After the storms in Thompson’s Park

A waterlogged Thompson’s Park in Cardiff yesterday

The UK has been battered by a succession of Atlantic storms over the past few months, bringing strong winds and torrential rain. This followed a very wet and miserable summer and autumn so everywhere the ground is sodden.

Named storms this year, some worse than others, have been Agnes, Babet, Ciaran, Debi, Elin, Fergus, Gerrit and Henk, which is clearing away from the British Isles as I write this.

Sometimes it feels like it will never end.

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Cardiff’s Park Place revisited

A newish sight on Cardiff’s Park Place

A few weeks ago I walked the length of Park Place in Cardiff, as I happened to be going from my dentist’s to my optician. And how it had changed since I was last there before the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

Here are some snaps, taken with my iPhone…

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The Taffywood Library

One of the Taffywood Library panels in Cardiff’s St David’s Centre

I have been meaning to photograph these murals in Cardiff’s St David’s Centre for ages but usually there are too many people in the way and I am self-conscious. In the end I snapped them with my iPhone on a recent visit.

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Llandaff Fields in January

This knitted snowman was possibly part of a winter trail for the youngsters in Llandaff Fields, Cardiff

A couple of weeks ago I visited Llandaff Fields for a walk for the first time in several years – since the Covid-19 lockdown, I guess. Here are my photos…

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Cardiff’s Wood Street and the Betty Campbell monument

New building above the proposed bus station in Wood Street, Cardiff, and a corner of the BBC Wales HQ

Although I live just a couple of miles from Cardiff’s city centre, I have been there only a handful of times since the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

I would usually visit the Queen Street shopping area but last week my bus dropped me in Wood Street, at the Central Railway Station end of town. The city has been without a main bus station since 2015 but a new one may open next year.

I knew the street was being redeveloped but I must have looked like a tourist as I turned around in amazement to point my phone camera in all directions…

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St David’s Day in Thompson’s Park

Daffodils in Thompson’s Park

Monday was St David’s Day – the national day of Wales – and it is not complete without daffodils so I went to Thompson’s Park to see what I could find. Here are my pictures from a half-hour afternoon walk in early spring sunshine…

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Snapshots of Victoria Park in February

Edwardian drinking fountain in Cardiff’s Victoria Park

As I visit my favourite Lombardy poplar in Victoria Park every month for a tree following blog post, I am taking snapshots of everything else in the park on these trips as well. In these Covid times I don’t get out much. Here are my February snaps…

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Meeting old friends in Thompson’s Park

Beech trees in Thompson’s Park, with Romilly Road beyond the park railings

Firstly, my apologies for being slightly inactive on the blog recently and not responding to comments in a timely manner.

I remain very busy working full-time from home and caring for my husband – still in agony and immobile as he waits for the urgent hip replacement operation cancelled in March thanks to the first Covid-19 lockdown.

And to top it all I have fallen out of love with WordPress and its new Block Editor, which I can’t get to work even if I use a different browser as recommended by one of the WordPress experts. I also couldn’t work out how to continue using Classic Editor until Mike Rogers (of Flighty’s Plot) kindly pointed out a little arrow in the admin panel that I hadn’t noticed. Thanks so much!

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Victoria Park in the pandemic summer

Billy the Seal, a Cardiff character who lived in the pond in Victoria Park’s zoo from 1914 until 1939, when he died and it was discovered he was a she…

Somehow I have been so very busy during my four months working from home that I have had trouble keeping up with my blogging. I have also totally abandoned my initial idea of visiting a different Cardiff park every week. Here I am eventually sharing my pictures from Victoria Park, although I took them in late June.

I managed to clock up 5,500 “steps” walking to the park and back, so hopefully that will give you an idea of how close to home it is. For all that, I have only ever visited it twice before, and then only passing through without a camera.

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A circuit of Llandaff Fields

Llandaff Fields – one of Cardiff’s great green spaces – pictured are two of my favourite trees – sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) on the left and lime (Tilia cordata) on the right

I’m not getting far in my attempts to visit all the local parks and fields for exercise during the Covid-19 lockdown. So far in nine weeks I have visited only two! I feel so fat and unfit, spending all day working at my desk. Anyway, this is the second excursion, to Llandaff Fields on May 6 – doesn’t time fly?

I started my circuit at the corner where Pen-hill meets Cardiff Road and heads on up to Llandaff. That way I first skirted the hedgerows along the edge of the rugby pitches, walking on grass with no proper path.

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