hello from the valleys

[valleyreefs]

just saying a quick hello from the dulais valley, S.wales.....like a couple of others i too joined for an id on a caterpiller/larvae...success straight away

moved to wales from surrey/s london borders 3 years ago to escape the rat race...generally found life here a lot slower and people a lot more accomodating....i have a fairly large garden (by my standards anyhoo) which is basically divided into 3 main areas, patio at the bottom for my pleasure, lawned area in the middle for the dogs and a wild meadow area at the top for everything else, above this is a disused stable which this year became home to my local robin and his partner whilst they extended their family....the whole of the rear garden is bordered by very large leyllandi (scuse sp?) which i keep promising to remove and replace with nore native species such as hawthorn and field maple, but the balck birds beat me to it every year....i have tried to keep the garden in such a way to atrtract many beneficial species and even have a nettle patch as well as many berry producing flowers/plants...another project which has taken a back seat this year is for a small bog garden ......

i already have many residents inc 2 pairs of black birds, robins (mentioned above), several colonies of house sparrows, blue tits and wrens that have all nested here for the last couple of years.... lots of visiting birds, inc a sparrowhawk that has even taken his lunch whislt i was in the garden, a tawny owl that quite regular sits on a pole with a light on, and even had a red kite from further up the valley circling a few weeks back...other inhabitants are shrews, hedgehogs and sveral mice (seen them flash across the patio and also noticed their presence in the shed (bird food missing, car polish rags ripped and made into nests etc) unsure of the species but not the usual grey house mouse)....

as for pets i have 2 rescue dogs, both akitas (m and fem), and also have 5 rats which i have given a home to...my main hobby and money swallower is my marine fish system which currently exists of an 8ft 400 gallon system in the dining room..plans for this include turning part of the disused stables into a coral growing farm, which hopefully species can be grown on and sold/swapped with other hobbyists thus lowering the demands on the reefs...(a very popular idea which is growing thankfully).....

anyway thats enough for now (thank goodness you cry) off to have a read through now...

nige