2019 tree following 5: Leafy backgrounds

Developing leaves and flowers on the London plane (Platanus × hispanica or Platanus × acerifolia) in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay

The London plane tree in Cardiff’s Mermaid Quay is coming along nicely with the benefit of both rain and sunshine in the last few weeks.

I see it most days as I visit the Tesco store opposite to buy a sandwich for lunch or a few groceries. The changes are small but the leaves are growing bigger and the female flowers are starting their journey to becoming fruit balls.

Here are my pictures from April 29 – I find it difficult to get many of the leaves and flowers into sharp focus as there is such a mass of greenery at different distances from the lens, but here goes…

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2019 tree following 4: Green and red

New growth on the London plane tree in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay

We are well into spring here in Cardiff, although there is currently a chill easterly wind and the nights are almost frosty. At least the sun is shining so we should be grateful as there was one particularly wet and miserable week recently.

I could see from a distance that the London plane tree in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay, was slightly tinged with green at last.

But when I visited with my camera on April 10 the sun was very bright, so I couldn’t really tell what I was seeing in detail until I inspected the images later.

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The Wharf in early spring

Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) on the Wharf beside County Hall in Cardiff Bay

It has been over a year now since I first walked around the Wharf (former Bute East Dock) next to my office at County Hall in Cardiff Bay.

I have visited more or less every month so I have no idea if I will spot anything I haven’t seen before. But I will keep on looking anyway. These pictures were taken at lunchtime on March 26…

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Red maple flowers in spring

Maple flowers on a tree in Lloyd George Avenue, Cardiff, in mid March

My Cardiff Bay bus drives down Lloyd George Avenue every day so I have been keeping an eye on the trees I first visited in autumn last year (read the blog post here).

I recently noticed the first signs of spring colour on a couple of the trees at the Bay end of the avenue, not far from my office in County Hall. At first I thought the red twigs were breaking into leaf…

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2019 tree following 3: Nothing to see here?

The London plane tree (Platanus × hispanica or Platanus × acerifolia) I am following this year in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay

Although it is early spring here in Cardiff I hadn’t noticed any development in my London plane tree since the winter. I see it a couple of times a week when I walk over to the shops for a lunchtime sandwich but only occasionally do I make the effort to take my camera and draw attention to myself in this busy street.

The tree may be quiet but there is a lot of infrastructure work going on around it – these iPhone pictures from this week show a drainage vehicle doing something or other (as I now work in the council highways department I should know what they were doing, but they just seemed to be cleaning down the paving of the street when I saw them).

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The Wharf – all that remains

Great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) on the Wharf in Cardiff Bay

There was not a lot to see on my latest walk around the Wharf (former Bute East Dock) in Cardiff Bay – at least in terms of vegetation. I found that someone had hacked back most of the bushes and perennials on the far side from my office in County Hall. Even the gorse I had looked forward to seeing in its golden glory had gone.

But there were some small pleasures. These pictures were taken on January 17…

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2019 tree following 2: The Mermaid Quay plane

I caught sight of the Moon through the branches of my new tree-following subject when I visited at lunchtime on February 11

At last, my decision has been made. After much dithering I have chosen the London plane in Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay, as my tree-following subject for 2019. The Latin name is either Platanus × acerifolia or Platanus × hispanica.

Will the tree still be standing at the end of the year? Who knows? There is so much change going on in this area that you can never be too sure. The day before I visited to take these pictures I saw a smaller street tree nearby was being cut back to a stump.

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