Who would have thought I could get lost in the woods in the middle of Cardiff? This is a beautiful sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) canopy...
This is a short teaser for a picture gallery called A city walk on the wild side, so please go there to see lots more pictures…
I once had a creative writing book called “I took my mind a walk” and often wondered where that came from. I find it is from the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig’s poem called “An Ordinary Day”. That’s about a walk by the sea, but the beginning and end nonetheless reflect a bizarre four-hour riverside walk I took the other day…
I took my mind a walk
Or my mind took me a walk —
Whichever was the truth of it.
The light glittered on the water
Or the water glittered in the light.
How extraordinary ordinary
Things are, like the nature of the mind
And the process of observing.
I do silly things sometimes.
Conkers (horse chestnut seeds - Aesculus hippocastanum)...
I am pursuing with vigour my Wildlife Through the Year blog posts and I saw conkers (horse chestnuts) as my bus passed a park the other day. I decided I must go and take some pictures.
So on a lovely clear morning after a wet few days I decided to walk to work for a change, through a different park, and see what I could find on the way. I was also looking for sweet chestnuts, which are to come in my October wildlife post.
The walk would normally take half an hour. So I allowed an hour. I got lost and it took two…
This is the route I ended up taking:
My rough map of the two-hour walk through Cardiff parks and the riverside...
I started my wanderings in Llandaff Fields - note the rugby posts...
Autumn's coming - I love maple...
I also love this lichen on an old lime tree...
I was walking in the direction of Llandaff Cathedral - to the right of the golden ash trees is a gate out on to busy Western Avenue...
I love the shiny metallic cladding of the WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee) building on Western Avenue
I needed to find the riverside path back to the city centre...
I passed by the allotment gardens...
It was a bit muddy with my high-heels on...
Near here I saw and heard a yaffle (green woodpecker, Picus viriduis), but it moved too fast for me to take a picture.
There was a path where wild Himalayan Balsam grew...
At last I found the riverside again...
Posion berries of woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)...
A-ha! Horse manure - I was near the riding school...
I found many flowers I had never seen before - this is dame's violet (Hesperis matronalis)...\
A familiar landmark at last - looking back at Blackweir bridge...
Even the grass is wilder and prettier...
Eventually I passed Sophia Gardens, where it was the last-but-one day of the county cricket season...
Approaching the footbridge over the River Taff to the castle gardens
A lovely oriental tree overhangs the bridge...
September is Rudbeckia time in the castle gardens...
Maples and Japanese maples in the castle grounds
Journey's end - the gate out on to Castle Street and then across the road and along the Millennium Stadium boardwalk to the office...
Just as I put my camera away for the last stretch of my walk to work, a wonderful cormorant did a spectacular aerial display over the river and I missed a picture opportunity. Ah well.
Don’t forget that there are more pictures of the flora I spotted on this walk if you visit the gallery page…
The Squirrelbasket 
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