Posted in Birds, Gardening, My garden, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Gardening, Nature, Spring on March 29, 2015| 11 Comments »
Black cat in the garden, looking suspicious…
The month of March in the garden is a time of change as we step from Winter into Spring. But I have been out and about in city parks so much lately that I haven’t really done justice to pictures of my own scruffy wildlife garden. But here is my record of the month.
I started with a cat partly because, (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged Cardiff, hornbeam, Nature, Spring, Trees on March 22, 2015| 6 Comments »
Don’t look at the sun! 2015 eclipse through a tree – there will be lots of trees in this blog post!
I know it’s all so “yesterday” (or the day before yesterday), but Friday was an eclipse day here in the UK. The solar eclipse wasn’t total here in Cardiff, but we would get something like 85% coverage.
During the last good eclipse here, in August 1999, I watched from the office window, using special viewers, but this time I wanted to do it differently and I had a few plans. (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Nature, Trees, Wales, tagged Bute, Cardiff, Spring, Trees on March 17, 2015| 2 Comments »
London plane trees (Platanus x hispanica) in Bute Park, Cardiff
Spring is on its way, but in Bute Park, Cardiff, there are signs of death and decay as well as signs of new life and growth. (more…)
Posted in Cardiff, Nature, Trees, tagged Bute, Cardiff, Paulownia, Spring, Trees on March 12, 2015| 13 Comments »
The empress tree (Paulownia tomentosa) in Bute Park, Cardiff
This is the second post from the empress tree in Bute Park, Cardiff, as part of the brilliant Loose and Leafy tree-following project organised by Lucy Corrander.
I probably gave away too much historical information about the Paulownia tomentosa species in my first post, so this time I am just inspecting the Cardiff tree, planted in the 1950s, more closely to see what I can find before it bursts into flowery and leafy life in Spring. (more…)
Posted in Gwent, History, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged architecture, Gwent, Monmouthshire, Usk, Wales on March 8, 2015| 7 Comments »
A winter day at the Priory Church of St Mary, Usk
On a day when winter was still cold and dank, we visited Usk in Monmouthshire. We sometimes go there for lunch at the Three Salmons Hotel, but we were early, so wandered more than usual. New to me was this little Priory Church of St Mary. New to me, but it has been there for 900 years.
Maybe it was the shade of the low winter sun, or the dark colour of the stones, but to me it looked a bit creepy, the sort of place (more…)
Posted in History, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged History, Spring, traditions on March 1, 2015| 7 Comments »
Signs of Spring – crocuses in Bute Park, Cardiff, at the end of February, 2015
I wasn’t planning on posting today, until the husband asked “Why is February so short?” Had I never asked that myself? Anyway, I had to find out in a hurry, as the days were running out and today was going to be March 1, marked as our St David’s Day here in Wales.
The history of calendars is ever so complicated, so I don’t think for a minute that what I am about to say is “correct”, but it’s my interpretation of what I found online, including Wikipedia and various question-and-answer forums.
The main point (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 