Clematis Montana Freda

Clematis Montana “Freda” – this was our compensation for not seeing so much of our Cherry blossom this year. Though the plant is not yet very extensive, it has put out its best set of flowers yet and is a great pleasure to see on the edge of our patio 🙂

Photos courtesy of my iPhone 5c.

Clematis

Clematis

Life in the Garden

Someone was pleased to see us return from our Easter break! Misha spent two weeks in the cattery and was subsequently delighted to see us return so that she could enjoy the Spring outdoors instead of in confinement.

cat in garden

On Returning Home

Firstly I must thank everyone for the likes and comments made while we have been away. If  I have not done much liking or commenting on my first day back from our Easter break, I can only apologise. Things will gradually get back to normal over the coming days and weeks.

The thickening carpet of Cherry blossom petals in our garden confirms what we expected – i.e. we would miss a large part of the tree’s Springtime display while we were away in Scotland.

But we are not sad because we had a great time with mostly excellent weather and some very enjoyable walks. I will be posting some of my photography from our trip to NE England and SW Scotland as soon as I get the chance to process it.

The photo below was taken on my iPhone.

Cherry Blossom Petals

Another from the Garden – Amelanchier

This and yesterday’s photo were actually taken two weeks ago just before we went away for a break. We were hoping that they would still be here for us when we got back. The Cherry and the Amelanchier have got to be two of our favourites in the garden!

Amelanchier

White Bluebells or Blue Bluebells

Spring is the only season left for me to produce a video from Lower Lliw Reservoir. I am hoping that now that the bluebells are coming out in our garden, there may also be some showing themselves at the reservoir.

I wonder if they will be white bluebells or blue bluebells?

Photos were taken on my iPhone 5c.

Bluebells WhiteBluebells Blue

 

 

Botanic Gardens, Swansea – Textures and Patterns

It seems I have a Swansea Parks theme this week! Following my visit to Cwmdonkin Park, I went down to the Botanic Gardens in Singleton Park. I had gone there to attend a Walking Forum meeting but arrived early. I had my camera with me and so took a few shots of some of the flowers in their various stages for the current season.

I am embarrassed to say I do not know the names of these particular plants – embarrassed because I probably could have made a note of them in the gardens at the time. Also because I have not been able to identify them since as I don’t have enough visual information. The photos are all details of the heads and not the foliage or the rest of the plant, making it difficult to see the context in which the plant is growing.

Being more interested in the patterns and textures than the plant  identification at the time of photography, it is not the first time I have not considered that I may be curious about this later on or, indeed, require it for a blog post such as this.

If anyone can identify these two plants, I would be very grateful.

Botanic Gardens, Swansea

Botanic Gardens, Swansea

Botanic Gardens, Swansea

Botanic Gardens, Swansea

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Mint, Mint and More Mint

I was going to post a picture of last night’s orange moon but the photos didn’t work out as well as I would have liked – I wasn’t using a tripod and that was a mistake.

So here is something I cooked up earlier! You can’t have too much fresh mint in my opinion! If a recipe says to add mint, I always add probably twice as much as the recipe says – just because I love it!

Courgettes, peas and mint with pasta and parmesan cheese has got to be one of my favourites. This is a recipe from Rose Elliot’s “Little Book of Pasta”.

Garden Flowers-Mint Garden Flowers-Mint Garden Flowers-Mint Garden Flowers-Mint