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.
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
Alfred Russel Wallace
Sculpture in the Wallace Garden by Dilys Jackson
The fountains across the road from the Wales Millennium Centre were at the end of our walk along Cardiff Bay barrage.
Click the first thumbnail image below to view the photos from this week’s walk in sequence (plus a couple of extras).
We didn’t take the water bus but walked across Cardiff Bay on the barrage instead. The view across the water shows the bronze roof of the Millennium Centre glinting in the sun and the red terracotta ceramic surface of the Pierhead building in front of it.
Walking from the modern architecture of Cardiff Bay to the bay’s barrage took us past an area of old docks. The backdrops of the buildings in one case and old painted walls in another, both seen behind that determined urban wildflower, buddleia, were the points of interest for me at this stage of our walk.
The starting point for a recent walk around Cardiff Bay can be seen below in some of the angular architecture of the area. The architecture may be one of the things that Cardiff Bay is known for but my walk this week, which took us across the barrage, will be taking an alternative look at the area and some of the features that caught my attention.
The materials of the building in the background of the second photo prove it to be the same one as is in the first shot. You may be able to tell that the first image was taken at a different time to the second as is shown by the change in weather. It’s the bird I particularly like in this photo, and the red triangle of the footbridge in the second one, or perhaps I should say the context of these elements of the images.
The ruined building by the phone mast near the top of my hollow way walk is a fascinating piece of old local architecture but I guess it is the state that it is in that interests me rather than what it was. The big hole in its side wall may have been a window at one time but now the ragged edge of the naked wall provides an interesting frame for views of the surrounding hills.
I find the structures of the hole in the wall, the electricity pylon and the interior of the building juxtaposed with the hillside and tree growth against the chimney brickwork patterns of endless interest. Every time I take this walk I stop at this point for a look around at these and other features of the place.
I thought the pylon shot might also work well in b&w and so the monochrome image can be seen on Leanne Cole’s Photography blog Monochrome Madness post.
The Meridian Tower is the main structure that can be identified in this misty, murky shot across Swansea Bay from Mumbles. So ends a week of photos taken in dull, damp weather – I hope you have enjoyed them in spite of the weather.
A gallery of all the images I have posted this week can be seen below.
