This gallery contains 85 photos.
So far, it’s been a February for Frogs. There are concerns that nationally, in Great Britain as a whole, our frogs (mainly Rana temporaria), are having a tough time with habitat loss, pesticide/insecticide use and a relatively new viral disease, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 8 photos.
Food. And warmth. Two vital elements for surviving winter. Always have been, and always will. The buzzwords for this post which attempts to draw together at least four special sightings here over the last ten days. Let’s begin with the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 30 photos.
I always complete a review of all my blog photos from the whole year, in the first few days of January to whittle them down to just 3 to illustrate my annual hard copy blog book. These are the top … Continue reading
This gallery contains 25 photos.
For an occasional, ill-informed stargazer like myself, I think the only pastime that comes close to watching for shooting stars around the time of a known, annual meteor shower is waiting for a fish to take a fly or lure. … Continue reading
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A garden is never the same from one year to the next – a big part of its delight. But if one season highlights this more than any other, it’s that final part of the deciduous tree’s year, when the … Continue reading
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Anadromous, or even its Greek etymological meaning of “running up” (from ἀνά /aná, “up” + δρόμος /drómos, “running”), don’t really do justice to the life cycle of the sewin/sea trout/Salmo trutta. Like salmon, these fish return to spawn in the … Continue reading
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Bog standard seemed a dubious title for this piece, and its very origins are murky, judging by the interesting blog “Not One-off Britishisms”, which suggests that it may have originated in Britain in the 1960s. Certainly, this September’s weather wasn’t … Continue reading
This gallery contains 47 photos.
The unexpected weather window at the beginning of September which saw blue skies, high temperatures, and excessive humidity at last persist for long enough to allow everyone locally to make some very late-season hay, now seems a long time ago. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 123 photos.
There can be few more unpleasant tasks a sheep owner has to deal with than a case of blowfly strike. Or to use a more scientific term cutaneous myiasis. Or much more simply a case of maggot infestation. Over the … Continue reading
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After an end of July with many visitors and one of the best action photos I’ve yet managed of any of our grandchildren… Fiona and I were fortunate, this week, to be able to hear a speaker whom Gardens Illustrated … Continue reading
This gallery contains 56 photos.
Over the years, I’ve often made reference to mean reversion, at least as far as the weather is concerned, so it’s no surprise for me to report that after the exceptional “Lotus Land” experience of unbroken dry weather recorded in … Continue reading
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What will we remember from June 2023 in 20 years? Will we still be around, or even have the power of recall? Will I remember the sublime morning spent up in the shepherd’s hut? The timer set. The trickling sand … Continue reading
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Sun, Sun, Sun. I’m sure I’ve used Rain, Rain, Rain in a blog post title before, but possibly not Sun, Sun, Sun. It’s been a fabulous 3 weeks here in West Wales, with wonderful sunny days without getting too hot … Continue reading
The year’s rushing past. So’s this post. Just do it. Publish and be damned I walked out early morning to sniff the damp grey air in the first week of May, and to check for ewe noise. There was none. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 76 photos.
“Thank you for the view of Paradise”. After many years of welcoming complete strangers to this place, are these the most rewarding few words to have been written in our visitors’ book? Many years ago I recall writing a blog … Continue reading
This gallery contains 50 photos.
One of the constant themes in the garden here is the ever-changing weather that we can experience in the same month, and from year to year. So no surprise that after one of the sunniest and driest Februarys, March should … Continue reading
This gallery contains 46 photos.
“How are you?” was the familiar greeting down the line. “I’m feeling glum. I’ve just read your email and poem”, was my unusual reply. This the response to our younger son, after a brief email he’d sent me which included … Continue reading
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February can be a very unpredictable month. No sooner did I email our list of contacts about visiting to see the snowdrops and other spring bulbs, and suggesting that things would be at their best from mid-February onwards, than the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 86 photos.
Rarely has the sound of dripping water sounded so sweet. But I’m ahead of myself, already. Just like clouds, love, and life, as Joni Mitchell beautifully explored, in “Both Sides Now” I realise now I don’t know ice at all. … Continue reading
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We’re nearly at that time of the year when we’ll be opening the garden to visitors for charity, under the National Garden Scheme. (N.G.S.). Once again we’re one of a relatively small number of private gardens that open as part … Continue reading
This gallery contains 71 photos.
2023 for us began splendidly – house guests again, at last, over at least some of the twelve nights of Christmas. Conversation, reminiscing, walks, special food, and some favourite films including a much-anticipated second watch of Stephen Macrae and Sarah … Continue reading
This gallery contains 36 photos.
It had to happen. 2 weeks of wonderful freezing cold, but largely dry weather ended and the last 10 days have seen mild temperatures, wind, and winter rains return. Along with the added disappointment of a cancelled family visit, due … Continue reading
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To plagiarise Samuel Johnson: “When a man is tired of dawn, he is tired of life, for there is at dawn, all that light can afford.” London, (and life), the correct nouns from Johnson’s famous quote in 1777, clearly had … Continue reading
This gallery contains 69 photos.
This time of the year, when a temperate Northern hemisphere garden inevitably has the least to offer visually with light and flower power at its seasonal nadir mid-November, it’s struck me just how many other of our seasonal markers have … Continue reading
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As Collins dictionary recently announced its new word of the year, “permacrisis”, defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity”, it seems overdue for the Grumpy Hobbit to release another “Harmonies” video. Just after the first snowdrop has emerged … Continue reading
This gallery contains 36 photos.
