Who'd have thought you could get lost in the woods, in the middle of the city?
I do silly things sometimes.
I am pursuing with vigour my Wildlife Through the Year blog posts and I saw conkers (horse chestnuts) as my bus passed a park the other day. I decided I must go and take some pictures.
So on a lovely clear morning after a wet few days I decided to walk to work for a change, through a different park, and see what I could find on the way. I was also looking for sweet chestnuts, which are to come in my October wildlife post.
The walk would normally take half an hour. So I allowed an hour. I got lost and it took two…
This is the route:
A rough map of my walk...
Getting lost in the woods in the city centre? It takes some doing…
I found lots of horse chestnuts in Llandaff Fields so took some pictures, but then thought, well, I’ll just go over there and see what those other trees are…
The journey's beginning - Llandaff Fields with rugby posts much in evidence...
Some sort of small apples (Malus) on a tree in Llandaff Fields
Ash keys (Fraxinus excelsior)...
Maple (Acer) leaves and seeds...
Wonderful grey lichen on a huge old lime tree in a corner of Llandaff Fields...
Conkers (horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum)
Before I could stop myself I had walked all the way through the fields to Western Avenue, a busy main road through the top of the city.
Looking north, golden trees (ash) at the end of Llandaff Fields, with busy Western Avenue unseen beyond and the spire of Llandaff Cathedral just visible...
These ash (Fraxinus excelsior) leaves were remarkably yellow - maybe it's golden ash ('Jaspidea')...
Fallen oak leaves and acorns in Llandaff Fields...
A favourite building on Western Avenue - the shiny metallic walls of the WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee) building - but maybe I'll blog about that elsewhere...
A roadside conifer - my memory prompted cypress, but I don't know...
Time to head back south - view of the River Taff from Western Avenue, near Tesco and UWIC, looking towards the city centre...
Judging distances never was my strong point. I probably should have taken a bus from here. But no, I knew a path went all the way along the river Taff to the city centre, I just hadn’t joined it this far up before.
There was no sign – although I think if I had crossed the bridge to Tesco’s superstore I might have caught the official Taff Trail on the other side of the river.
But hey, here was a promising-looking muddy path. Shame I had my high-heeled work shoes on, but digging them in helped me stop from slipping…
A rotting stump alongside the muddy path...
Allotment gardens in a woody glade...
The path ahead...
Near here I saw and heard a yaffle (green woodpecker, Picus viriduis), but it moved too fast for me to take a picture.
The path behind...
Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), in pink and occasionally white, abounded along the path - it is an invasive weed in the UK, but pretty all the same - and less of a pain than Japanese knotweed...
This ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) looks the worse for wear...
Seeds of an umbellifer, I always assume cow parsley, but I am probably wrong...
The path behind...
Poison-looking berries, at the time I thought honeysuckle (Lonicera), but no, those come in bunchy heads of berries. So I think it's woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), which indeed would be very poisonous...
One of a couple of mole-hills near the path, throwing up dark, fertile loam...
Great plantain (Plantago major) beside the path
In the city centre I was in green fields...
A rather nice bit of rotting wood...
At least I was heading in the right direction - the river Taff was nearby, flowing down to the right, to the city centre and eventually the Bristol Channel
A new discovery - apparently this is tansy (Chrysanthemum vulgare)...
At last I found a sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) - whose fruit will be needed for my October Wildlife Through the Year blog post...
Canopy of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa)
Insect in white bindweed flower (Calystegia sepium)...
A tree completely covered in ivy (Hedera helix)...
A lovely pale purple discovery - dame's violet (Hesperis matronalis)...
Plantain - probably ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) - should have checked the leaves, as these flowers look a bit long, more like Plantago media, which is supposed to be less common here in Wales
A-ha - no horses, but this horse manure is a giveaway - I was walking beside Cardiff Riding School
Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) in one of the fields of the riding school, I think
Umbels abound - I'd love to think it was called something wonderful like burnet saxifrage, but it's probably just cow parsley...
