Posted in Archaeology, Art & Design, History, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, art, History on August 31, 2017| 6 Comments »
A mysterious crack has appeared in this stone head in the lounge
I have been meaning to compile a blog post about my favourite “ancient stone heads of the world” for a while – and now I have an excuse. The small stone head I bought at the Ideal Home Exhibition in the 1980s has suddenly developed a crack. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Street plants, Uncategorized, tagged Nature on August 24, 2017| 6 Comments »
The magnificent blotched leaves of Persicaria maculosa, which I have always known by its old Linnaean name of Polygonum persicaria
In the absence of any other ideas, I felt it was time to have a look again at street plants (weeds, some might say). With all the rain recently it has been a good year for the pavement greenery. Here are a few examples from just one main road near my Cardiff home. (more…)
Posted in Gardening, Uncategorized, tagged flowers, Gardening on August 17, 2017| 6 Comments »
My popcorn hydrangea ‘Ayesha’ is starting to show a range of flower shapes
It’s six years now since I first posted about my popcorn hydrangea ‘Ayesha’, but this summer, with all the rain, it has grown huge and vigorous. It has also started to diversify! Usually the flowers remind me of lilac but now the sepals are starting to appear flat as in many other hydrangeas.
I thought the proper word for it was “recidivism”, which I thought also applied to variegated leaves turning back to plain green, but now I can find no reference to this word botanically, only in the sense of a prisoner returning to a life of crime or a medical condition relapsing. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Cardiff, elm, Nature, Pontcanna, Trees on August 12, 2017| 7 Comments »
Fresh growth on one of the 100 elms in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff
A month ago we were coming to the end of a mini-heatwave, but now I can hardly remember a day without rain this summer. It’s very cool for August, too.
I visited the 100 disease-resistant elms, Ulmus ‘New Horizon’, in Pontcanna Fields one morning this week and drizzle was threatening.
The recent wet weather means the elms are looking as green as ever and not much has changed since last month. (more…)
Posted in Nature, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged Nature, Trees on August 7, 2017| 10 Comments »
Dead branches on a sycamore in my garden
The tree-following link box has now closed for another month. To explore everyone’s updates, please go straight to the bottom of this post.
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 much of a commitment for you.
Here in Cardiff there have been very heavy showers for a few weeks and it’s hard to believe it’s the height of summer. But at least it’s good for the garden. That means the dead branches I can see on a self-seeded sycamore tree (Acer pseudoplatanus) in the garden are nothing to do with drought. (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 