'Is this picnic only for humans?'We had a 'holiday-at-home' yesterday, when we packed a picnic lunch and headed for Gower. My heart lifts when we cross the cattlegrid at the start of Fairwood Common: I always feel at that point that the town is truly behind us. Our first port of call was the new Wildflower Centre. If you are in the area, do drop in for a cup of coffee. The Italian bread looked amazing. I have rarely seen such a splendid display of deep blue cornflowers.
We had our picnic on the edge of Cefn Bryn, before heading on to the south coast of the peninsula at Oxwich Bay.
Sadly the beach was full of wasps and looking very 'grey', but we were about to head off in a different direction. Oxwich is a pretty village, known for its wide stretch of sand and for the wildlife habitat of its extensive dunes. It is not widely known that the preacher and founder of Methodism, John Wesley, came to the village and stayed in one of the beautiful cottages in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Oxwich was once a haven for smugglers. Oxwich Castle, a ruined manor house, was built in 1541 and the delightful 12th century church of St Illtyd nestles in the trees on a rocky ledge above the sea.
Along the boardwalkEggs of some sort or a seed pod from something like a birch tree?
Burnet Moths
CaterpillarI.D. gratefully received!
Looking up from Oxwich to Cefn Bryn on Gower
ChrysalisID gratefully received!
The waymarked paths over the nature reserve are marked with white cockle shells. Cockles are a key part of the Gower scene.
Common Blue Butterfly - I think...
... and query Meadow Brown Butterfly
Red Admiral
To be identified!
Brown Lipped Snail?(it looked very pink to us!)
