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...

A bust of Sir Peter Scott at the Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre

Over Christmas I thought I would miss my usual trip to the Llanelli Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre because of the miserable weather, but as it turned out we found a break in the weather on New Year’s Day and went instead to the Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre over the Severn Bridge in England.

This is the original home of the wildfowl trust in Britain and was founded by Peter Scott, a brilliant conservationist and son of Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic).

The Slimbridge WWT Centre in January 2012

My wildfowl guide - that picture on the cover is a red-breasted goose by Peter Scott

The Slimbridge reserve on the banks of the Severn Estuary in Gloucestershire was founded in 1946 but now the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust has nine reserves across the UK.

On our visit to the centre we overheard a woman saying of everyone else in general: “Look at these people, they don’t care about the birds – all they want is a good picture.”

That rankled a bit. I am hoping the two things aren’t mutually exclusive – I tend to use my pictures to identify the species later and find out more about them.

For this I use an excellent little pocket guide called Collins Coloured Key to the Wildfowl of the World, which I would highly recommend for wildfowl spotters.

The Slimbridge WWT Centre in January 2012

Mandarin duck - Aix galericulata - originally from Eastern Asia

North American wood duck - Aix sponsa

Coot - Fulica atra

Moorhen - Gallinula chloropus

Grey duck - Anas superciliosa - from New Zealand and the South Pacific

Mallard - Anas platyrhyncos - I always love those curly black feathers at the tail end...

South American Chiloe wigeon - Anas sibilatrix - pretty, I think...

Bahama pintail - Anas bahamensis

Puna teal - Anas versicolor puna - from South America

Another South American - the ringed teal - Calonetta leucophrys - sorry about the soft focus!

Tufted duck - Aythya fulligula

Rosybill - Netta peposaca - from South America

Possibly a female South American pochard - Netta erythrophthalma

Common shelduck - Tadorna tadorna

Ruddy shelduck - Tadorna ferruginea - tends to breed further south in Spain and southern Eurasia

Unidentified duck, Slimbridge WWT, January 2012

Eider duck - Somateria mollissima - click on the picture to go to another blog post about eiders...

Mr and Mrs eider duck...

Pink-footed geese honking - Anser brachyrhynchus - they tend to breed up in Greenland, Iceland and Spitzbergen...

Swan goose - Anser cygnoides - this tends to overwinter in China and breed further north in eastern Asia - also pictured is a coot...

Mute swans - Cygnus olor

Black-necked swans - Cygnus melanocoryphus - native to South America

The Cape Barren goose - Cereopsis novae-hollandiae - comes from Australia and is always kept caged, so maybe it bites - for some reason I (wrongly) call it a celadon goose, maybe because of the yellow-green beak...

It's that man again - Slimbridge wildfowl centre founder Sir Peter Scott

Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in January 2012

Fish in the tropical house - a bit dingy and steamy, but you get the picture...

Pretty grey-winged trumpeter - Psophia crepitans - in the tropical house

Common or Eurasian crane - Grus grus - whose migrations were recently featured in the BBC's Earthflight series

Chilean flamingos - Phoenicopterus chilensis

Greater flamingos - Phoenicopterus roseus

Ghost of an extinct aurochs - Bos primigenius - in the Back from the Brink area...

Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre in January 2012

Pollarded tree at Slimbridge

A close-up of the pollarded tree at Slimbridge

Alder catkins - Alnus glutinosa - at Slimbridge in January 2012

Pink Daphne blossom at Slimbridge in January 2012

Mistletoe - Viscum album - at Slimbridge in January 2012

Winter-white black-headed gull - Larus (or Chroicocephalus) ridibundus - in the picnic area...

So all in all it was a great day out and hopefully I will remember some of those species names next time…

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - early daffodils...

While Mediterranean flowers were in bloom in the Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in the first week of January, outside there were a few colourful surprises so early in the year.

