Aquarius

There are flotillas of giant water skaters along the margins of the River Usk , their feet making tiny depressions in the meniscus, which refract images of the overhanging trees. Their Latin name is Aquarius najas , the water nymph.

This morning Pete and I pottered around the cottage, exploring the river banks thoroughly. This image was taken from a concrete water control structure and involved me hanging over the edge with my camera. The water skaters move in a peculiarly jerky way which made it quite difficult to get any images that were in focus

In the afternoon we headed off to an upland area with a spring and a quarry. The feeble morning sunshine had waned by the time we arrived and the stunning views were shrouded in grey mist. We climbed up to some crags where we found a good population of mossy saxifrage. As we reached the exposed ridge at the top, the rain started in earnest, blown horizontally on a strong wind. Real Welsh weather!

Back at the cottage we slow-roasted a shoulder of venison with wild blackberries and then Lizzy and I made a plum bread-and-butter pudding with fruit she'd gathered on a morning walk. And while it was all cooking we had time for a mad game of table tennis and a few games of pool, though I'm not sure I'll be invited to play that again....