Usk Valley reflections

Monday 26th of August 0800hrs walked from Gliffaes along the River Usk passing the Croquet lawn,
a gap in the hedge led along an elevated path,eventually a stone path appeared.

I walked down to the river where the Oak shaded banks of the river gave way to a stony
river bank as Grey Wagtails danced amongst the rocks.

Following the river upstream the "hrank" of a grey heron gave way to it's prescence,
above me nestled Gliffaes,

Below a wall of stone and endless ferns, I scoured the river for other signs of life notably
aquatic,but only managed birds of note a Chiff chaff in sub song and the chivvying
house martins chasing insects on the wing for their young.
No fishing for me today but smoked salmon at breakfast ended my late summer stroll
on the Usk Estate.

As the morning progressed sitting on the terrace at Gliffaes, aCommon Buzzard mewed
on the hills behind,in the early hours of the morning a Tawny owl could be heard in the utter silence.
A wonderfull  meal last night in delightful company as we all tucked in to lamb,before I sampled
Merlyn the welsh equivalent of Baileys before retiring from the Drawing room.

And so back to this morning a Red Kite glides along the valley as hazy clouds cling
to the hill tops.My concentration lapses as a house martin makes a small deposit on my
wife's trousers as they return to feed young.

 Finally below me searching for insects a female blackcap in moult was losing
her brown cap and so ended my time in Gliffaes with a birthday cake for tomorrow.

Welsh week end part two

Sunday the 25 th of August Sarah Darlington drove me to Gliffaes,on arrival I grabbed a pot of tea
until my ghillie arrived ie Jimmy Devoy,he decided to fish another beat called Llandetty about two
miles from the hotel between Llangynidr and Talybont.
We tackled up put on chest waders and walked through the sheep pasture to the river where we
waded to midstream in pursuit of trout.

We stopped for a ploughmans lunch at the Red Lion,we returned to the River Usk
casting better in the lower beat,neither of us caught a fish as trio of  buzzards mewed above.
While grey wagtails and a superb Kingfisher ended our day as the trout began to rise.
Jimmy drove me back to Gliffaes where ended a nice day in the Usk Valley.