Impatiently waiting for Spring

The emergence of the snowdrops must certainly one of the seasonal highlights from the natural world. Each year the sight of these delicate yet hardy flowers dotting the countryside reminds me that the warm and welcome days of Spring are just around the corner. It doesn’t feel much like that at the moment, as temperatures…

Kaiya in bluebells

The beauty of bluebells is spectacular, yet sadly all too fleeting. Keen to make the most of their brief flowering season, I couldn’t resist heading back to the lake side to snap a few photos of dog Kaiya in the remaining blooms. You may also like: —All photographs copyright of Claire Stott/Grey Feather Photography ©…

Bluebell season

‘How the merry bluebell rings, To the mosses underneath…’– Alfred Lord Tennyson The UK is home to almost half the world’s population of english or native bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta). Synonymous with ancient british woodlands, these iconic flowers are at their most spectacular in spring, usually flowering from mid April onwards. Nothing says spring quite like…

Botanic Gardens of Wales revisited

Our first visit to the Botanic Gardens of Wales was at the end of last summer, when the gardens were bursting with vivid colour and buzzing with life. Revisiting the gardens again earlier this month provided a great opportunity to observe how these gardens change throughout the seasons. In contrast to our previous visit the…

Days Out: National Botanic Garden of Wales

Today we headed south down to Carmarthen to visit the National Botanic Garden of Wales. This 500 acre site is dedicated to conservation and home to an impressive collection of approximately 8000 different species of flowers and plants from the UK and around the world. Despite not feeling my best, a day immersing myself in…

If you go down to the woods today…

With sunny skies and a few hours to spare between shifts at work on Friday, it was the perfect opportunity to hunt for bluebells in the grounds of Nanteos Mansion. Nestled between two small nature reserves, Old Warren Hill & Coed Penglanowen their ancient woodlands provide the perfect unspoiled habitat for numerous species including these…

In search of snowdrops

As winter begins to make way for spring I have been eager to find a good spot to photograph snowdrops, before they wilt and wither to be replaced by more fair-weather flowers. All I have found so far is a few underwhelming isolated clumps here and there on my daily walks, not quite the carpet…

Strange & Beautiful

It was back in the warm and relatively carefree days of summer that I stumbled across a rather unusual find when out searching for insects among the wildflowers. In among a cluster of corn chamomile flowers growing beside the harbour wall, was this rather unusual looking bloom. This particular stem and in a conjoined or…

Flowerscapes

Despite in now being late September a walk outside and you’d be forgiven for we were back in mid summer! Temperatures all week have been hovering over 20 degrees, unusually warm for this time of year. A walk along the promenade today and I was pleasantly surprised to find the flower beds we planted many…

Beebombs

At the start of lockdown some months ago, finding myself with a lot more free time on my hands (how I long for that now!) I finally got around to planting my ‘beebombs’. Beebombs are wildflower seedballs designed to be scattered on open ground or in gardens to replicate a wildflower meadow. With such habitats…

Colour pop

It’s been around 6 weeks since we replanted a couple of the flower beds here on Aberystwyth’s south promenade. Since then we have had what feels like weeks of endless rain, and whilst we not have enjoyed it the flowers have certainly benefited! It has certainly saved us the job of keeping them watered… With…

Celebrating solitary bees

Aberystwyth Castle grounds are always one of my favourite places to visit for their abundance in bird life as well as the vibrant flowers which adorn it’s borders and decorative beds. As mentioned in my previous blog, there is a noticeable lack of cultivated flowers this year as the annuals have not yet been replaced…