21 Sunday Jan 2018
During my walk in Bute Park a few days ago, I saw my first signs of spring. And, though I love winter – as I love each of the seasons for the differences they offer – still, it is always heart-warming, when the days are short and cold and often grey, to see small signs, like these snowdrops, of the earth’s re-awakening.
12 Sunday Nov 2017
There is so much to love about autumn: it’s as if Nature is an award-winning play, and all the trees are her actors. She’s coming to the end of another successful season, it’s the last grand finale, the players are dressed in magnificent richly coloured costumes ready to take their final bows before a rapturous audience amidst great critical acclaim … and then the curtain comes down for another year.
02 Thursday Nov 2017
‘I am rich today with autumn’s gold.’ ~ Gladys Harp
02 Saturday Sep 2017
And so it begins …
24 Friday Feb 2017
Posted in flowers, nature, seasons, spring, wildflowers
Determination. Persistence. Resistance. Constancy.
Humans have cleared the land of ‘weeds’; laid a gravel path edged with a concrete strip; planted a bed of ornamental shrubs (many of which have died); and mulched that garden bed with metal chips yet, in spite of all that destruction of its habitat, this little Colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara) has managed to push through and begin to flower.
Admiration!
18 Saturday Feb 2017
Posted in flowers, nature, seasons, spring, wildflowers
I went for a lovely long walk around parts of Cardiff Bay yesterday and it was sunny and warm, so warm that I had to strip off my scarf and the thin jumper I was wearing over my t-shirt and under my fleece. Spring was definitely in the air and, on my return walk home, I discovered I wasn’t the only one to be feeling the temperature change. These crocuses were putting on a glorious display in the churchyard of St Augustine’s and in the small grassy area just down the hill from the church. Beautiful!
14 Saturday Jan 2017
Of winter’s lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer’s secret
Deep down within its heart.
~ Charles G. Stater
01 Sunday Jan 2017
The sun rises over the Serengeti Plains, Tanzania, August 2014
‘Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.’
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist and conservationist. This quote is taken from her seminal work Silent Spring, 1962.
31 Saturday Dec 2016
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the sun sets over the sea at Kep, in Cambodia, January 2013
‘Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.’ ~ Albert Einstein
20 Tuesday Dec 2016
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fog, mist, Roath Lake, Roath Park, Roath Park Lake, winter weather
I can see it coming. Rolling silently over the house roofs and tree tops from the south, where the sea lies, where the ocean roars. Slowly, gradually, the light grows dim, eerie, the sun’s rays weaker, unable to penetrate the gloom. Trees vanish, leaving mere ghostly outlines.
Sounds become muffled but, at the same time, strangely amplified. Voices echo, seem nearby yet, in reality, are hundreds of metres distant. Footsteps tap, tap, tap. Spectral figures appear, pass quickly by, disappear once more. Birds fall silent as if afraid to pierce the silence with their squawks, tweets, chirps.
Fog is everywhere, blanketing the lake, flowing along the brook, shrouding buildings, hovering over bushes, making branches droop, making hair frizz. Creeping tendrils wind their way through tree branches, wrap themselves around park benches, slither between railings. Fog makes throats choke and chests heave, and seeps into old bones.
On Roath Lake, the light-less lighthouse needs a light today and a horn to warn.
