody in authority will rush to shift the ski!!

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Nice pictures & interesting, albeit gruesome hanes. We’ve plans to visit the area in June; really looking forward to it.

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