The chilling breeze sweeping up the valley was a reminder that, although the heather was in full flower, the end of summer was fast approaching. As we looked down from the ridge into the once glaciated trough that is now the course of the Afon Melindwr, the bright green pasture of the valley floor stood out in stark contrast against the dark conifers of the steeper ground ? woodland cut through with exposures of dramatic, tortured geology. The temperature gave little incentive to linger, and taking the narrow path along the west of the hill we headed northwards towards Pendam. The route is defined on the up-slope side by fractured outcrops of steeply dipping rock strata, colonised by communities of mosses where the groundwater flows over the rock, creating complex forms.
Below us the confusion of spindly pines gave way to a post-cropping tangle of wet, rank grasses and old roots ? an area being slowly readopted by oak and other saplings. We came across occasional bilberry plants, which became more common as we approached the first stream that cuts across the hillside. The dense, mottled foliage still held a good number of the small, tart fruit ? many just on the point of messy over-ripeness. This brought back memories of childhood forays to gather the fruit for a sponge pudding ? secured at the cost of deeply ingrained purple stains to hands and mouth.
Although only a foot or two wide, the mountain stream we came across transformed the stony, narrow rill that carries it down the hillside. The sound, as the clear water fell over the steep rock steps, mixed almost hypnotically with that of the wind through the coarse moorland grasses ? giving us an excuse to perch on a nearby boulder and do nothing except soak up the sounds, smells and sights of that late summer hillside.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/01/country-diary-aberystwyth-wales
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