Writer's block

I sense I have a touch of writers block these days. Getting out and recording the wildlife on my local patch isn't the problem, sitting down and writing about it is. Not sure why this should be, perhaps I've said everything that needs to said in my previous postings and I just don't have anything new to talk about. Or its a symptom of extended periods of mental exhaustion that are more prevalent as I plough towards the big 60. Whatever the reason its there and I just have to manage it. 

This posting is from a couple of Sundays ago when I visited the Black Ranks area on the outskirts of Blaenavon. Here, once stood a row of terraced housing so called due to the black water repellent coating painted over the houses. Now with these miserable structures long gone all that remains is a rough roadside pull-in and a collection of garden escapees that hint at the areas previous inhabitants. Against a backdrop of constant road traffic I wandered the lush roadside herbage complete the net, binoculars and camera accompanied by the occasional car horn blower who obviously wasn't accustomed to seeing such a person with such kit. I can't get my head around how a couple of lads wearing baseball caps backwards, driving a souped up BMW adorned by oversize wheels and various silly window stickers finds a roadside naturalist so laughable.

The afternoon was very warm and thrashing through the vegetation produced a number of day fly-moths including a cinnabar, mother shipton, the mint moth (Pyrausta aurata) and a burnet companion. A couple of dingy skipper completed the lepidoptera list.