Princess Aspersa lives in the garden at the home for waifs and strays. Helix aspersa is her scientific name but she much prefers to be called Princess. She parades about in her yellow shell with a spiral of ribbony brown. Like all snails, Princess Aspersa longed to find her prince.

     Down in the pond, beneath a lily pad, lives General Stagnalis. Now General Stagnalis (his scientific name of course) is a handsome pond snail but a bit of a lad and always on the lookout for a beautiful maiden.

     One day, last summer to be exact, the princess was resting in the shade at the edge of the pond. General Stagnalis had a sharp eye and spotted her, the minute he came up for air. She was different, he thought, like nothing he had ever seen before.

      Princess Aspersa was quick to spot the general too, but she turned her head as soon as he looked her way. Her heart beat faster than a downpour of rain and she tapped her foot nervously.

      ‘Hello,’ said a strange voice that did not come from the handsome snail in the pond. ‘I’m Prince Helix, at your service!’

      Princess Aspersa turned her head and gasped. There in front of her was the prince of her dreams. She blushed and fluttered her long eye lashes. But remembering the handsome snail in the pond, she turned back to see him still watching her. It was typical, she thought, not just one suitable partner but two had to turn up at the same time.

       The general saw what was happening and panicked. He wanted the princess more than he wanted anything else before. He swam to the edge of the pond and began to crawl towards the princess.

       ‘Come with me,’ said the general to the princess. ‘I have a beautiful home beneath the lily pad.’

       The poor princess did not know what to do.

       ‘Ah, I see you have your sights on the general,’ said the prince. ‘It’s a pity we cannot live beneath the water, just as he cannot live above it. His loss is my gain!’

       Princess Aspersa, kissed General Stagnalis on his head and told him to go back into the water where he was safe.

       ‘I would rather die than live without you,’ said the general.

       ‘Don’t be ridicules,’ said the prince, ‘why would you want to die when you have many princesses in your own pond?’

       The general thought about this and turned around to where a group of beautiful pond snails called to him. He stuck his chest out proudly and bid the princess farewell.

       The princess sighed. It was easy, she thought, as she did not have to choose between the general and the prince.

       Prince Helix and Princess Aspersa, left the pond for the castle under the shed. And they lived happily ever after.

I have never known rain to be so wet! In fact, I have never known it to rain so much in all of my life, and that’s saying something, coming from Wales!

     We are proud, in Wales, of our green valleys and lush mountains, but all this greenery comes at a price. Rain! Big fat rain! Fountain rain! Sheets of rain! Lazy rain that would rather go through you than around you! Or rain like today that came bucketing down with a vengeance!

     ‘It’s raining old women and sticks,’ my granny used to say, or, ‘it’s throwing it down!’ Whatever we say about the rain, it is always wet!

      And as I drove my car over the old horse bridge earlier today, the rain fell in all its glory, causing the river below to bulge with waves like gulping fish. I paused for a moment and stared at the wipers flipping the offending water off the windscreen. This was Man versus Nature but Nature is rebellious in any attempts to train it!

    ‘You must always treat the sea with respect,’ my father once said to me, and as I watched the river flood the marchlands, egged on by the sea, I nodded my head in understanding.

     As much as I love spring and summer, there is beauty in the seasons we are blessed with on this island of ours. Seak to enjoy nature and the great outdoors, whatever the weather, whatever the season. It is indeed later than you think. Goodnight! 

Decaying and dead trees still offer life to fungi, mosses, insects and lichens. At our home for waifs and strays, many newts, toads, frogs and slow worms take cover beneath bits of rotten wood we’ve gathered in a pile besides the pond.

      It is such a shame that trees in our public parks and even in our gardens, are pruned to such a degree that it effects the natural habitat for our wildlife. Even in our woodlands, the end of life trees are often removed. One idea is for the tree stump to remain and left to rot on its own, thus providing a home for many small creatures.

      If you would like to encourage wildlife into your garden, it is quite easy to form a small pile of logs, sticks and leaves. Even those of you who have just a small balcony or small space can help by using a bucket filled with sticks and leaves. Just remember to puncture holes in it so the insects etc can come and go as they please and the rain water can escape.

There is something about shopping in the wild for food. Eating for free, my father used to call it. From a young age, he taught me how to survive on food from the hedgerows. I often wonder if what I ate was meant to be eaten! But here I am to tell the tale.

     Quite often we would sit by an open fire outdoors, upon which a heavy saucepan sat, with something or another boiling away, usually nettles or rosehips. This was often followed by a bowlful of blackberries and the leaves (quite edible) or gorse flowers, red clover flowers and sticky grass. Sometimes we'de boil up cleavers, goose grass (galium aparine) which were also quite appetising.

     My father would catch a fish or collect cockles or a crab, sometimes a bowl of prawns and shrimps and we would have a feast. All for free, and cooked on a fire on the beach.

      Looking back on those carefree days of eating for free whist my head was permanently in a book full of adventure, there is no wonder I turned out a free spirit. I can hardly resist anything growing wild that is edible and a stories full of mystery! But one should invest in a good reference book if you’re not sure of what it is that you can eat. Take for example mushrooms. These can vary enormously, from toadstools to the delicious girolles (yellow-orange mushrooms) so be careful what you eat.

       During the summer months, my father would make a salad of hawthorn leaves, hedge sorrel and hedge mustard, sprinkled with the gorse flowers and marigolds. I can’t say that I liked everything he gave me, and sometimes I would fill my pockets with leaves I couldn’t eat, not to disappoint him. He made such an effort to teach me how to survive in the world.

       And so it is, that I am happiest roaming through woods or along the beach near our home for waifs and strays.

Day 1 of the year 2016 and already, life at our home for waifs and strays is bubbling trouble after Christmas brought some unexpected guests!

     The recent storms blew a young jackdaw into the side of our garden wall and left the poor creature battered and dazed. After a spell in the warm recuperating shed and a trip to the small animal hospital in the woods, he made a full recovery and was released up on the moors. But for some animals that turn up at our home for waifs and strays, life for them is not always that simple.

     Due to the amount of rescued battery hens we keep and a blind cat as well as an old deaf one, we have never taken in a dog, apart from the three puppies we rescued in a storm one night and they stayed for just one day. So imagine our horror when someone turned up on our doorstep on Christmas morning and begged us to take in a small black dog as a matter of urgency. My kind and unassuming husband and I tried desperately to find an alternative place to send the shivering animal but to no avail. So now, we are foster parents to an old Jack Russell cross we’ve nicknamed Patterjack! Hopefully, we will find a good home for her soon!

     Then out in our makeshift hospital for rescued hens, Old Missy Pipit is struggling with her eye sight and needs regular medication and eye washes to enable her to eat her food and to fight whatever infection is causing her trouble. Quite often, we don’t know the history of the animals we rescue and this can cause problems.

     Also, in the hayshed, a small mouse (or young rat) is recuperating in a warm, purpose built box after one of the cats caught it yesterday. Tomorrow we will release the wee creature up on the moor, away from the chaos of our home for waifs and strays.