Nature Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/category/science-nature/nature/ Tales from a down-shifted family - Making the most of modest means in West Wales Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:09:38 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-favicon-160x160.jpg Nature Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/category/science-nature/nature/ 32 32 2696646 The Pond Overfloweth https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/06/the-pond-overflowth/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/06/the-pond-overflowth/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:07:30 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=48642 It’s lovely having a small wildlife pond tucked away amongst the plants in the garden. It’s nothing grand, certainly not one of those landscaped affairs with waterfalls, lighting systems and ornamental fish, but it punches well above its weight when it comes to attracting wildlife. With nettles and weeds behind it, and plenty of slightly...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/06/the-pond-overflowth/feed/ 1 48642 Costa Rica Coast to Coast – Reaching the Caribbean https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/05/costa-rica-coast-to-coast-reaching-the-caribbean/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/05/costa-rica-coast-to-coast-reaching-the-caribbean/#comments Tue, 26 May 2026 06:37:55 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=48510 Today was the day we would finally reach the Caribbean coast and complete our coast-to-coast journey across Costa Rica. The Pacific now felt a very long way away as we prepared for the final push. Early Start We had another early start, which suited me perfectly. Everyone else had been going to bed incredibly early...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/05/costa-rica-coast-to-coast-reaching-the-caribbean/feed/ 1 48510 Wildlife vs Garden https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/08/wildlife-vs-garden/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/08/wildlife-vs-garden/#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2025 06:32:00 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=46709 I like to keep our garden as wildlife-friendly as possible, but it’s always a bit of a balancing act. In some ways, making it wildlife-friendly is easy — I could simply leave more of it to grow wild and give myself fewer chores. But then it looks messy, gets out of control, and… well, I...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/08/wildlife-vs-garden/feed/ 1 46709 Ynyslas in Colour: An Unexpected Double Rainbow https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/02/ynyslas-in-colour-an-unexpected-double-rainbow/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/02/ynyslas-in-colour-an-unexpected-double-rainbow/#comments Sun, 02 Feb 2025 11:26:16 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=44799 I quite often walk across to the beach to see what’s happening. It’s not far, only takes a few minutes, and there’s always something different to see. On Sunday, as I started to head over, I caught the glint of a rainbow in the sky. It wasn’t fully formed, but its bright colours lit up...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/02/ynyslas-in-colour-an-unexpected-double-rainbow/feed/ 2 44799 Woodcock in the Garden https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/10/woodcock-in-the-garden/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/10/woodcock-in-the-garden/#comments Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:14:50 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=41123 Look who I found hiding in the undergrowth in the garden this morning. A Woodcock. I assume there’s something not quite right with him but he seemed fairly happy and scuttled off once I’d taken a photo. I’ll shall check on him again later of he’s still there.

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/10/woodcock-in-the-garden/feed/ 3 41123 Bee Pool Party https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/07/bee-pool-party/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/07/bee-pool-party/#comments Mon, 17 Jul 2023 09:03:12 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=40173 The bees seem to be loving the new garden pond. There were literally hundreds of them all lined up along the edges at the weekend. We had a hedgehog visitor at the weekend too, and there was a cool photo of a stoat on top of a fence post in the dunes here posted on...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/07/bee-pool-party/feed/ 1 40173 Summer 2023 Continues https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/06/summer-2023-continues/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/06/summer-2023-continues/#comments Mon, 05 Jun 2023 08:54:47 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=39515 Well, the weather seems to be showing no signs of breaking yet. Every day for the past 3 weeks has seen wall to wall sunshine. Strong NE winds blow all morning as well and often continue to blow all day until evening. We’re talking 30 knots plus all day long here in Ynyslas. Of course,...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/06/summer-2023-continues/feed/ 1 39515 Bee-ing Prepared https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/05/bee-ing-prepared/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/05/bee-ing-prepared/#respond Wed, 17 May 2023 15:21:36 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=39358 It was something of a mixed bag over the winter for our bees. One colony that was huge in the autumn died off whilst the colony that had taken up residence in the hive near the bedroom window did quite well. This colony had continued to expand throughout the Spring and was now looking quite...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/05/bee-ing-prepared/feed/ 0 39358 Sunrise in Wales https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/sunrise-in-wales/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/sunrise-in-wales/#respond Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:02:38 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=38955 Just a pretty photo of this morning’s sunrise – no filters applied, this was straight out of the camera. Impressive colours and note that our lawn is neat and tidy already thanks to the robot mowers!

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/sunrise-in-wales/feed/ 0 38955 A morning amongst the willow https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/02/a-morning-amongst-the-willow/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/02/a-morning-amongst-the-willow/#respond Mon, 20 Feb 2023 11:50:00 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=38804 You’d expect my new role as ‘Digital Content Manager’ for the Biomass Connect project to be mainly desk-based. It is really as I’m responsible for the project’s website, it’s social media, it’s webinars, it’s newsletter and publishing all of the digital content. This includes technical articles, factsheets, podcasts, videos and such like. So, when given...

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