Low winter sun over the Cloister Garden at Aberglasney
I always try to visit Aberglasney House & Gardens in Carmarthenshire at least once in winter. This January it was just a swift late-afternoon trip with the sun already low in the sky.
Cloister Garden
This winter has been mild, very different from last year’s ice and snow. See my Aberglasney pictures from last winter here and in contrast, those from a summer visit here.
Meanwhile here are a few images from January 2012 – primroses and daffodils already in bloom. There were two plants I couldn’t quite identify, but thanks to Diana Studer for naming the Melianthus major…
Thanks to Diana Studer for identifying this as Melianthus major - I had thought it an exotic member of the rose family, but clearly not...
Pink Cyclamen
Primroses in the first week of January 2012 at Aberglasney...
Colourful Swiss chard
Globe artichoke leaves
Globe artichoke
Cavolo nero
Perfumed Sarcococca confusa or sweet box...
Daffodils in the first week of January 2012 at Aberglasney
My favourite moss - Polytrichum commune
Possibly clematis seedheads?
Llangathen Church seen from the end of Bishop Rudd's Walk
Can't think what this is at the moment - leaves like Pieris, buds like Skimmia, oh dear...
More primroses...
Helleborus foetidus, I think...
White hellebore
Mahonia
Wooden bridge...
Cloister Garden again after the sunshine had faded...
lovely to see growing things among the stones… thanks for the journey
I wonder if you are perhaps thinking of the parable of the sower and the seed?
I’m afraid I have to admit I am not really very religious, but I do appreciate much of the writing in the Bible – and some of your poems!
Best wishes until next time…
Beautiful place.
Your plant with the frilled blue leaves is Melianthus major. Tall spikes of burgundy flowers, with nectar for hmm, you won’t have America’s hummingbirds or South Africa’s sunbirds.
Thank you for that – I have added the info into the caption. It’s a shame all that nectar goes to waste – I can’t imagine any of our wildlife being adapted for those flowers. For anyone who hasn’t seen them, here is a link. And I had thought it was a plant that had rose hips? I wonder what I was confusing it with…
We have had NO rain here for months..needless to say everything here is brown, crunchy and pretty much dead..no blooming winter flowers ( usually we get weeds that flower) but this year NONE..Even the birds seem to have fled the area..that’s scary..today “punkastony phil” says 6 more weeks of winter..for a groundhog he does better than most of the meteorologists in the area.
…Thank you for sharing the beautiful photos, brightens the days…
Yes, I saw the news about groundhog day! Here it is now snowing as we start February…
The weather is never predictable, is it