Posted in Glamorgan, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged geology, Glamorgan, Wales on February 5, 2017| 14 Comments »
Posted in Birds, Glamorgan, Nature, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged birds, Glamorgan, lichen, Nature, Wales, winter on December 31, 2016| 14 Comments »
Robin (Erithacus rubecula) at Dunraven on Christmas Day 2016
When it’s fine on Christmas Day we often go to Dunraven Castle at Southerndown in the Vale of Glamorgan to eat pâté and pickle sandwiches in the walled garden – our main meal of roast beef and Brussels sprouts is in the evening. This year the weather was good, with a cold, brisk wind that kept the cloudy sky interesting. (more…)
Posted in Glamorgan, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged geology, Glamorgan, lichen, Wales on July 19, 2016| 10 Comments »
Yellow lichen and broken red rock on the wall of Porthcawl Pier
This time last year I took lots of pictures of Porthcawl on the Glamorgan coast, one of my favourite places, but somehow I never got around to “processing” the photographs and blogging about them. Now I have put together many Porthcawl pictures into a gallery or two, but I decided to pick out in particular the images of lichen and rock on the pier. (more…)
Posted in Art & Design, Garden visits, Glamorgan, Uncategorized, tagged art, Dyffryn Gardens, Glamorgan on March 24, 2016| 12 Comments »
Fujin, god of wind, a bronze statue at Dyffryn Gardens
There are several Japanese bronze sculptures at the National Trust’s Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan, all of them donated by Grenville Morgan in 1951 or 1952. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the gentleman.
I will start with bronzes of a pair of fearsome nature gods, Fujin and Raijin, not currently on full display – or at least when I last saw them they were tucked away in a glasshouse. (more…)
Posted in Garden visits, Gardening, Glamorgan, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged Dyffryn Gardens, Gardening on November 20, 2015| 13 Comments »
Bright leaves of a rockery plant at Dyffryn Gardens in September
That headline will mean nothing to you unless you are familiar with The Dubliners’ Rocky Road to Dublin song, but hey-ho…
In September we visited the National Trust’s Dyffryn Gardens again. This time I was mainly going to look at some absolutely splendid old trees I hope to blog about soon, but I was also sidetracked by the rockery area you can see from the house. So here are my pictures – and I am sorry there are quite a few flowers I haven’t identified yet. (more…)
Posted in Glamorgan, History, Wales, tagged Dyffryn Gardens on August 30, 2015| 16 Comments »
Stained glass window at Dyffryn House
The National Trust took over Dyffryn House and Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan in January 2013. The trust has not yet been able to “dress” the interior of the house with historical furniture, furnishings and paintings, which must be an expensive task, but the permanent fixtures are still worth a quick look. (more…)
Posted in Garden visits, Gardening, Glamorgan, Uncategorized, tagged Dyffryn Gardens, Gardening on August 7, 2015| 11 Comments »
Low winter sunlight at Dyffryn Gardens in January 2015
Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan has just been voted the top Special Place in Wales in a National Trust survey. I went there on January 2 this year, but never did get around to blogging about it. I visited again on July 7, so now I am combining the two visits into a series of blog posts on different themes. This first one contrasts the garden treasures of midwinter and midsummer. (more…)
Posted in Glamorgan, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged Christmas Day, Glamorgan, Primroses, Wales, winter on December 25, 2014| 15 Comments »
Primroses in the walled garden at Southerndown, Christmas Day, 2014
It was a glorious blue-sky Christmas Day, so we went for our traditional walk at Southerndown, on Glamorgan’s Jurassic coast. Here are a few pictures of what we saw – including quite a few flowers spotted hanging on late in the season or blooming very early…
View of Southerndown as we walked down from the top car park – VERY bright sunshine!
Posted in Glamorgan, Uncategorized, Wales, Words, tagged Wales, Words on October 27, 2014| 7 Comments »
The Royal Mint at Llantrisant, here in Wales, has struck a special Alderney £5 coin to commemorate the centenary of Dylan Thomas’s birth – click on the image to find out more
This year sees the centenary of the birth of wonderful Welsh writer Dylan Thomas and celebrations have been going on throughout 2014. But today, October 27, is his birthday. He was born in Swansea just after the outbreak of World War I.
Much has been written (more…)
Posted in Glamorgan, Nature, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged Wales, winter on December 30, 2013| 4 Comments »
The Jurassic cliffs of the Glamorgan coast, seen from Southerndown
It has been a stormy couple of weeks in the UK, but there have been beautifully fine days in between. Christmas Day was one of them, so we went for a walk at Southerndown on Glamorgan’s Jurassic Coast. This area is officially called Dunraven Bay and it (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 