Pile of Piglets

Off to Aberaeron / Llanerchaeron today to enjoy the summer sunshine. Some good wildlife:

Ducks in a row . . .

. . . Apoidea wars . . .

. . . and perhaps not strictly wildlife, but an adorable pile of piglets!

Sleepy Piglets

A sunny April Saturday (still could be warmer) - off to Aberaeron for a bag of chips and walk round the harbour, before going on to Llanerchaeron to see how their gardens were coming on and (of course!) to check for any new piglets.

And piglets there were - all curled up asleep . . .  aww!

There They Are!

Back to Llanerchaeron today, in search of those elusive piglets.  This time there was an actual sign, although initially we couldn't see the piglets.








The sow in the sty next door made a nice picture though - it really looked like she was basking in the sunshine, with a great big smile on her face!

Then there were the hens, who were scratching some nice hollows in the shade of a bush, and generally enjoying life.





Eventually did get to see the piglets - somewhat less in number than the advertised 13 (don't like to think what happened to the missing 5) - but the remaining 8 were plenty cute enough:

No Piglets Today

Off to Llanerchaeron today - all on the basis of this 'tweet':

Was poised to indulge my piglet-fetish - but unfortunately they weren't to be seen (a bit young yet I suppose).

Did enjoy the gardens though - and the fruit cage was just dripping with redcurrants.

Then - almost as if to make up for the lack of piglets - this (admittedly rather scratty-looking) robin flew right up to us and positioned itself for the perfect photograph:

Sunny Spring Sunday

A Sunny Sunday afternoon, prompted us to head out to our local National Trust property Llanerchaeron to check out the Spring gardens.  A newly opened bridge also led us over the river to some woodland walks - with lots of bluebells:






Spring was in further evidence in the farmyard:




There is something just sooo cute about piglets . . .

They'd also given over an area of the walled garden to a (very muddy) pig pen housing some more grown-up specimens, who were having a whale of a time snouting their way through the mud.



The ducklings on the lake were giving the piglets a run for their money in the cuteness stakes mind you . . .

Let Sleeping Piglets Lie . . .

Must blog about the garden soon (watch this space), but couldn't resist putting up something on the piglets we saw at Llanerchaeron today.

Llanerchaeron is our local National Trust property, which we usually visit two or three times a year - mostly to wander the walled gardens, and the old farm buildings, which usually host some livestock.

Today we were checking out the fruit cage there as we are planning one of our own. But there were lots of daffodils out in the garden as well - and a really interesting 'frilly' specimen in one of their greenhouses, as pictured on the left.

The highlight of the visit was

however the piglets of varying sizes. From the very small, sleeping in the sun next to Big Mama, to some independent scaredy pigs who kept running inside the sty when we walked past, to the largest, which were somewhat restive rattling around looking for food.

What really caught our eye though were these snoozing babies (pictured below), who achieved a near pyramid formation by the time we left. Sleeping on the outside is obviously unpopular - we watched one move off the end and position itself on top of its siblings, to be followed by the new outsider, who went for the inside top position. Meanwhile, the others snoozed on apparently undisturbed!