Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged hornbeam, Nature, Spring, Trees on March 23, 2014| 15 Comments »
The tree I am following, pictured this week…
Well, I hoped this tree-following lark with Loose and Leafy would be educational – and I have already been gobsmacked on just my second visit to the “random” tree I chose in Llandaff Fields, Cardiff.
In my first bulletin, I foolishly said I thought it was a European beech (Fagus sylvatica). Oh, how wrong I was!
Fearing I might (more…)
Posted in Gardening, My garden, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged Gardening, magpies, Nature, Spring on March 19, 2014| 16 Comments »
Magpie (Pica pica) eating a mouse, perched on an ash tree in the garden
Spring is coming to my garden but as well as the usual new life bursting out all over the place, there are some losses, too.
I think the blackbirds are nesting outside my window – I saw a female taking a beakful of grass into a spiky Mahonia bush. But I fear it won’t give enough protection, as the magpies and crows are already (more…)
Posted in Dorset, England, Nostalgia, Uncategorized, tagged dorset, History, Nostalgia on March 14, 2014| 20 Comments »
Admiralty Park, Holton Heath…
There’s a great novel called Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill, “a daring saga of culture, history, and heredity”. A little girl falls down a mineshaft and we learn of all her wonderful ancestors who were born thanks to minor miracles that brought their parents together or saved them from early death. By quirks of fate does our personal DNA come together.
Obviously I would not be here today if my parents had not met. So in a way I owe my existence to World War II and specifically to the manufacture of explosives by the Royal Navy…
My father was from South Wales, my mother from South Dorset. What could possibly (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged hornbeam, Nature, Spring, Trees on March 6, 2014| 27 Comments »
The tree I intend to follow – which I think might be a beech…
There you go, I’ve revealed what species I think it is – the tree I intend to follow. I believe it to be a European beech, Latin name Fagus sylvaticus (meaning “beech of the forest”). Although of course I could be wrong!
I told how I found this tree in Llandaff Fields, Cardiff, in my last blog post, “First find your tree“.
So here I will mainly just show you photographs (lots) of (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, Spring, Trees on March 1, 2014| 19 Comments »
Which tree to choose?
Nature has a spring in its step this week – and so do I, thanks to Lucy Corrander over at Loose and Leafy, who is coordinating a “tree following” project over the next year. Last time I looked, she already had more than 50 people joining in – and I have decided to sign up, too.
This isn’t my first OFFICIAL post for that project, this is about how I located THE tree I have decided to follow…
My first thought (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 