It was with some trepidation that we looked forward to our last garden visitors of the year since Paul (and Angela) set up, own, and still run the excellent and useful Great British Gardens website. Worth checking out as a … Continue reading
This gallery contains 99 photos.
Oh, joy! Oh, well. Oh, dear. How to begin beneath a banner image suffused with golden light? It seems I’m not the only one entranced and fixated by October sunrises. We’re in the fleeting season of alchemy. Always a time … Continue reading
This gallery contains 30 photos.
The official 10-day mourning period for Queen Elizabeth II ended here, on September 19th, with a dry, still day with dense, quilted cloud cover, and hardly a breath of wind.We had already been gripped by the emotion of losing the … Continue reading
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New beginnings. Sadness, reflections, and yes, there must also be a sense of optimism and hope, beyond the mourning for our wonderful Queen, whose life and service to her nation is without parallel in global history. As our new Prime … Continue reading
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A year ago my July post “Extreme” ended thus: What can we expect in the future? More and worse of the same – extreme heat, sunshine, rain, winds – often all in the same year. Plus ça change, plus c’est … Continue reading
What a Jubilee June! Far too much to write about, so I’ll rely heavily on photos to tell the story of a jam-packed June. It began in a subdued fashion with the weather turning cool, grey, and damp without enough … Continue reading
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Here is the next video in my series, prompted by the start of the war in Ukraine – my personal response to try to capture a sense of harmony rather than discord, through sounds, images and music, focused on the … Continue reading
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This year we waited ages to hear our first Cuckoo. I’d nearly given up and then in late May we heard one occasionally, but always very distant. Was this the beginning of the end for them locally? Then on a … Continue reading
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It started with a kiss. Actually, I can’t remember whether it did, in the early morning in question, but it was certainly in the bedroom that at some point I’d registered a buzz. Since we always leave our Velux roof-light … Continue reading
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Just a few introductory words about this latest “Harmonies No. 3”, compilation video. All footage was filmed here at Gelli Uchaf in the first 3 weeks of April 2022, yet another wonderful April in a run of 3. Images and … Continue reading
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Will you read to the end? Who is this really for? You or me? Do I know? Do I care? A selection of short sentences to begin, since I’ve been thinking about attention spans of late. Probably prompted by my … Continue reading
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No sooner does the Met Office confirm from its monthly summary, that once again we’ve had an exceptional end to March in the UK, than the weather has flipped, some welcome rain has arrived, and we’re enjoying a bit of … Continue reading
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There are no words. Or are there? Like many, I guess, I’m struggling with writing anything of relevance or insight, with the background of the horrors of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Rebecca Stott wrote and spoke a wonderful piece … Continue reading
This gallery contains 36 photos.
The garden is full of white at the moment, a veritable sea of snowdrops, but today it’s two other, stronger, early spring colours I’d like to open with. Yellow. And Blue. And the briefest mention of another one, red, that … Continue reading
This gallery contains 55 photos.
Our thanks to a regular blog reader for alerting us to the fact that 10 days ago the Sunday Telegraph ran an excellent article by Val Bourne, a self-confessed galanthophile, on snowdrops, with some excellent practical tips on how to … Continue reading
This gallery contains 73 photos.
I shall forever remember the recent wolf moon. I’ve certainly seen one before, though without knowing that the full moon in January was given this, and several other monikers centuries ago, at least in the U.S.A., by native American tribes. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 110 photos.
“History never repeats itself; at best it sometimes rhymes”. So said Mark Twain, apparently. I think the same sentiments could be expressed about the appearance of any garden from year to year, and as I write this on New Year’s day, … Continue reading
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No fanfare greets your late return, No chattered dipped inflections, No yearned for sunny silhouettes. No, November’s solitary influx Seeps, a secret spreading stain. A million marvel migrants fled. The chilling landscape, flushed you Fast, by night. Alone. And tracked … Continue reading
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We’re past the worst. As I began to tap this out on the morning of December 22nd, I can say this with confidence. The days are now extending, the nights reducing, at least for the next 6 months or so. … Continue reading
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This has been my most demanding piece of writing to date, in 11 years of blogging. Stop half way after the music if you want to avoid being too challenged with reading to the end. Although if you do, you’ll … Continue reading
This gallery contains 93 photos.
Three questions to begin. Do you like the header image, which is completely untweaked? It’s exactly as it came out of the camera’s flash card. Secondly do you prefer it this way up? And finally, and really the most interesting, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
At last, November 2nd, a dense grey scene greeted me as I drew the upstairs bedroom curtains. But not without hope, as it had the faintest hint of colour seeping through, due East. As always, the next job in my … Continue reading
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Let’s get the plurality of falls out of the way. I’m stretching the meaning to include what we still seem to call autumn, on this side of the pond, though fall is an appropriate term on a day like today … Continue reading
This gallery contains 75 photos.
The landscape and weather here have been languishing. Stuck, metaphorically, in a deep rut between the end of the summer season and autumn’s winds and rains, with the anticipation of fall and decay. Fat berries, the spawn of many successful … Continue reading
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My last post was rushed out before a frantic but delightful weekend, when our son’s family and 6 grandchildren descended, overlapping with a pre-planned NGS pop-up weekend. This was promoted as part of a BBC Radio 2 event, “The Big … Continue reading