In the Garden

We've been busy in the garden over the last few days.  So much has changed in the last week.  The daffodils, muscarii and tulips have gone now and the blooms have moved on to the next stage of Spring flowering.

The Wild Garlic at the top of the garden is in flower.  I really must try to use some of it this year to make soup or pesto.  I say this every year and somehow never do.  It just looks so pretty.  The woods where we have been walking are full of it this year and it is such a delight to walk with carpets of white and also still carpets of blue from the bluebells under the trees.

Last year we bought a small blueberry plant and I wasn't sure if it would survive the winter but it has and it is flowering.  I was so pleased to see the flowers.

Also in flower now are the Geums above and below, we also have a yellow Geum called Lemon Drops but try as I might I couldn't get a clear photo of their shy, drooping little heads.  The pink Geum is Rivale and I've lost the tag for and completely forgotten what the red/orange one above is called.

There are Aquilegias in all sorts of colours

I love the ones above and below with their pretty white 'underskirts' showing.

This plant is also known as Granny's bonnet or Columbine

Above Clematis Montana

Buds on the Chives

Perennial Cornflower

Valerian

Peony

Creeping Blue Ceanothus

 

The ferns are unfurling their leaves.   I've no idea what kind of fern this is so if anyone can identify it I'd be grateful.  Same with the red Geum above.

In the greenhouse we have seedlings for white foxgloves, Californian poppies and nasturtiums.  All waiting to find a home somewhere in the garden. 

I think work in the garden will be abandoned for a day or two as we have rain coming our way but I hope we can get back our there soon as there is still such a lot to do.

 

Five on Friday

It's Friday so I'm joining in with  Amy at Love Made my Home for this week's Five on Friday.   For some reason I can't add the usual graphics link to my blog as I get red words 'shouting' at me at the top of the HTML page I usually add it to so I've added my own link at the bottom of the page which you can visit to find other bloggers who are joining in this week.

Five small but lovely things that have made me smile this week 

1.  Bullfinch on the bird feeders - both Mr and Mrs Bullfinch have visited the feeders two or three times a day every day this week.  It is lovely to see them. I assume they are nesting nearby.

2.  Flowers - in the hanging basket. We planted them about five or six weeks ago and they have just started to flower.  We bought them from Aldi as they were cheap and cheerful and I had begun to think they weren't going to grow and flower but this week in the warmth they have blossomed.

3.  Spring flowers -  Cowslips and daisies remind me of my junior school days.  I went to a little village primary school, just thirty five pupils, three teachers, a secretary and a cook.  We used to have regular nature walks and keep a nature table and cowslips remind me of the meadows around the woods where we took our nature walks and where we played in our free time. The daisies remind me of play time on the school field when we used to make daisy chains which used to hang, wilting around our necks and wrists, during the afternoon lessons.

4.  Raindrops - after the heavy rain it was lovely to see the twinkling droplets on the Lady's Mantle or Alchemilla Mollis.

5.  Bluebells at Rode Hall  - I showed you these in  this post from last weekend.  They are still making me smile just looking at the photos.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. 

Link to this week's - Five on Friday

Glaslyn Wildlife

When we visit Wales we are very lucky to be able to stay at our neighbours' mobile home which is up in the woodlands on a holiday park in the village of Prenteg.  

 As you can see from the photo above the caravan is overlooking a small waterfall and stream, apologies for the quality of the photos taken through glass.

We see all kinds of birds when sitting in the window or out on the decking when the weather is warmer.  Grey wagtails by the stream and jays up in the trees.  We were often visited by a thrush, a blackbird and a robin hopping along the rail of the decking.  We've also seen squirrels and rabbits too.

Just down the road in the same village is Glaslyn Wildlife home to the Osprey Project.  When we first started to visit the wildlife project it was administered by the RSPB but their stewardship came to an end in 2013.  We had thought that the place had closed down completely as when we had visited the caravan over the last couple of years the site was all closed down and inaccessible but this year we spotted that the yellow AA signs were up again and we decided to go and take a look.

The car park is on one side of the Welsh Highland Railway just near the Pont Croesor halt and the hides and centre are on the other.  The Welsh mountains in the distance.  It is a lovely spot.

 

It was very cold on the afternoon we visited and weak sunshine rapidly gave way to sleet and hail.  The project is now a community company and run with the help of local volunteers as such it is dependent on donations but it is, at the moment, free to visit.  Its aim is to contine the work of protecting and recording the local Ospreys whilst also promoting and highlighting the other wildlife in the area of the Glaslyn Valley.

The first thing we noticed was the new visitor centre which was opened in July last year by wildlife presenter Iolo Williams.  Inside the centre is full of fascinating facts and information about the history and natural history of the area as well as information about the wildlife including the ospreys.  There are films and a live camera trained on the nest.  Ospreys have been returning here for quite a few years now.  I will put links at the botom of this post to both the website and blog where you can find a lot more information about the birds and watch them on the webcam.  I didn't take photos inside as there were a lot of visitors sitting watching the films and drinking coffee, there are refreshments available, and it seemed intrusive.

Above is view from the entrance of the visitor centre down to the hide overlooking the water and mountains beyond.  The nest you can see is a replica of what the actual osprey nest looks like.  The ospreys first settled to breed here in 2004. 

We took our turn looking through the specially provided telescopes which are trained onto the nest.  When we arrived the female known as Mrs G was on the nest waiting for her mate Aran to bring her some fish to eat. She was low down in the nest so couldn't be seen through the telescopes. There was sudden excitement in the air as a large bird flew over, cameras were trained upwards - mine too.  Was it Aran?  I think you can safely say that my photo is 'duck on a millpond!'