These included daffodils, which traditionally just about manage to appear in time for St David’s Day, our national day in Wales, on March 1.

As well as these signs of spring, there were also still some of last year’s autumn leaves as well as the more usual winter Hellebores and Daphne. Three seasons in one…

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - 'autumn' leaves?

It has, of course, been a very mild winter, compared to last year’s ice and snow. See the botanic garden this time last year here.

Here are some of my pictures from January 2012…

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - dogwood, Cornus alba 'Sibirica'...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - Galanthus nivalis, snowdrop ...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - the Great Glasshouse...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - the pink blossom is highly-perfumed Daphne...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - Middleton House

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - rainbow over the visitor centre...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - a closer view of the rainbow's end...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - dragonfly sculpture

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - seedheads

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - Sedum seedheads

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - 'autumn' leaf of compact Liquidambar styraciflua Gum Ball...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - Hellebore...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - Hellebore

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - metal waterlily

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - looks a bit like a Pieris to me...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - statue I haven't seen before in the walled garden - I guess the concrete blocks aren't permanent...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - water feature

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - I love moss...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - I think this is Tortula muralis, wall screw-moss

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - wooden statue of a musician

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012 - Narcissi

The National Botanic Garden of Wales in January 2012

Just another reminder that entry is free at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire throughout January 2012.

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - on a mild day of sunshine and showers...

Oh dear, as time goes by I find I am repeating myself. In early January I usually visit the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne in Carmarthenshire – partly because entry is free all month.

And for a second year I am sharing my pictures, first from the Great Glasshouse and later from the outside garden. Here is last January’s glasshouse blog post.

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Leucadendron (thanks to South African gardener Diana Studer - Elephant's Eye - for the identification)

Nothing ever stays the same in a garden, and I have to say I thought the Mediterranean plants within the glasshouse looked a bit tired this year, compared to last. However, as well as missing some blooms, I still found many other flowers I hadn’t seen this time last year.

When I first published this I asked for help with identification. Thanks to Diana Studer (Elephant’s Eye) in South Africa and Katie (NatureID) in California for their help!

I don't think I saw this one last year - thanks to Katie (NatureID) in California for identifying Mimulus aurantiacus or sticky monkeyflower - see her comment for more info...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - this grows on a wall by a water feature...

Katie (NatureID) identifies this as Arctostaphylos or manzanita, a member of the Ericaceae (heath) family and says there are 120 manzanitas native to California...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Banksia, I think...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Helichrysum, I think

This plant climbing all over a metal walkway has been identified by Kathie (NatureID) as Hardenbergia, aptly named happy wanderer, a member of Fabaceae (legume/pea/bean family). It's native to Australia but also grows well on the coast of California..

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - more Helichrysum

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - I suppose this is Helichrysum, too...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - another Banksia

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Callistemon, I think...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Leucadendron

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Leucadendron

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - a bit like Kniphofia (red-hot poker) but the fleshy leaves suggest otherwise - thanks Diana for telling me it's an Aloe and thanks Katie for suggesting its Aloe arborescens...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012

This luminous white daisy is a Dimorphotheca jucunda, formerly classed as an Osteospermum (thanks Diana)

Thanks to Diana for recognising the Erica - on further investigation I think this elegant plant may be Erica arborea...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - a close-up of that last one...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - Protea cynaroides, king Protea... not as wonderful as at this time last year (thanks for the ID, Diana)

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012 - general view...

The Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in early January 2012

I seem to have the BBC’s Frozen Planet to thank for my top two posts this last year, as again penguins seem to have been the big attraction for search engines.

Penguin of Arabia by Ursula Vernon

1. Designer birds: Penguin

From paperback books to chocolate biscuits and much more besides, penguins are iconic birds. Here are some others I have chosen in 2011:

Designer birds: Peacock

Designer birds: Owl

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2. English words from Celtic roots…

English words from Celtic roots were top post in 2010...

