Fuchsia

Autumn Reds in the Garden

I am lucky enough to have a long garden down which to walk each morning and enjoy the changing colours, patterns and textures it presents along the way. I don’t know what I would do without this resource for my wellbeing. Being outside my door, it is the closest that nature could be to me and much as I enjoy my walks to local marshes, woods, hills and further afield, I don’t know how I would manage without our garden as well.

dogwood

The reds are really coming through now, but there is more to come as Autumn proceeds. For now we have the berries, rosehips, fuchsia and dogwood.

I’m not one for controlling nature but if we didn’t do some maintenance jobs, it wouldn’t be long before we couldn’t move in the place. And so the garden heap is still waiting for a convenient dry evening to be burnt before the cuttings from the pruning of our cherry tree can be moved into place to await their turn for a bonfire.

Welsh Poppy

Before and After

So on my saunter down the garden for “my walk this week”, this is what our flowering cherry tree looks like – after the pruning it was given a few weeks ago. Our friend Joe did a fantastic job of untangling branches from telegraph wires and opening the tree out to allow more light amongst its foliage. You can see the before and after photos is in the image set below.

Cherry Tree

The tree is still green but in other places the greens are changing to yellows with the brightness of a lone Welsh poppy still standing out against the backdrop.Continue reading

Winter Jasmine

My Walk this Week – Autumn Garden

My walk this week is not so much a walk as a saunter down our garden. Having completed a very hectic few weeks of work, I allowed myself a short mid-week lie in and so didn’t set off down the garden to our studio until mid morning. The day was fairly bright, although it had been raining through the night – the result was one of bright colour and it lifted my heart and brought a smile to my face.

flower pots

I wouldn’t ever claim our garden is worthy of being placed next to many others “fancier” ones I know of, but I love it just as it is. It seems to be in a permanent state of being in the middle of things being done – but perhaps that is how a garden should be!?Continue reading

fresh onions

Contents of a Rusty Shed

Before leading my group on our silent walk for WWAMH at Clynfyw Care Farm, I found myself attracted to a large rusty shed, the contents of which ranged from more rusty currugated iron sheets to freshly picked onions.

rusty shed roof

The colours and patterns of the ageing construction materials and the contrasting fresh patterns and colours of onions “relaxing” on tables and boards propped up by garden chairs, I found particularly exciting – visually of course!Continue reading

Walking – Cwmdu Walk Part 2, Reviewing the Walk

The end of this middle section of my walk above Cwmdu on the hills between the Brecon beacons and The Black Mountains in Wales, showed me a path I could have taken.

Mynydd Llangorse

However, the pile or cairn of stones in the foreground above also marked the point at which I would leave this path and descend back down into the valley – Cwm Sorgwm. Continue reading

Colourful fields

With My Heart in My Mouth

Once up near the top of Mynydd Llangorse on this second part of my walk on the hills above Cwmdu in Wales, I stopped for some lunch. The food wasn’t the only thing in my mouth though, as I watched a hang glider and glider apparently so close to each other that I thought a collision was almost inevitable.

With my heart in my mouth I watched as the glider and the hang glider circled to take advantage of the thermals. Having witnessed an actual collision of small aircraft a few years ago where the occupants died, I had those memories flooding back to me and was seriously concerned for those above me. Continue reading

thistles

Colour in the Valley and Some Cautious Sheep

Colour and sheep were significant features of this first part of my Cwmdu walk up Cwm Sorgwm between the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains in Wales.

Gate and foxgloves

The colour was largely the vast array of greens common to the Welsh countryside and hills, but also other colours such as the purples of thistles and foxgloves. The sheep too,Continue reading

Forest steps

In the Pink and Green

Summer walks in the woods reveal the pink flowers and the green grass in sunlight.

Forest Foxgloves

While there is plenty of shade under the trees – indeed the forest is often darker than usual because of the density to foliage – there are also pockets or glades of sunlight picking out the Continue reading