Thanks and inspiring nature walks at Dinefwr Festival

Huw, I'd like to thank-you for all the energy you put into Natur Cymru including administering and getting sponsorship for the 'Inspired by Nature' competition. I'm delighted to win and very appreciative of WWF's cheque. I had a great day out at Dinefwr - naturally I took both of the nature walks. On the morning one, led by Horatio Clare, we made a pact with William Hazlitt's quotation "not to talk of trival things" as we walked down past the locked deer park and into a meadow which was recovering from intensive farming. It was high with crested dog's tail, yorkshire fog, seeding yellow rattle and many other plants.

Swallows swooped and shaved us. A charm of goldfinches flew and foraged.We paid our respects to an ancient hollow oak and Ray Woods introduced us to the mix of lichens mosses and ferns it supported in different niches. Down on the flood plain it felt as though Horatio had summoned the West Wind by reading Shelley's Ode. A soggy buzzard tilted out of it and turned back into the woods clinging to the castle crag. The wind blew the clouds away for a while and about ten ravens came tumbling out to play.

The afternoon walk up to the castle with Ray Woods and Lizzie Wilberforce was a fascinating introduction to lichens and the astonishing inter-relationship and symbiosis between plants and fungi which left me inspired and hungry to know more about a whole new dimension to Nature.