This year’s runner-up was last year’s winner – and again it’s all because I used a picture of penguins. The word penguin comes from either the Welsh or Breton
Pen-Gwyn (meaning “head-white”).

I have also posted several other items on the origins of the English language:

The ungothroughsomeness of stuff…

Latin for today

English words from Scandinavian roots

English words from Indian roots

English words from Spanish roots…

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White tiger at Singapore Zoo by David George

3. The sadness of white tigers

This one was new for 2011 and is a memory of the white tigers of Bristol Zoo and some information on other threatened big cats of the world.

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4. Carousel horses – an illusion of freedom

Horse head from the Riverfront Carousel in Salem, Oregon, by Crossmark

This was a wonderful excuse to collect together some beautiful images of carousel horses, unicorns and even zebras and this post was fourth in my top five for the second year in a row.

Another collection of art went with my post
Fairytale bedding: the Princess and the Pea…

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Some 1970s 'sci-fi' fonts from the 1970s

5. Design icons: Letraset

Design and nostalgia combined to make this a popular post. The same elements appeared in
Every poster tells a story

There’s more art and design here
and more nostalgia here

Pochard (Aythya ferina)

Between Christmas and New Year we usually visit the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Centre at Llanelli, but this year it has been very dark, wet and miserable.

So I thought I would share some wildfowl images from previous winter visits and here they are.

Eider duck (Somateria mollissima mollissima)

Smew (Mergus albellus)

Bar-headed geese (Anser indicus)

Philippine duck (Anas luzonica)

Shoveller (Anas rhyncotis)

Hoary lichen...

I have also now added a couple of bigger galleries:
WWT Llanelli in Winter
and
WWT Llanelli in Summer

Stained glass window showing the Nativity with the three magi, Romsey Abbey, Hampshire

May everyone out there have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2012. My gift to you for Christmas Day is some of my favourite Christmas pop songs. Not all those traditional carols (which I love) or anything too kitsch – these three rock yet at the same time are a little bit spiritual…

Chris de Burgh: A Spaceman Came Travelling
- I love the science fiction of it – angel as alien…
link to video (Lego version!)
link to lyrics

Greg Lake: I Believe in Father Christmas
- They said there’d be snow at Christmas, They said there’ll be peace on Earth, Hallelujah, Noel, be it Heaven or Hell, The Christmas we get, we deserve.
link to video
link to lyrics

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: The Power of Love
- I’ll protect you from the hooded claw, Keep the vampires from your door…
link to video
link to lyrics

AND FINALLY…
A slushy song that has been playing in my head – and in all the high street stores – all through December…
David Essex: A Winter’s Tale
Here’s the video from 1989

The Welsh Rugby Union's 'three feathers' logo, left, and a stylised fleur-de-lis symbol

Somewhere, somewhen, someone told me the Prince of Wales feathers and the fleur-de-lis were the same thing. They aren’t, but I am exploring the idea to look for any connections.

I wonder if anyone else has ever been confused by the similarity of these two heraldic symbols?

This blog post has been mulled over for months. I first thought of it during the glorious early days of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, when the Wales team were doing so well down in New Zealand.

Everyone was wearing red shirts with the WRU logo and one day on the bus I saw a young woman in a maroon shirt with what looked like the three feathers. Then I realised it was a dainty fleur-de-lis. Did she think she was paying a very subtle tribute to the team?

Then Wales lost the semi-final after our captain was controversially sent off, the nation shrieked a collective “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” and suddenly my heart wasn’t in talking about the Prince of Wales feathers any more.

But as time went on I was seeing the fleur-de-lis and three feathers everywhere. Here’s how it went…

The Prince of Wales feathers diamond brooch once belonging to the Duchess of Windsor and then Elizabeth Taylor...

There was a wonderful diamond version of the Prince of Wales feathers in this brooch from Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels, up for auction. The piece formerly belonged to the Duchess of Windsor and was made around 1935. It sold for $1,314,500 (£841,280) in December 2011.

