Posted in Nature, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, photography, weather on July 29, 2012| 11 Comments »
Blue skies over Penarth Pier – although this was a winter sky, in December 2009…
Blue skies, nothing but blue skies…
Since the jetstream moved north again a couple of weeks ago and summer arrived at last, I can’t get that song out of my head. Here’s the version by Frank Sinatra…
We had maybe a fortnight of dazzling blue skies and scorching sun here in Wales but now it’s turned changeable again. Which is the way I like it, as it (more…)
Posted in History, Uncategorized, Words, tagged art, design, Gardening, science, Words on July 24, 2012| 11 Comments »
A romantic painting of old Damascus by Frederic, Lord Leighton, 1874
The city of Damascus is in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2012 as the awful bloodshed goes on in Syria. Forgive me if, for a moment, I sidestep the political and humanitarian issues and instead look at the glories that have been. For Damascus once meant luxury and craftsmanship for us, here in the west of Europe.
Damascus, whose name comes from roots meaning “a well-watered place”, is the capital of Syria and its second-largest city. It is in the south-west of the country and is sometimes (more…)
Posted in Gardening, My garden, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged Gardening, Summer, weather on July 18, 2012| 12 Comments »
Wet pelargonium in the garden in summer 2012 – more plant pictures later in this post…
As anyone living in the UK will tell you, it has been one awful summer – cold for the time of year and wet, wet, wet.
Although March and May were dry, June and July have been so bad that (more…)
Posted in Uncategorized on July 14, 2012| 20 Comments »
Four versions of the One Lovely Blog award found using Google…
Well, what a pleasant surprise! Thank you to Rick Jaspers for nominating me for a One Lovely Blog Award. His btweenblinks blog is well (more…)
Posted in Gardening, My garden, Uncategorized on July 6, 2012| 4 Comments »
My Cotinus in June 2012
The title is of course a reference to The Green Leaves of Summer, the theme to the John Wayne film The Alamo – click on that link to hear a version with lyrics. I’ll be humming that all day now…
But this post is about the RED leaves of one of my favourite shrubs in summer. It’s Cotinus coggygria, also (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 