News & Updates from Carol Dunne · Page 3

With the COVID restrictions relaxing a bit we had a few days away from home.

Our Italian holiday was cancelled so we went to Anglesey off the coast of North Wales where we came across this station. (look at the name on the photo) I cant pronounce it but it means The church of St Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St Tysilios of the red cave.

The locals dont use this great long name, they just call it Llanfair PG.

For the last number of years when our laburnum tree flowers we rush up to Bodnant Gardens in North Wales to see their famous Laburnum arch, but every time we have been we have got the timing wrong.

It has either been in flower and they have all finished or the buds are yet to open so we have always missed it.

This year we got it just right and as you can see it is absolutely stunning.

We are fortunate enough to have a lovely lake near by where we can go for nice walks. A few years ago someone introduced a couple of mandarin ducks to the lake.

The other day we were astonished to see a lot of them collected together so we counted them as we walked around.

We now have twenty pairs of them and dont the males look smart with such beautiful plumage.

After being in lockdown again and the weather being so dismal it was lovely to get a special delivery of an afternoon cream tea.

My daughter had ordered it to cheer us up because we hadnt been able to visit for a while.

In the box came two scones which were nice and fresh, two pots of jam, a big pot of thick clotted cream and two tea bags.

Needless to say we enjoyed it very much.

As we are in lockdown at the moment it is nice to be able to go for a short walk to our local lake as our daily exercise.

Yesterday we found some newcomers, some pink footed geese had flown in for the winter.

They nest in Greenland and Iceland but fly to the UK and some parts of Europe to over winter before flying back in the spring time to breed.

I have seen them flying overhead, as a lot of them go to Norfolk so it was nice to see some of them stopping off here.

Nice also to know that their numbers are increasing due to better protection, especially as some of our native bird numbers are declining.