My third book of books…

My first, second and (new) third little red book of books read…

It’s a small thing, but I feel I need to note a milestone in my life. T S Eliot’s J Alfred Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons. In my case I have measured out my life in books.

Recently I came to the end of my second little red notebook listing “books I have read”. I was surprised to find I could

Catching up with Spring…

Lesser celandine in the garden in April (iPhone image)…

Spring has been a long time coming this year. After auspicious signs of Spring in February, the weather took a cooler turn and although we have had plenty of dry weather, there is not yet much heat in the sunshine.

But the garden is catching up with itself, so here are some pictures taken in April and the early days of May.

On the nature front, there seem

Towers of strength: War elephants

Carthaginian war elephant by Zig Zlick on deviantART…

I first thought of putting together this image collection about war elephants months ago, when listening to In Our Time with Melvin Bragg, in which he and guests were talking about Hannibal of Carthage and his invasion of Italy, 218-203 BC.

Hannibal, son of Hamilcar, is

Cardiff RHS garden show 2013…

Rather fantastic Hooded Figure wood sculpture by Ed Elliott at Cardiff RHS Show 2013 – see http://www.edelliott.co.uk …

At the weekend we made our annual visit to the Cardiff RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Show and this year the weather stayed fine. Here are some of my pictures and I will identify the suppliers’ websites where I can.

It was a very friendly show…

The friendly Bob the Butterfly and Gerry the Gerbera entertained…

We bought

Who’s that man at the door?

Face above the door, a Cardiff side street…

This magnificent face is above all the front doors of a row of old semi-detached houses in a small Cardiff side street that I often walk along.

He intrigues me so much that

Ivy – in a league of its own…

Native ivy (Hedera helix) on a wet ash-tree trunk in March…

The cold weather persists, so I feel there is still time to enjoy the ivy, which stays luxuriant and green throughout the snowiest of winters but is so often forgotten when nature is in full, colourful bloom in the warmer months.

Ivy in December…

There is wild native ivy on the trees in the wooded part of my garden, and several “cultivated” ivies in the tamer part, planted by myself over the years but

A different Spring by the old canal…

Primroses beside the old canal at Pembrey in April 2006…

It’s April now, and icy as midwinter here in Wales. Spring’s growth has been set back a few weeks and my thoughts turn to an earlier and warmer Spring, when we walked beside the old canal at Pembrey, near Llanelli, Carmarthenshire.

Footpath beside the old canal at Pembrey…

These pictures were taken in