Positivity Month Post #21: Oh I Do Like To Be Beside...

Hello.  I am SO excited!  I have had an amazing day and I am bursting to share it with you!!  Thank you for calling in - I hope you will be pleased that you did.  I should say that if you click on the photos they will enlarge, and I think you might want to do that today.  And thank you to Chel, Jean and Jan for their lovely comments on yesterday's post.  They write good blogs with lovely pics which you might want to pop over and look at.

 

So, I'm not really sure how to start...OK, I LOVE to be by the sea, although I have never lived by the sea and in fact I now live almost as far from the sea as it is possible to be in this country.  The Mathematician once asked me why we don't live by the sea considering how much I love it and I was a bit stumped for an answer.  Eventually I said that I think it might be because when I was young, the seaside was a place to go to for holidays and it never occurred to me that I could live there.  Doh!  When I was young and the world was my oyster, why on earth didn't I go to the coast?  Mind you, if I had done that, I may never have discovered my beloved Shropshire.  So, to get my coastal fix, we try to go to the sea for a day during almost every school holiday, and today was the day this time.

 

My favourite place to go is...Anglesey.  I don't really like "resorts", I like a more natural environment and Anglesey ticks all my boxes: sandy beaches, fields, forests and views to the mountains of Snowdonia, although it is a long drive away.  My heart lifts as soon as we get within sight of the Great Orme at Llandudno as I know we are almost there.  So this morning we were up and out early with a plan: before we hit the beach, we had something else to find.

 

We drove to Llyn Parc Mawr and parked the car - this was free.  I had done my research and we set off on this walk -

 

 

That's right, the Red Squirrel Walk: we were looking for Squirrel Nutkin.  The walk was beautiful: the sky was blue above the pines, it was warm and sheltered and the air was full of the music of birdsong.  The woodland felt airy, very different from the mixed, deciduous woods we are used to walking in at home.  We  saw great tits, chaffinches, blackbirds, robins, long-tailed tits and a great spotted woodpecker.  We had decided that if we didn't see any red squirrels, we wouldn't be disappointed, and we weren't because it really was a beautiful, gentle walk.

 

 

The lichens growing on the trees at the edge of the forest were amazing, long and shaggy, unlike any I have ever seen before.

 

 

We reached the end of the circular walk and were within sight of the car when I looked up and spotted this -

 

 

Can you see Squirrel Nutkin sitting there?  This is the first time I have EVER seen a red squirrel.  We walked over to sit at the picnic benches in the car park which are close to two squirrel feeders and we stayed there for about half an hour watching this adorable creature and THREE OF HIS FRIENDS!  It felt very special indeed. 

 

 

I sat very still and one of them came towards me, stopping when he was about five feet away.  Lucky me.

 

 

Sorry it's a bit blurry - he wouldn't sit still and pose.  We sat there until all four of them had scampered away and then we got in the car and drove to Llanddwyn Beach.  It costs £3 to park in the beach car park but we think it's worth it.  It is well-kept and there are decent toilets there.  We arrived at about 2.30pm and walked out to the beach -

 

 

The tide was out a long way.  So here we are, sea, sand, dunes and, across the Menai Straits, snow on the mountains!  Why would I want to be anywhere else today?  Let me show you some more -

 

 

 

 

As we walked down to the sea, saw these oystercatchers feasting on the mussels which had been revealed by the very low tide.  Their long, orange bills are unmistakeable, even the Best Beloved recognised them.  Sorry we couldn't get any closer, we did try but they flew away  -

 

 

So we are home now, tired after a long drive but ecstatically happy.  I shall leave you with a parting shot of the beach.

 

 

 

Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x