Lumionous Skies

Unfortunately I don't think I can post the photos here in case of copyright issues, but I have provided a link below which will show you photos on the BBC news website.

We hardly ever get to see the Northern Lights here in Britain, but some people captured some amazing scenes recently in the skies.  The second photo looks like it could be a scene from Harry Potter on Privet drive...........maybe there are witches & wizards battling with each other in the skies above!!

Enjoy! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26378027

Bluebells and Wild Garlic

April & May are the Bluebell months in Britain.   I went walking for about 3 hours in a broadleaf woodland in south Wales, and the woodland floor at the moment was covered with a spectacular blue carpet of native bluebells.  It's getting to the end of their season now, so they were starting to thin out a bit.

 Unfortunately, there is an invasive species of Spanish bluebell which is making it difficult for the common luebell to survive.  They were brought here to grow in British gardens and have been spreading aggressively ever since.  Some estimates state that up to 30% native bluebells have been hybradised with this Spanish variety, however telling the difference is easy.  A Spanish bluebell plants are straight with flowers all around the stalk.  A common or native bluebell curves or droops at the top and only has flowers on the underside.  These links will explain further -

 http://www.plantlife.org.uk/about_us/faq/bluebells/

http://visitwoods.org.uk/en/visit-woods/things-to-do/nature/pages/bluebell-factfile.aspx#.UaYjldgQNK1

Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA) has made it illegal for anyone to collect or uproot native bluebells in the wild, so it;s unwise to pick them.

Bluebells are quite interesting because like many wild plants they appear in folklore and have been used in various ways throughout time. The flowers produce a sticky substance which was used to bind pages to book spines.  Since it contains starch, the glue was also used in Victorian times to stiffen ruffs and sleeves.

Here are some other interesting fact about bluebells -

Around 30 - 50% of the world’s bluebells grow in Britain (this figure varies a bit depending at which source you look at).

They take about 5 years to develop from seed to bulb, so it's not a good idea to walk amongst them, however tempting it may seem!

Bluebells are poisonous!   However, the nectar is an important food source for bees, hoverflies and butterflies.

Some bluebells are white.  This is because of a genetic mutation that means they lack the pigment that gives them their colour.

 During the Bronze Age, the glue was used attach feathers to arrows.

In Welsh, they're called Clychau'r Gog, which means Bells of the Cuckoo.  

 Bluebells are strongly associated with fairies in folklore, and are supposed to ring to beckon the fairies to their dance.   However, hearing bluebells ring is supposed to bring death to anyone who hears them!

Crossing the stream carefully along the rocks.........

 

This beautiful woodland was just covered with Wild Garlic!  It was absolutely everywhere you looked!  It's  a good indicator of an old woodland.  Wild Garlic has four-and-a-half times more sulfur than your average supermarket-bought garlic which means that it's very good for you, and it's reputed to be higher in other minerals as well.  Its sulfur compounds are bound to protein, so it's orderless after consumption as well!! 

 The leaves and flowers are edible, and are great to add to soups & salads.  Maybe one day I'll harvest some and make some Wild Garlic & Potato soup.  I couldn't collect any last time because I didn't expect to see so much Wild Garlic like this.  For now, I'll have to be content with looking at my photos. 

 

                                                

Twilight Park

I went to the city of Bath the other day, and decided to stop by a park in my city because all the cherry blossom trees were in bloom and looking beautiful.

The grass was covered in pink petals, like natural confetti.......

 

A Different Kind of Home

Just wanted to share this great website which shows lots of beautiful and interesting homes that have been built with the environment in mind.  A lot of them look like they've taken stylistic inspiration from Hobbits, and look very tree-like with their lack of straight lines.

These houses or natural dwellings certainly look far, far better than the ugly pebble-dash or red-brick modern houses that look exactly the same as each other.  They also fit-in much better into the lush, green Welsh countryside. 


This is a link to their articles section, which shows wonderful homes from around the world, not just from Britain.  I love all of the architectural styles that are shown on this page -

http://naturalhomes.org/articles.htm

There is also a Russian and Romanian version of this website, and also Facebook pages in various other languages.

Here's the Russian one -

http://naturalhomes.org/ru/


Here's one of the houses that's recently been built in Pembrokshire, Wales -

http://naturalhomes.org/save-charlies-house.htm










This one is in Somerset -

Cwm Idwal in frosty, bleak February

In the last few days, I went to Cwm Idwal.  On the way we saw big icicles around a meter long, and the mountains were sugar-dusted with snow.

It's one of the few places in Britain where you can see Artic-Alpine plants, and it's a site of Special Scientific Interest.  We just walked up to the lake, and from what I saw, it's quite an easy walk which some steeps sections,  so it's ok for children if you just keep to the lake.  It would be a nice place for a picnic in the summer.  

There are quite a few bleak pictures of Snowdonia on the internet,  and they give the impression that Snowdonia is always like this when it's not.  The Snowdonia area is incredibly green as well because of the high rainfall.

This is path we followed.

Llyn Idwal (Lake of Idwal)

There are a few opinions as to why it is called Llyn Idwal, but one of the most common stories surrounding this lake is that it was named when Idwal, son of the prince of Gwynedd in the 12th century, decided to entrust the care of his son to Nefydd Hardd.  Nefydd was jealous of Idwal because he was more talented than his own son, so he pushed Idwal into the lake, where he drowned.  Owain banished Nefydd from the kingdom, and named the lake after his son.

 To give you an idea of scale, you can just about see little dots where there are 3 people in the above photograph.  They are on grassy area, near the horizon a little towards the left.

Several people have died whilst walking on Glyderau, which is the group of peaks in this area, and even experienced walkers have died.  When we were there, there was a group of people around 20 years old, who looked like they had come from a city on holiday.  They were wearing baseball jackets, and hip-hop style clothes with no gloves, no proper coats, just hoodies.

 As you can see from the frozen water in the waterfall, it was just above freezing, and we decided to turn back because it was starting to snow lightly. 

I took these last two photos in Llanberis.


I think after that sort of weather a hot chocolate is in order!

January Snow

After a year of blah weather, winter is finally here!  We didn't have a summer - only a few days of heat and sunshine and the rest were cloudy days.  It's been raining every week, almost everyday at some point since last June.

This winter has been very mild,  again with lots of rain and not many occasions where is's gone below 5C, and it's often been 12 - 15C.  

Today it was 0C, and I think the poor birds were feeling it!  The little fellow below was so cold he didn't move that much.  Maybe he was conserving his energy, or maybe he was just too cold to care.   I wish I'd brought some bread crumbs with me.  On the other hand, some animals were having lots of fun!  We saw a beautiful dog running around and playing in the snow, and as you can tell, she was born for this weather. 

 

These pigeons looked like they had together for a meeting.....or maybe they were gossiping. 

  

Pink flower macros

I've bought myself a new camera :D, because the old one was a bit pathetic and wasn't working proper;y anymore.  Even though the old point & shoot was prone to taking blurry shots, the one good thing that it did manage to do was macros. 

I'm looking forward to testing out my new camera over Christmas.  Sadly, there probably won't be any pretty frosty shots this year because it's simply not cold enough yet.

Anyway, here are some pink flower macros I took with my previous Canon A1000 (a nice colour to have around when the weather is dull and miserable).