Saturday: A day on a bike

Hello all,

Well, beginning of the weekend, and today I spent nearly the whole day either on or around my bike.
Started off the day at about 12 ish (when I woke up) and head out with the initial plan of biking up to Merthyr and then up and around Pen-y-Fan then back. Or getting the train to Merthyr and then doing the Pen-Y-Fan thing. But, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men...

So, I packed my bag with couple of fruit bread sandwiches, filled my camel back, put my camera in my helmet for safekeeping (wasn't wearing my helmet.. Ooh naughty!) and tucked SAMR/MRSA into a pouch on my new rucksack. After doing a spot check on my bike I began out, but almost immediately ran into trouble. As I headed across Broadway/Heathfield Villas I could hear a scraping of my rear wheel against the frame. Once across the road I had a quick inspection and decided that the axle was probably loose, and since I do not have the tools I headed off up to Halfords.
When I took off the back wheel I figured it was a little more than a loose axle since the Quick Release pin was bent, but not much. They took in my wheel and went to tighten the axle so it wasnt loose, and the axle came out completely. It had sheared in half! So I had to buy a new axle because I'd snapped the old one! After they'd fitted the new axle I was back out, and this time headed up the Taff towards Abercynon. A couple of miles outside Abercynon I broke off from the main trail and went down the Lady Winsor Colliery trail towards Porth.
After the colliery I headed North towards a place with a silly name, lots of Ys, I know that for sure. Ynysybwl.
From here I had to decide if to go to Porth or Mountain Ash, I decided Mountain Ash, so I continued northward. My route led me though a forest called Ffynnon dwyn, but my 1:50k map didnt show me any paths in detail, so I decided to have a try anyways and see what I could find.
There was what appeared to be some sort of path going northwards, where I wanted to be, so I took it.
After a long uphill stretch I found the path curved back around and went down again about 500m from where I started off! One large circle, one large waste of time! I had to double back then and found a small path that snaked off though the forest, and best of all, it was down! Got some great speed down this little piece of single track though the pine trees, and eventually comming out by a river. At this point I didnt realise I'd just missed my turning half way back up the hill, and was slightly confused by the fact that the path disapeared, so I figured I would just head south till I ended back up in Ynysybwl as there was some sort of sheep track of some description. After a click or so the path petered out and I was left in a field with a 8ft barbed wire fence on one side, a river on another and a house on another, so I had to do do another loop to get back up where i should've turned off originoally. Finally I reached it and headed back across the correct field back to Ynysybwl, back though the Lady Winsor Colliery, back along the Taff trail to Pontypridd and then home. Total journey length 25 clicks.
All in all, a good little trip!

Doves return to the garden for a bit

Spotted the 2 Collared doves in the garden again today. Though they didnt stop for very long, just landed on the wall and by the time I'd grabbed my camera they'd flown off.
On the note of cameras;
Just purchased a new lens for my Nikon. Its a 500mm fixed aperture lens, but its a manual focus, thats the only downside. Still, with my teleconverter its a 1000mm with a 11.2f aperture.
Has slightly broken the bank a bit, but it'll live.
My cuccumbers have finally died. Fully dead dead.
Coursework progress:
3/6 done.
50%!

Garden starting to come to life

Finally, the garden is begining to look less like an atomic wasteland and more like a garden.
Few little plants starting to bud, and the occasional flower.
Pictures from top:
I've no idea what this flower is. If anyone knows, please do tell
2nd, not sure what this bud is either.. We'll see when it comes out

3rd- My baby radishes! Much taller now, about 50mm tall though they still have their coteledons, no real leaves yet
4th- My cuccumbers- Noooo Their not looking especially healthy...

Collared Dove in my garden!

Spotted a pair of Collared doves on my bird feeders. Tried taking a shot of them but the lighting was terrible and the shots came out blurred. Probably should've used a higher ISO. Anyways, the 2 came in and sat on the rail for a bit, I actually didnt see them eating from the feeder. Later on this afternoon I saw them back again but my enemy, next doors cat, came by and scared them away. I managed to stare down the cat and it fled the garden in a hurry.
I hope the doves return to my garden, makes a nice change from the Jackdaws.
Skip out

Visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales

Should probably have posted this earlier!
On the 2nd March IWB squadron and the students from Biology squadron took a coach up to Carmarthen to pay a visit to the NBGW. I dont have time to write, in full, what happened, so I'll summerise:
After the coach arrived at the NBGW we headed up to the Great Glass House, the biggest free standing glasshouse in the world (the eden project doesnt count, theirs is plastic, HAHA in your face Eden Project!)
In here we had a tour around the Fynbos vegetation and into the other Mediteranian areas, Chille, California, the Med, and South Africa. We then had a tea break with rather good welsh cakes and a talk on the work being done at NBGW, then it was time for lunch in the Cafe.
Since there was such a wide range of main meals avaialble and I couldnt choose which I wanted I decided to skip the main course and just have the different cakes. A none to bad choise to be fair!
After this it was back to the glasshouse to do our own research on the Fynbos vegetation before we were extracted and returned to base.
Mission report ends 1755 Zulu
Pictures from Top:
House Sparrow in the courtyard of the Cafe
The glasshouse
SAMR by my camera