From the non-digital archive: Yabusame 1991

A Japanese horseback archery contest took place in Cardiff in 1991

Occasionally I look back at the pictures I took in the days before digital cameras. This time the subject was a Japanese Yabusame (horseback archery) event in Cardiff’s Cooper’s Field, part of Bute Park, on Sunday, September 15, 1991. That was a particular boom time for industry links between Wales and Japan and we all loved anything Japanese.

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Signs of spring in Thompson’s Park

Joyance by Sir William Goscombe John – a (replica) statue in the Thompson’s Park pond

I have taken so many pictures of Cardiff’s Thompson’s Park lately that it’s time I shared some general views, before spring starts properly and I am overcome by new flowers and green growth.

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Inside Tredegar House

The housekeeper’s room at Tredegar House

When I posted about the gardens of Tredegar House I did say I would come back to write about the interior of the mansion in Newport, South East Wales. I’m a bit reluctant now, as my pictures are a bit sparse and badly framed, but here goes anyway.

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Two victims of Storm Imogen

A tree felled by Storm Imogen in Thompson’s Park, Cardiff, last week

I still have so many happy images to share of Thompson’s Park in Cardiff, but when I visited last week, on the day after Storm Imogen, the tree damage claimed my attention instead. I know many people have pooh-poohed the new UK and Ireland Met Office system of naming the Atlantic storms of the autumn and winter alphabetically, but it does at least give a point of reference and stop the storms merging into one. Imogen was the ninth storm since November.

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Tree following link box for February 2016

Spring is in the air – already…

It’s that time again – for tree followers to get together for a monthly exchange of news. If you are new to tree following, you can find out all about it here.

In the northern hemisphere this is a great time to start a year of tree following, as “Now is the Sun come up from the south, With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn” – that’s from Kipling’s A Tree Song, by the way.

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News from the world of trees #1

This is a bit of a change from my usual blog posts, but I have noticed a lot of news stories about trees lately, so I thought I would share some of them with you. These include a few environmental tragedies, but also some happier articles. Click on each of the pictures if you would like to read the full stories.

Bush fires devastate ancient landscape

The Guardian reports that catastrophic bush fires, caused by lightning, have destroyed a huge area of ancient woodland in Tasmania. The world heritage site was home to a range of unique alpine flora including pencil pines, king billy pines and cushion plants, some more than 1,000 years old…

Vote for the European Tree of the Year

You can vote for the European Tree of the Year 2016 until the end of the month. At the moment the Eastern European trees are way ahead – a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest! The candidate pictured above is a pine growing through the middle of an oak in Spain…

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2016 tree following 1: The pigeon tree

Feral pigeons in a tree in Thompson’s Park, Cardiff – sorry the middle one looks like it’s headless!

I think I have found my tree to follow for 2016. Or, as happened in previous years, it has found me. In the last few weeks I have visited Thompson’s Park, not far from my home in Cardiff, several times.

There are many trees in the park – a variety of conifers and some big, bare old trees I managed to identify, even without name labels.

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