Tag Archives: plants

jewels in the grass

My Walk this Week 261 – Cally Gardens, It’s All About the Plants

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My walk this week is in Cally Gardens in Scotland where it is all about the plants. We have been visiting this nursery garden for many years and used to enjoy hearing and learning about Michael Wickendon’s plant expeditions and explorations around the world. Sadly Michael died on one of those expeditions a few years ago but the garden has been take over since then by Kevin Hughes and he is clearly developing and maintaining the plants and garden in a similar vein to its past.

I do not have a video from this garden walk to include but the video on the diary page of the Cally website is enjoyable and informative.

garden gate
rusty gate curlicues
sedum
cornflower
long fingers
hostas
hosta detail
apple blossom
jewels in the grass
black rampion
black rampion
garden path
on the top of rocks

Floral Findings 3 – Growing on the Edge

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I’m not sure that I can truthfully say that this clump of thrift, on the edge of rocks looking out over the sea, is actually growing. The year has been so dry and they are clearly past their colourful flowering stage . . . but still I find them very attractive!

on the edge

The shoreline has as much to enjoy by way of plants as the coast has just a few yards inland. The fact that they all have a slightly different annual cycle to their growth patterns makes them that much more interesting.Continue reading→

Dark Park Railings

From Light to Dark – Reviewing the Walk

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My walk this week took me from light to dark in Brynmill Park in Swansea. I had visited the park on many previous occasions and so was interested in capturing some of the details of the place rather than a more open view of its land and waterscape.

It was good to start my short walk in the afternoon sunlight and watch the squirrels gathering their winter stores and the swans and ducks on the dark water of the lake, even though there was the most terrific fight between two of the ducks (not included in the soundscape below).Continue reading→

At an End of the Garden

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Gate in Cally Gardens

The image above is of a old gate set in one of the high walls of Cally Gardens in Scotland. We always visit the gardens when in Scotland but on this occasion discovered that the man who ran them, Michael Wickenden, had died while hunting for plants in Myanmar, and that the gardens are to be sold.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Kunsthuis

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I have been off the grid, so to speak, for a couple of weeks while away on holiday in Scotland but our journey there took in a couple of other destinations in the North East of England. We delivered some of Julie’s work (Julie Brunskill – Ceramics) to the Kunsthuis Gallery in Crayke just north of York and discovered at the same time that Kunsthuis also has a nice cafe and gardens to explore. So my walk this week is a short tour around the place. I’m afraid there are no sound clips with this walk so you will have to imagine the north eastern English countryside sounds.

Follow my posts through the week to see some of the plants, structures and art work in the Kunsthuis Gallery Gardens.

Kunsthuis Gallery

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Kunsthuis entrance
Kunsthuis Gallery
Kunsthuis plants
Kunsthuis plants
Kunsthuis cafe
Kunsthuis Gardens

Lakeside Patterns and Colours

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My walk this week in Brynmill Park, Swansea allowed me to see some fabulous patterns and colours. I particularly liked this quite dark reflection of these huge grass-like plants. Sorry I can’t give you the botanical information on my surroundings but while that is certainly of interest to me, I cannot say that, if told either the common or latin names, I would remember them. I will, however, remember the patterns and colours of this corner of the lake in the park.

lakeside reflections

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Crossing to the Other Side

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Crossing to the other side of the street on my walk this week revealed more natural life than it occurred to me I might find. This is a busy city centre street (or close to it) and the predominant features tend to be of man-made materials – concrete and metal, tarmac and bricks.

As I reached the point where the street I was on changes its name, I crossed to the other side and as I waited at the pedestrian crossing I noted some of the patterns around me and also the plants and flowers lining sections of the street.  The perspective of trees lining the extension of this street is a deliberate plan, but the plants and flowers (some would say weeds) in the forecourts (if they can be called that) of the buildings on this section of the street are there because that is what nature will do if you let it.

The owners of these buildings and businesses are clearly not concerned about this aspect of their working lives and from my point of view the growth of the wild flowers and grasses are a lot more attractive than concrete, but each to their own. At least the vegetation allows some natural drainage.

Street-side plants

Street-side plants

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Street Perspective
Pedestrian Crossing 1
Pedestrian Crossing 2
Pedestrian Crossing 3
Street-side flowers
Street-side plants
Bins and wildflowers

Flowers and Water

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When visiting the Botanic Gardens (NBGW) the natural course to take on a walk is up the main path from the entrance towards the fountain at the end of a small lake. From here you have a number of options in terms of direction but if you have children with you (or even if you haven’t), the temptation is then to follow the twisting miniature stream set into the centre of the walkway.

Eventually, at the top of the path, you reach the simple but attractive water feature that feeds the meandering stream and you can look back down the way you have come and scan some of the other areas of the gardens.

water feature

All but one of the photos I am posting this week are from our walk here near the end of  September. However, I had to look to my archives for a shot of the twisting footpath stream and this one is from June 2011. My youngest daughter once said a few years after the gardens opened in 2000 that this was her favourite place in Wales – I am sure that this magical twisting trickle had something to do with it.

NBGW entrance walk

flowers and grasses