And here's a posh Edwardian fleur-de-lis brooch I found online - click on the picture to find the original

One day as I looked through the kitchen window, I saw the neighbour’s cat leap into the air to catch a magpie. The bird was only winged (or tailed, actually) – but what did I find when I rushed out to chase the cat off? Precisely THREE feathers on the ground…

Sadly a photograph can't show the 'black rainbow' sheen of these three magpie feathers...

There is currently an exhibition at the British Library called Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination and this has featured in the quality weekend newspaper magazines for months.

One of the featured works is covered with the fleur-de-lis pattern…

Robert of Anjou - with fleur-de-lis wallpaper - featured in a 14th century manuscript at the British Library

Then a Manufactum catalogue arrived. There was a glass decorated with a fleur-de-lis design…

Manufactum wine goblet with fleur-de-lis design

Sweets saleswoman Christine Gillan - there's a fleur-de-lis on that bottle of very green 'Soor Plooms' in front of her...

Gibb's sweets logo with fleur-de-lis

Then there was this Gibb fleur-de-lis label featured on a bottle of “Soor Ploom” sweeties in a Scottish sweet shop in a feature in the Observer magazine…

The fleur-de-lis is surprisingly ubiquitous. It has a long history – apparently it was used in some form by the earliest civilisations but later became very much associated with France, starting with the Capetian kings of the 12th century.

Have a look on Wikipedia for some fascinating history. Among other things, it quotes Michel Pastoureau: “It is an essentially graphic theme found on Mesopotamian cylinders, Egyptian bas-reliefs, Mycenean pottery, Sassanid textiles, Gaulish and Mameluk coins, Indonesian clothes, Japanese emblems, and Dogon totems…”

The fleur-de-lis crossed the Atlantic with the French and appears in the flag of Quebec in Canada - in fact the flag is known as the fleurdelisé

Fleur-de-lis literally means “flower of the lily” although it is a stylised
Iris pseudacorus. There is an interesting old theory on Wikipedia that the iris was chosen by the early French or Franks because the flower was (and still is) plentiful around the River Luts in the Netherlands, near which they lived before moving over to create France.

Iris pseudacorus pictured by Steffen Wohnort

Coincidentally (I know, I know, you only find connections when you are looking for them) the latest copy of The Garden (the RHS magazine) that came through my letterbox featured irises…

The Garden, from the Royal Horticultural Society, features the iris this month...

The fleur-de-lis is also the emblem of the Scout movement, founded by Robert Baden-Powell. Incidentally, he founded the movement on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, one of my favourite places.

The original Scout emblem of Baden-Powell in 1920 and the world movement's symbol today

Why the fleur-de-lis for the Scouts? Apparently the symbol often represented compass North on maps…

But back to the three feathers…

The Tair Pluen (three feathers) pub in central Cardiff and the official Prince of Wales feathers

We were always taught at school that the Prince of Wales feathers come from Edward, the Black Prince, who took the helmet lined with ostrich feathers from the blind but brave John I of Bohemia, killed in the Battle of Crécy in 1346.

The Black Prince's 'proper' coat-of-arms includes the fleur-de-lis...

As well as the feathers, the prince took the German motto “Ich dien”, meaning “I serve”, which sounds a bit like the Welsh “Eich dyn”, meaning “your man”, which would perhaps have won friends for the young prince among the Welsh archers who probably won the battle for the English.

Alternatively, and boringly, Edward may just have inherited the symbol from one of his parents…

The three feathers, silver on black, were used as Edward’s jousting badge, rather than his “proper” coat of arms (which featured the fleur-de-lis, by the way). It is still used (not for jousting) by the Prince of Wales today.

Strangely, the three feathers also have a Polish connection, set atop many heraldic achievements. There’s more on this link, which says: “Our knowledge of the crests is seriously jeopardised because in the 16th century many then known original crests were replaced by lazy printers of the Paprocki and later the Okolski armorials with a standard form of ostrich and peacock feathers. Since then, almost one in every four heraldic achievements has some form of feathers included in its crest.”

