What's outside

Gwenen (no double nn) is an alternative spelling of Gwenyn - bees - according to the geiriadur prifysgol

But it didnt say whether its a dialectal spelling or maybe even a forgotten term for “female bees” (male?!) possibly?

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So, it is suggesting that the water is sweet as the honey of Gwent? Drink everyone and welcome and not forget bees of Gwent. No not exactly, but…?

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or watch out for the bees/wasps of gwent while drinking!

Good help from Gweplyfr/ Facebook!

Possibly either old phrase for “fair Gwent”
…or gwenynen Gwent - a nickname for a very pro Welsh culture aristocratic lady (many Welsh elites had been losing their cultural connection then - becoming english gentry by then)

She owned a lot of land and helped poor Welsh speakers get jobs around Abergavenny/Y fenni…It might be on her old estate

"Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover
aka Gwenynen Gwent

Augusta Hall by Charles Augustus Mornewick
Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover (21 March 1802 – 17 January 1896), born Augusta Waddington, was a Welsh heiress, best known as a patron of the Welsh Language"

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Yes, I fairly certain that would be the meaning. The drinking fountain is on the road as it passes the Llanover Estate.

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This gets my vote too.

Some worts, neither of whichever I remember seeing in the wild before.

Toothwort, apparently a parasitic plant, growing from the roots of trees. No chlorophyll. Looks very unusual.

& lungwort in a woodland. Pert iawn.

Iolo doesn’t offer me Welsh names for either yn anfodus.

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A bramble leaf. Hoping @ramblingjohn will help identify the house guest!

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Lovely pictures. Two medicinal plants and an insect!
The ‘roots’ of toothwort were chewed for pain relief and lungwort was used to relieve water retention particularly in the lungs.
I think the insect is probably leaf miner. Good job it’s only in a bramble; I squash them if they get into my fruit and veg plants.

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Helo Pippa - Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd’s book of plant names Planhigion Blodeuol Conwydd a Rhedyn (hynod o ddefnyddiol!) gives ‘deintlys’ for toothwort (Lathraea squamaria) and ‘llysiau’r ysgyfaint’ for lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis). Hwyl, John

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One for the shopping list. Diolch yn fawr @johnwilliams_6

My little online Geiriadur simply translates the lungwort as ‘lung vegetable’ - llysiau’r ysgyfaint
Edit - Sorry @johnwilliams_6, only just noticed you had typed exactly that, however, nice to know little app gave same answer as specialist book!!
Now, yesterday we had a little visitor who kept hiding while bobbing around and eating under our table. Then he/she hopped up on the fence and Janet managed to get:-

The best I can find is siglen for wagtail on my app, possibly siglen brith for pied wagtail, but that could mean other things, I think. @johnwilliams_6, @ramblingjohn I have a feeling I have asked this before and forgotten the answer!!???
Edit, checked, you had pic of one and it is siglen fraith!!

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So: i go away for a week and lots of very interesting things appear (maybe i should go away often).
Will try and get an answer for the leaf miner soon (suspect a moth but need to look up a few references).

Edit: looks like the mine of a micro moth Stigmella aurella (drw gen i, dim enw sasneg neu Cymreaeg ar hyn o bryd - sorry, no English or Welsh name at the moment).

Cheers J.P.

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I was hoping another Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd book (Gwyfynod Glöynnod Byw a Gwision Neidr) might help here - it had three Stigmella species (S. speciosa, S, anomalella, S. malella) but yn anffodus no S.aurella :disappointed:
Hwyl, John

PS Might as well give a general plug here for CEL’s other two books while I’m about it - no descriptions and no pictures but wonderful for Welsh names: Anifeiliaid asgwrn cefn (i.e. vertebrates) and, for fungii, Ffyngau

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Heddiw - Today.

Cerddinen gyda dail - Rowan with leaves.

Picwnen - Wasp.

Trilliw bach - small tortoiseshell.

Chwilen deigr werdd gyntaf - first green tiger beetle.

Cheers J.P.

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You have bees and butterflies, and I have snow still on the ground from the blizzard we had last week :frowning2:

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Don’t post to this thread half as often as I should and I’m sorry for that.

Some may know that I have a bird obsession. If I have a garden filled with birds then I’m happy! Well, since we moved to our new home with its wild garden, filled with trees with a river running round the perimeter wall. I’ve been avidly filling the garden with feeders, different bird seeds and nesting boxes.

As a reward, the garden has been slowly filling up with all our old favourites. But a couple of days ago I was thrilled to see the addition of a pair of Grey Wagtails! The river is obviously a real draw for them. They are so beautiful and musical. I was really happy to ‘meet’ them.
:slight_smile:

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Yes, we don’t have butterflies yet. There is a good side to this though; we don’t have any leaf miners either as we don’t have any leaves yet. :slight_smile:

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Yes well, unlike @AnnaC, we had little snow but incredibly heavy hail which did not thaw until yesterday when the sun shone through the kitchen window and melted the butter in its dish!! Despite the latter, my reaction to your pictures was to think, “He’s showing everything we don’t have yet!”
The only green on our rowans is still lichen!! (Janet’s mam was superstitious. I don’t think she believed in tylwyth teg [fairies], but she had a very nasty feeling that if she didn’t plant a rowan at all entrances to the property, some dire event would occur!!!) Hence surrounding rowans! Wasps? Butterflies? Beetles? Not here, not yet!!!

Our wagtails always seem to be pied, although the RSPB claim greys are to be found everywhere but the north of Scotland and the islands! I spend a lot of time explaining to delivery companies that I do not live on an island, unless you count the Crinan Canal as sea!! And mid-Argyll does not count as ‘north’! Please Catrin, try to get pics of your birds! You couldn’t do worse than my pics!!

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We had a seriously delayed spring last year which set back the insects and nesting birds,
i’m hoping this year the (so far) gradual upturn will continue to a perfect spring and the wildlife numbers will recover.

I hope you get some time to sit by the river writing your novel with binoculars to hand and spot where they are nesting, then some photo’s, enjoy.

Now we have passed the equinox you will have started getting more daylight than us down south, so by Easter you may have a curtain of green across the land.

Heddiw - today.


Cacynen gyffredin - buff tailed bumble bee.

Cheers J.P.

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Lovely to see, keep an eye out for dippers too.

Elsewhere yng Nghymru. Cennin Pedr Gwyllt. I’m sticking my neck out a bit on identification, but there are a number of spots around here that have these lovely delicate daffodils growing. This was open countryside.

Looking the other way…

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