After a peaceful day yesterday, today we went to an event organised by Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, who were having an open day at Gilfach Nature Reserve, not far from Rhayader. We decided not to take the dogs - Andy has sprained his rear paw, Booty's ear is still poorly and dogs are not always welcome at nature reserves anyway, due to the risk of disturbing ground nesting birds and so on. So we left three sad little faces when we went, but had a wonderful time.

The reserve is an unimproved hill farm, now run organically with sheep and a few beef cattle in the base of the valley. The reserve has a centre with an old Welsh longhouse, now lived in by the wardens plus an old oak cruck framed barn turned into a visitor and education centre. A variety of habitats exist, with upland pasture, woodland and rivers, all supporting an excellent range of wildlife, including some impressive badger setts, otters in the river and a wide variety of bird life. We thoroughly enjoyed wandering round, exploring the trails, spotting nest boxes and admiring the stunning views. Red kites circled overhead and we could hear cuckoos calling in the woods. After our walk, we enjoyed a pot of tea and some home made cake from the wardens, which we ate at a picnic table looking out over the valley.

Came home and watched a little bit of craft on QVC while cross-stitching, although Andrew swears he heard a few snores from my sofa - shocking! Just had one of Andrew's cheese scones, made yesterday and delicious and will be doing some pasta for us later. Pics attached of the nature reserve.