No it wasn't Aran but a visiting Red Kite who'd caused all the excitement.

We had to be content with watching the live camera feed and the films from previous days.

There is some wonderful  footage to watch on three or four screens.As we left it started to sleet again and then it turned into hail.  Time to go back to the warmth of the caravan.

There are links below to find out more and to watch the live feed from the site.

Links to Bywyd Glaslyn   blog
and  website

Morris and Bells

My next post was going to be about the Glaslyn Osprey Project which is close to where we recently stayed in Wales but I'm holding that back for next time as I wanted to share with you some photos from yesterday's outing.

We drove up through the city towards Kidsgrove and Scholar Green to visit the lovely Rode Hall.  I've taken you there quite a few times before over the years but usually for the snowdrops in March or in the summer.

It was warm in the sunshine as we queued to find a parking space but it was all very well organised and we were soon wandering across the grass to the bustling Farmers' Market, where there was wonderful food, arts and crafts and plants and flowers for sale.

We watched the Morris Dancers entertain the crowds.  These are the local Black Dog Molly.
  

We paused in quiet and leafy corners with wonderful vistas.

Saw lots of interesting plants and flowers

 Found some willow friends - Heron and Fish

 Deer

Hares

But the real purpose of our visit was to see these

 beautiful bluebells

 a sea of blue

 glowing in the sunshine

 Under the trees in the old wood

and making your heart sing.

I'll be back later in the week with the Ospreys.

Five on Friday

It's Friday so I'm joining in with  Amy at Love Made my Home for this week's Five on Friday.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to find others who are joining in too.

Firstly thank you for all your comments on my last Five on Friday post which I managed to quickly put on line whilst we were away in Wales.  I have finally caught up with reading and leaving comments on as many other 'Friday' posts as I can and I apologise if I have missed you as I know I haven't got around to everyone who joined in.

On our way back home from Tremadog - we were staying nearby - we stopped off at Erddig, a National Trust Property, for a break and walk around.  It had been a few years since we visited this property but I do remember being fascinated by it. 

This is the place where you visit 'below stairs' first and it is here that the family of the house chose to honour the hard work of their servants by placing their photographs and painted portraits on the walls.  It was very dark inside so I didn't take many photos and I took none of the actual portraits but there is much information on all the servants and what a superb resource all the gathered information is and how wonderful it must be if one of your ancestors worked there.  You could find out so much about them.  Here is a - link - to some of the portraits.

I also find this set up fascinating as I'm always drawn to the kitchens, laundries and working areas below stairs much more than the more grand apartments above stairs.

As the light was so dismal I found myself drawn to the windows and the things in and around them so below are five photos of things I spotted near windows.

1.  Plants and Flowers - Pelargoniums inside one of the glass houses, taken from the outside through glass.  Such a rich colour.

2.  Food Preparation.  I liked the textures in all the different objects in the window area.

3.  Pots and Pans.  I loved the big white jug, the tin bowls and the washing up mops in the stoneware jug.

4.   Cloches - not sure if they were for the garden or for protecting food but I thought they looked lovely in the light from the window.

5.  Decorative - one photo from the family rooms.  I liked the tassel and the view of the formal garden.

Above five more eye catching things I spotted as we wandered around.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

A Brief Flowering

For the first time I'm joining in with Barbara at Coastal Ripples for her Paint Monthly  link up.

On a recent short break in Wales we visited one of our favourite places Llanbedrog which is on the Llyn Peninsular near Pwllheli.  We never tire of visiting this place and walking along the beach past the brightly coloured beach huts and I know I've taken you there in many posts over the last few years.  

Another highlight of any visit to Llanbedrog is to visit the wonderful Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw and we've seen some wonderful exhibitions there over the years. 

 It is a beautiful place which also has an open air theatre over looking the sea and gently inclining walks up to the cliff tops and coastal walks from the grounds of the art gallery.

This year we were lucky to see three of the gallery's Spring exhibitions and I enjoyed all three but one, 'A Brief Flowering,' stood out for me and there is a rather interesting story about the artist, John Cyrlas Williams, to go with it.

Of course I couldn't take photographs so I've put in some links to other sites where you can see some of Williams's paintings most of which were on display at the gallery.

 John Cyrlas Williams was described by his patron Winifred Coombe-Tennant as 'the real thing' and he was thought of as being amongst the most talented of the Welsh painters of his generation but until recently he and his work were almost forgotten.

 John Cyrlas Williams was born in the USA, the son of a Welsh miner who had joined a Welsh mining community there.  The family moved back to Wales just before WWI and set up home in Porthcawl.  He studied at the Newlyn School under Stanhope Forbes and then the Colarossi Atelier in Paris as well as working at Port Aven in Brittany and Martigues in the south of France.  He was at the height of his powers in the 1920s but only a few years later his painting career was over deeply affected by his depressive nature and alcoholism.  He spent the rest of his life as a civil service clerk and died aged 63 in 1965.

In 2009 a collection of about a hundred of his paintings were found in the attic of the old family home and if they hadn't been spotted by a curious auctioneer they would have ended up on a bonfire when the house was cleared.  A friend of the curator of the exhibition alerted him to the sale of the paintings which have been brought together for this wonderful exhibition.

The paintings in this exhibition which I found most fascinating were two works which depicted the art classes and studios at the Newlyn School.

Here are some links to more about the artist.

Plas Glyn y Weddw page

BBC Wales page

 Welsh Country Magazine