Riverside Wildflowers

On my walk this week along the riverside footpath by the Tawe from Morfa it was Spring going on Summer and the flowers were out to prove it – all but the buddleia.

Approaching one of the footbridges across the river there were plenty of the ribwort in the image below. It is a wildflower I particularly like, partly because of good memories playing with them as a child, but particularly at this time of year when they are in flower.

wildflower - Ribwort plantain

Of course, all of the wildflowers are special in their own right, even the dandelion – when it’s not all over your garden lawn! Below there is also, wood violet, herb robert, cowslip and primroses all lining the footpath of the River Tawe. There is one more, but I will post that tomorrow!

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

 

 

Flower Cycle and Reviewing the Week

My last flower of this week is not one from our garden, though I look forward to the tulips opening outside our studio.

Appropriately, as we end the week, these bought tulips are at the end of their cycle. They are no less beautiful for their age though, and I am often attracted by dying flowers with their colour changes and withering patterns.

dying tulip

Structural Patterns

My “flower” image today is not like the others I have been posting. The colour is still there and it is beautiful, but the structural patterns created by the plant are an even greater attraction. I never tire of it!

Euphorbia

A Brush with a Broom

Our yellow broom hangs out over the garden path and so I brush past it every time I go up or down the garden. It is a welcome encounter 🙂

Yellow Broom

Yellow Broom

The Concertina of Time

Time being what it is, i.e. flexible/fickle/short/relative, my walk this week will not be happening. I hope you miss the “walk” but still enjoy my posts through this week of Spring flowers. Most are from our garden and the images are a mixture of camera and iPhone photos.

First up – crocuses 🙂

crocuses

My Walk this Week – Hints of Spring

The photos for my walk this week span a few days. I took the same walk each morning for four days and was partly inspired by the first hint of Spring – i.e. sunshine!

It’s another short local hill walk. The hill is fairly small, but steep and rises to about 450 feet. At the bottom my route followed that of the local river with snow drops lining its banks. I was tempted to stop and take some (rare for me) slow exposure shots of the water falling over the weir.

I didn’t have my tripod with me and so most of the shots were discarded. However, there were a few I liked including the underexposed one taken with a faster shutter speed and which shows the patterns and textures in the falling water.

Snow Drops

Flowers in the Great Glass House

However often we go for a walk at the Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW), we cannot miss out one of its main features – the Great Glass House. The architecture itself is interesting enough on its own, but the pleasure of walking around its different planting zones cannot be matched. It is also impossible not to take photos of at least some of the exotic flowers. Many, many others have done this – these are some of mine.

Flower in the Great Glass House

NBGW-12

NBGW-13

NBGW-14

NBGW-15

The Wallace Garden

Within the Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW) where we were walking in September, there are a number of other gardens. My photos today are from the Wallace Garden and although they do not show the double helix arrangement of the paths, as this was not as easy to see as it is sometimes due to the content of the beds, it seemed less important to try and capture it.

It seems there is something different in the garden every time we visit and what you see below is some of what was there on this occasion in September – it will be different now and then again in Spring.

Wallace Garden exit/entrance

Wallace Garden exit/entrance

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace

Dilys Jackson sculpture

Sculpture in the Wallace Garden by Dilys Jackson

plant in the Wallace garden

flowers in Wallace Garden