Posted in Carmarthenshire, Garden visits, Gardening, Uncategorized, tagged Carmarthenshire, Gardening, Spring on May 30, 2017| 4 Comments »
A palm tree in the Ninfarium at Aberglasney House
A few weeks ago I published some spring views of Aberglasney Gardens in Carmarthenshire, but I saved some pictures for another day. Here they are – images of the Ninfarium and the Cloister Garden, which have in common a close association between plants and old stone walls. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, Tree News, Trees on May 27, 2017| 5 Comments »
Here is another selection of tree news articles from around the world. Click on each of the pictures if you would like to read the full stories.
Thousand-year-old cedar is the new ivory
Ancient trees are disappearing from protected national forests around the world – the Smithsonian looks inside the $100bn market for stolen wood…
Incredible dream of sequoia skyscrapers
Dezeen reports on a conceptual scheme by a team of South Korean designers to insert towers within the hollowed-out trunks of giant sequoias in the western US…
Posted in Carmarthenshire, Garden visits, Gardening, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged Carmarthenshire, Gardening, Spring on May 20, 2017| 7 Comments »
Aberglasney House in mid April
We often visit Aberglasney House and Gardens in Carmarthenshire and we have season tickets, even though the place is a long way from our home in Cardiff.
I have previously shared my pictures of Aberglasney in summer and in winter, but this was our first visit in spring. Usually we are spring-cleaning the house at Easter but this time we did some gallivanting instead. (more…)
Posted in Books, Uncategorized, Words, tagged Books, Sci-fi on May 14, 2017| 4 Comments »
Some of my recent reading
In January I signed up to the Reading Challenge on Jera’s Jamboree (details here). Shaz was encouraging us to step outside our comfort zone and read books we might not have considered before.
I decided to read something from EVERY category listed and you can see how I am getting on by looking at my blog page here.
Occasionally I intend to do a review. I started with Chris Beckett’s sci-fi Eden trilogy, which you can read about here. This time I am making notes on three classics I have read recently. They are from different genres and “of their time” but each brings vividly to life a society far removed from our own. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Cardiff, elm, Nature, Pontcanna, Trees on May 9, 2017| 11 Comments »
Young leaves of elm in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff, in late April
The 100 disease-resistant elms, Ulmus ‘New Horizon’, in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff, are growing greener as spring moves on towards summer and the leaves open out to their full extent.
They are rather delicate leaves at the moment but I expect they will later harden off and turn to a darker colour.
This monthly tree-following visit was on April 28, during a lengthy dry spell with quite cold north-easterly winds. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, Trees on May 7, 2017| 10 Comments »
Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in the garden, nibbling delicate sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) greenery
The monthly tree-following link box has now closed for another month. Please explore everyone’s updates below.
Here in South Wales most of the trees are filling up with leaves, although some are quicker than others.
The horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) are already in glorious full bloom as well as full leaf, while the ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) are only just breaking into delicate leaf after their early wind-pollinated flowers have done their duty.
The oak (Quercus robur) seems to be ahead of the ash, so tradition says we are in for a “splash” this summer, rather than a “soak”. Certainly it has been very dry, cold and sometimes breezy for the last few weeks – no April showers as you would expect.
Why don’t you join us and follow a tree, too? You can start at any time and you don’t have to contribute every month if that’s too big a chore.
If you are new to tree following, read all about it here.
And without further ado, here are those links…
Alison at the Blackberry Garden – quince – after the frosts
Hollis (In the Company of Plants and Rocks) – juniper tree on a volcanic “squeeze up” in New Mexico
Mike – Flighty’s Plot – Liz’s tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and Flighty’s dogwood (Cornus)
Pat – Squirrelbasket – 100 elm trees
Amy in the Sonoran Desert (A Small Sunny Garden) –
Arizona rosewood (Vauquelinia californica)
John Kingdon – The Rivendell Garden Blog – crab apple’s month of acceleration
Frances at Island Threads, off the North West coast of Scotland – rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)
Thank you to everyone – see you all again on June 7, and maybe some more newcomers, too!
Posted in Cardiff, Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Bute, Cardiff, flowers, Nature, Trees on May 5, 2017| 11 Comments »
A very pink red campion (Silene dioica)
When I go to visit “my” 100 elm trees in Pontcanna Fields here in Cardiff, I am always tempted to walk on, cross Blackweir Bridge over the River Taff and keep going until I reach Bute Park and eventually the city centre.
I was last in this wild area in January and blogged about it here. Last week I visited again and the spring wildflowers were wonderful. I also think I found the purple maple tree I failed to locate back in the winter. (more…)
Posted in Garden visits, Gardening, Gwent, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged Gardening, Gwent, Wales on May 2, 2017| 9 Comments »
The western entrance to Belle Vue Park, Newport, South East Wales
Before I stopped working in Maesglas, on the western side of Newport, I made sure I visited nearby Belle Vue Park, which opened in 1894 and is a typical Victorian park with a pavilion and bandstand at the centre of wonderful trees, shrubs and Japanese-style plantings. (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 