Little Miss Witch Hazel has amazing magical powers! Her young branches are pliable and bendy, but the magic is in her spidery flowers that release a spicy fragrance. These spidery flowers of yellow, reds, orange and sometimes purple, have the power to change the winter blues

     Now little Miss Witch Hazel, (Hamamelis virginiana..hooked fruit) was a great friend of the American Indians. She taught them how to make a ‘magic potion’ from her bark, her stems and her leaves. This, she told them, would be good for sores, bruises and swelling. She also showed them how to find water by using her twigs as divining rods.

      Unlike many of her so called friends, little Miss Witch Hazel flourishes almost anywhere she is put. She is hardy, and will put up with the sun on her face and her feet (roots) in poor and polluted soil. She is not one to complain however, but she is not so keen on the wind. This, she says, can interfere with her magic! And foot rot! Oh she shivers at the thought, so a wee bit of drainage can solve that problem. Oh, and a little bit of feeding from time to time.      

Imagine squeezing your stomach out through your mouth and into a takeaway box. Imagine then, your stomach digesting the food before you slide your stomach back into your own body...that is what a sea star (star fish) does at meal times. It is like something out of a science fiction film!

     Walking along the beach yesterday morning, I found this little fellow turned upside down on the beach, its tubular feet (which are filled with water) waved wildly up at me, trying desperately to turn over to save himself from the seagulls that hunted the shoreline.

      These animals, yes, they are indeed animals and not fish (they don’t have gills, scales or fins!) come in all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes. However, unlike us, they run entirely on water! There isn’t a drop of blood in their bodies. But at the tip of each arm, you will find a wee little eye. It cannot see much but it can sense light and dark.

       Their family tree consists of around 2,000 species of sea stars plus the sand dollars, the sea urchins, the sea cucumber and the sun star. This means that their body plan has five sections (or multiples thereof) arranged around a central disk.  However, the sun star has up to forty arms.

       When we are threatened or frightened, we will often run but the sea star will drop an arm or two, knowing that within a year, it will grow another. How amazing is nature?

       And so, back on the beach with my kind and unassuming husband, we scooped the tiny sea star up and slipped him back into the water. We smiled as he hurried off on another adventure in the big blue sea.

‘Come out of there you silly cow!’ I said politely, but the cow just stared rudely back at me.

      I spotted the heavily pregnant cow in a pond near our home for waifs and strays. 

      'Are you having a water birth?’ I said, joking of course! She just snorted through her nose and stared at me.

      I reached for my camera that was, as usual, hanging around my neck and click. ‘Got you!’ I said excitedly. ‘Now come out of there before you get foot rot!’

      ‘It’s cooler in the water!’ The voice startled me but thankfully it didn’t come from the cow’s mouth. I turned around and saw a man holding a camera with an incredible lens (obviously a professional) smiling as if I had said something odd. I said very little, nodded at the cow and made a quick getaway.

      Later as I passed the pond again, there was no cow to be seen and for a moment my heart sank at the thought of it drowning. How stupid I was, to be intimidated by a man and his camera. Now, the poor cow had probably drowned and it was all my fault!

      I turned, full of guilt, towards the car and came face to face, yet again, with the silly old cow that lived to tell the tale.

After a brief stroll across the beach early this morning, I came across this unfortunate blue jellyfish. Its drifting days along the ocean currents, had  finally come to an end. I remembered my father telling me that washed up jelly fish are usually dead but they could still give you a nasty sting.

     The warm weather has seen an increase in the population of jellyfish around the Welsh coast. Research has discovered that since the collapse of the herring fishery in the Irish Sea, jellyfish have increased in population.

      Normally on the Welsh coast, we will see Lions mane, Moon jellyfish, Compass jellyfish and the Blue jellyfish. If you are lucky enough to see one gliding through the water, you will notice that in order to propel itself forward, the jellyfish will squirt water from its mouth.        

       These fascinating creatures with pulsating bodies, hunt for shrimps, crabs and tiny plants. In turn, they are hunted by turtles that appear to relish the Jellyfish. The Chinese also hunt them for medicine.

        Jellyfish don’t purposefully attack humans. Most stings happen when they are touched accidently and sometimes, this can be fatal.

        Perhaps they are better left alone, to live their lives dancing with the waves.

After eating all the raspberries and strawberries from our allotment, I headed for our local pick you own. Being a big fruit eater, it would have been in their best interest to have weighed me on the way in and again on the way out!

    With our visitors in tow, we hunted down the best of the berries growing amidst the fields that rolled all the way down to the sea. With the sun smiling on us, we couldn’t have wished for a better place to be. At least, for me, it was perfect!

     Carefully picking the best fruit to make jam, meant having to taste before buying. You see, poor fruit produces poor quality jam. The secret is to make small amounts of jam at a time. Another wee tip is that slightly under-ripe fruit makes better jam. This is because of it has a higher acidity. Also, warm the sugar first! The faster you can make the jam, the fresher it will taste. Believe me, this is true!

      Anyway, we picked and tasted the fruit and as I did, I could hear my absent kind and unassuming husbands voice in my head, telling me that they should be washed before eating and did I know that it was wrong to eat the fruit without paying for it? He was right you know, but I will pay the penalty if there is any to pay.

     We ate and picked the raspberries first, the high pectin levels in this fruit helps with the setting of the jam. Then off we strolled to the strawberry fields.  Now strawberries are rather low in pectin so we looked for slightly under ripe fruit. Some lemon juice will make up the difference when I come to making the jam.

      When we had finished and paid for what we had picked, I made everyone a fresh cup of sweet tea in our old camper. It was a perfect way to end the day.