Friday 22 February 2019

What an exhibition!

Murmuration Stones I by Ruth Gibson
This is a good time of year to see one of Nature's great spectacles in Aberdaron - great swooping flocks of starlings called murmurations, so named because of the eerie sound of thousands of wings flapping in unison. We can often see the starlings from the conservatory at Manaros wheeling over the open fields, which is what inspired Peter to take these photographs of the power lines behind Manaros.





During Autumn and Winter, hundreds or even thousands of starlings gather together in huge flocks resembling an airborne school of fish, that twist and morph in an almost hypnotic dance. It is believed that the huge flocks give the birds safety in numbers from predatory birds such as hawks. The huge flocks tend to gather in birds from miles around who then roost together overnight for warmth during long, cold winter nights.

The ability of these tiny birds to perform such acrobatic swoops and turns while in such tight formation is truly impressive, and likely thanks to their split second reaction times. Unfortunately these starlings flew off in the wrong direction for Peter to capture their flocking behaviour, but we found this video by Dylan Winter on YouTube to give you some idea of how spectacular it can be -

By coincidence, Peter was at an exhibition at Plas Glyn y Weddw in Llanbedrog the other day, by the artist Ruth Gibson, that had several works inspired by Murmurations. Ruth works in ceramic media and has created a number of beautiful plates and chargers with themes of the natural world. It's well worth checking out her work if you are passing the gallery, or see her website at www.ruthgibsonceramics.co.uk.

Murmuration Bay II

Murmurations

Murmuration Wave

Monday 4 February 2019

Another great RS Thomas festival for Aberdaron


The program for the highly successful RS Thomas festival has now been finalised for 2019. We are delighted that an Edge of Wales tour has been included for the first time. This will be a minibus tour of places associated with the poet - St Hywyn's church, the old rectory, his retirement home at Sarn Plas and Mynydd Mawr with its views over to Bardsey Island and St Mary's well, the subject of his poem Ffynnon Fair. This is to take place on Friday the 21st of June 12:30 to 15:00.

There are many, many other events including a talk by the retired Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Please do look at the full program which is available at https://rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/ and tickets can be ordered at https://rsthomasfestival2019.eventbrite.co.uk


Wednesday 9 January 2019

Hidden Llyn

One of the benefits of winter is that with the trees bare you can see all sorts of hidden parts of the landscape. I was driving to Pwllheli from Aberdaron the other day and happened to catch this glimpse of the Nanhoron Estate. The main house is from the regency period, but the Harden family have owned this 5000 acre piece of land for 700 years. These days they operate it as an environmentally friendly farm under the Tir Gofal (Land Care) scheme to encourage wildlife.

The older house, Hen Dy, is available as a holiday let.

Monday 7 January 2019

Fine Weather this Winter on Pen Llŷn


The winter this year is far from over and we may yet see the sort of snowfall that we experienced last year. However, the weather of late has been nothing short of remarkable and these random photographs were taken last weekend.
Aberdaron beach looking east from the Sailing Club.
Looking west from Rhiw towards Bardsey Island.
Hell's Mouth seen from Penarfynydd near Rhiw.
Pwllheli harbour at low tide.
Pwllheli harbour entrance at low tide.
Early sunset over Pwllheli harbour.
Before you all phone me up to book a holiday, we can't offer you Manaros until March, but we can offer Glandwr, see www.aberdaron-glandwr.co.uk. We can offer a 3 night weekend for just under £300 in January.