Approaching familiar territory - the Blackweir bridge over the River Taff
The river is never far away...
Some kind of wild cress (Barbarea or Rorippa)
Pink-tinged yarrow or milfoil (Achillea millefolium)
Hawthorn berries (Crataegus monogyna)
Looking back at Blackweir bridge
Birch fruit - which I missed for my Wildlife Through the Year August blog post (possibly Betula pubescens, brown birch rather than silevr birch)
Wild meadow barley (Hordeum secalinum), I think - the heads are shorter than the wall barley (Hordeum murinum) I played darts with as a child...
A row of trees in the fields
A carrion crow (Corvus corone) in the fields
Approaching Sophia Gardens cricket ground - and the new floodlights installed last year for an Ashes test match
Cricket game on - Glamorgan v Derbyshire at Sophia Gardens, on the last-but-one day of the county season
I always notice these two maple trees growing intimately trogether and think of the Greek myth of Baucis and Philemon, an old couple who entertained the gods (in disguise) and were rewarded in death by becoming two intertwining trees, an oak and a linden...
Approaching the footbridge over into the castle grounds
Looking back along the riverside Taff Trail before crossing the bridge into town
The end in sight - Stadium House and the Millennium Stadium to the right
Overhanging the end of the footbridge in the Castle grounds is this lovely tree, which I suspect is oriental
Cardiff Castle grounds - Dahlia Bishop of Llandaff, a local favourite
Cardiff Castle grounds - magnificent Dahlia
Cardiff Castle grounds, looking back towards the bridge and the new snack kiosk
Cardiff castle grounds - sunny Rudbeckias
Cardiff castle grounds - herbaceous borders
Castle gardens - can anyone identify this lovely herbaceous perennial?
Maples and Japanese maples in the castle grounds
The end in sight - through Cardiff Castle gate and on to the street, then alongside the riverside wooden walkway beside the Millennium Stadium to get to the office
Rose bay willowherb on top of the castle gate - nature gets everywhere, even in the city...
Just as I put my camera away for the last stretch of my walk to work, along the Millennium Stadium boardwalk, a wonderful cormorant did a spectacular aerial display over the river and I missed a picture opportunity. Ah well.
I once had a creative writing book called “I took my mind a walk” and often wondered where that came from. I find it is from the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig’s poem called “An Ordinary Day”. That’s about a walk by the sea, but the beginning and end nonetheless resonate with me and my river walk…
I took my mind a walk
Or my mind took me a walk —
Whichever was the truth of it.
The light glittered on the water
Or the water glittered in the light.
How extraordinary ordinary
Things are, like the nature of the mind
And the process of observing.
The Squirrelbasket 
what a lovely walk, thanks for sharing your photos! Sometimes its nice to get lost.
I think your first umbellifer is more likely angelica or hogweed (not Giant Hogweed but the native hogweed) and I think your second might be something more interesting than cow parsley, but I wouldn’t know what. I always used to assume cow parsley too…
Thanks ever so for taking the trouble to comment. I’ve really no excuse for not identifying these umbellifers, as I have a very good book by W Keble Martin called The Concise British Flora in Colour, with illustrations of everything. But then I always find I have forgotten to take a photograph of the part that’s key for identification, such as the leaves… I will enjoy reading your http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com/ blog and add it to my blogroll. Have a good Sunday…
A nice diversion for me, and, I hope, a little gain for You :o-) :cypress – Thyua plicata, cow parsley seeds – Pastinaca sativa (wild form), Lonicera/Solanum dulc – but does occur Tamus communis (or Dioscorea communis in some English literature) in your area?, Hesperis – Saponaria officinalis, burnet saxif. – Heracleum sphondylium, Barbarea/Rorippa – Brassica napus, Hordeum – H. murinum, oriental tree – maybe Pterocarya fraxinifolia, apropos my long-time acquintance from Iran; and the perrenial herb is one of several very similar and often hybridised species of Mackleya, coming from Japan and China…