Back with the binbag and down to the rocks

A couple of weeks away from the Gower coast makes the heart grow fonder.
This evening's solo trek led down from Pennard's West Cliff car park to the rough-hewn sea-lashed rocks of Fox Hole.
The tide was in, the sun setting and a single angler was happy to take a few sea salt splashes as he tempted hungry fish.
It was a relaxing place to be albeit tempered by the collection of a binbagful of litter - mainly Budweiser bottles with hoppy content still aromatic, largely empty plastic drinks bottles and assorted chunks of polystyrene.
That's not to say the place was a mess; it wasn't. The rocks are worn from human visits and rough surf but the vegetation was thriving and the birdlife active.
A slightly secretive treasure, Fox Hole, and all the better for it!

Watership lowdown - day two as a National Trust volunteer

Wild rabbits? The facts at my fingertips could fit onto the front of a Bunny Girl's cufflink (I've seen 'em down the fancy dress shop).

A 1960s Bunny Girl croupier. Pic: Getty Images

Domestic varieties at Pets at Home seem friendly enough. They can be acquired with accoutrements ranging from palatial outdoor hutches to anti-parasite treatments to protect against lice, mange and roundworm.
But their countryside cousins? Well, Richard Adams sketched some memorable characters in Watership Down - Bigwig was brave, Fiver mystical and Hazel was imbued with leadership qualities. And academia is awash with those who've studied the real thing - see Dr Lucy Lush, for instance, at Swansea Uni.
So it was a real pleasure to watch some of Gower's wild rabbits do their own thing on Southgate's West Cliff the other day.
It was near dusk, the footpaths were reasonably free of human activity and the grasses, plants and leafy weeds were flourishing.
So the local rabbit colonies were leaving the cover of the burrows, ferns and bracken to feast in the open.
There was nothing cutesy in what they were doing - this was feeding time; it was the business end of the day for these busy herbivore grazers.
It was great to take a step back and spend a few minutes quietly watching how they operated. I'll let this Wikipedia page explain their habits in more depth and with more expertise.
As a spectator sport it can be pretty rewarding. Go try it!

It's in the can - day one as a National Trust volunteer

And here it is - the nutritionally suspect booty of a first hour-long volunteer shift for the National Trust.
The empty can once dispensed a popular energy drink, the wedge-shaped card-and-plastic carton formerly held a mayo-rich Co-op sarnie.
Other discarded items collected from the Pennard clifftop in Gower, South Wales, included sweet wrappers - Werther's Original, Maoams and Wrigley 's gum (sugar-free peppermint) - wet-wipes, tissues, water bottle caps and a crushed carton of yoghurt.
Nothing unexpected - but a tad unsavoury nonetheless; a contrast to the dreamy views over an Oxwich Bay swelled with twinkling waters and topped with a silvery fret.
Thankfully, few visitors appear to disrespect this stretch of cliffscape; it's gloriously maintained.
Modest litter-picking duties are part of the new-ish role of COASTodian. It's rewarding to help in such a manner every few weeks - although perhaps I should've been equally content to undertake such simple assists before being enrolled.
Anyhow, if you fancy signing up as this new breed of fresh-air volunteer, check out this NT web page.