A couple of Polish heraldic achievements with three-feather crests by Tadeusz Gajl - for Pokora and Klamry families

Are there connections between the fleur-de-lis and Wales? Well there’s a village called Fleur-de-lis in Rhymney Valley, not too far from Cardiff. I do wonder why it was called that. I thought perhaps it was from a coal mine of the same name, but haven’t been able to find out. If not, why on earth was it given a French name?

Incidentally, celebrity politician Neil Hamilton was born in Fleur-de-Lis.

Then there was the famous and sad North Wales poet Hedd Wyn, killed in World War I. He used the pseudonym Fleur de Lys when he won the Chair (posthumously) at the National Eisteddfod in 1917, which became known as “the Eisteddfod of the Black Chair”.

If you look closely at the official Prince of Wales feathers, you may notice something – the crown at the bottom features the fleur-de-lis. So they come together at last…

See the fleur-de-lis between the crosses on the crown?

You know what? I think the last straw for my obsession was the evening when I neared home and out of the darkness loomed a carpet-layer’s van. And what did it say on the side? Floor-de-Lee! It’s true – here’s his website…

Now stay alert and see how many examples of these heraldic symbols YOU can spot!

A sweetgum leaf (Liquidamar styraciflua) on frosted Cotoneaster horizontalis...

Today has been the coldest day of the winter so far, with ice on the birdbath first thing. There was also a wonderful delicate frosting on the tiny evergreen leaves of the Cotoneaster horizontalis.

This is surely the best time of year for this very hardy shrub, which is often seen growing against walls.

Sugary frosting on the tiny leaves of Cotoneaster horizontalis

When I was a child we had a Cotoneaster growing against the cottage wall – like Viburnum, it seems very old-fashioned to me, a survival from Victorian gardens.

Frosted Cotoneaster horizontalis berries, December 10, 2011

I’m glad I didn’t know what Cotoneaster looked like written down when I was a child, as I would surely have called it “cotton-easter”. Lest you are in any doubt, it’s pronounced co-TONE-e-AST-er – or at least it is where I come from…

The name derives from cotonea, the Latin word for quince.

Cotoneaster is a huge genus and many species come from China, including this Cotoneaster horizontalis, which is also known as fishbone or herringbone Cotoneaster because of the neat arrangement of its branches.

It’s a funny thing, but I don’t usually notice the flowers, only the lovely red berries. I suppose in summer there is far too much else going on in the garden. Maybe next year I will look out for them. They are like tiny pink rosebuds and in fact Cotoneasters do belong to the rose family, Rosaceae.

The bee shows how small these Cotoneaster horizontalis flowers are - the picture is by Pere Igor on Wikimedia Commons...

Here are some more frosted leaves from this time last year…

Beside the River Taff in Cardiff, November 30, 2011

Last Wednesday there was a national strike of public-sector workers in the UK, which meant no Cardiff buses.

But it was a lovely crisp, sunny morning, so I walked to work along the bank of the River Taff and took these pictures of some trees…

I always call this three-trunked holm oak (Quercus ilex) The Three Graces...

A closer look at the evergreen oak

Mature female catkins of alder (Alnus glutinosa)

Male (dangly) and female catkins of alder

The alder tree

Bright leaves of beech (Fagus sylvatica) in the sunshine

Field maple (Acer campestre)

A closer look at the field maple

Dried seeds of linden (Tilia x europaea)

Oak leaves (Quercus robur)

Sticky buds of horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), I think...

A bough of sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), I think...

Close-up of the sycamore leaves

Winter-white black-headed gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) all in a row on the Millennium Stadium's riverside walk

One of the black-headed gulls...

I did a much longer wildlife walk along the River Taff last year. If you missed it, here’s the link…