February Favourites

 Thin on the ground  - it was a very tough and stressful month on a couple of fronts,  plus we had a houseguest for a week - no stress there.  During that week it rained and rained and rained - we were lucky to get one reasonably fine morning to go for a drive and a walk with him. Even he decided that walking along the canal towpath would be too hazardous and slippy on account of the mud and rain. 

This morning we snuck in a visit to the Botanic Gardens after doing a charity shop and Dog's Trust donation run - it was too beautiful a morning to pass up. A couple of photos attached, the album is HERE. 

This month's header, in a throwback to my first blog post ( April 22, 2009)  is magnolia - this one taken in Farmleigh last March. 

Botanics, the floral side

 

C likes the traditional bright yellow eschscholzia. I quite liked these pale yellow ones, and it was odd that only a handful were dotted so copiously with small flies.

We were lucky to be at the right time to see the handkerchief tree in full bloom.

This was a tall palm-like "tree" in the temeperate zone glass house, with leaves something like banana tree and a bloom amazing like Bird of Paradise, only much larger and less colourful. 

Botanic Birds and Beasts

 I'll split the Botanic Gardens into two posts as I have several mandarin duck photos...

As per the title, this one is (mostly) birds. 

A snatched shot of the squirrel. From the sound in the bushes we had thought it was a bird, but I think it was the squirrel taking a flying leap to grab a berry from the tree. 

I'll be back with May Favourites tomorrow, and then the flowers from the Botanic Gardens.

The full album can be found here. 

Botanic Gardens

 We've had an amazing run of weather the last ten days or so - due to end this week. On the Saturday if the St. Patrick's Day long weekend we went up along the coast, but I have no pictures from that. I do have some from our trip to the Botanic Gardens yesterday - and if you have the appetite for more, the full gallery (approx 70 photos)  is HERE. 

Brief highlights follow. Unedited, due to lack of time.  Plenty of  Spring bulbs...the magnolia patch was fenced off so we weren't able to go into it, the one photo here is from the walled kitchen garden. It looks as if they had cut down several of the established magnolias and planted some new ones.

For the first time since Covid, we were able to go into the glasshouses - and I'd forgotten how quickly glasses  and camera lenses steam up! The strelitzia are in the glasshouse for South Africa and Australia. I liked the dead ones, which made me think of the vultures in The Jungle Book. 

This one was right up at the top of the Palm House - and reminded me of an elaborate fascinator

Enjoying the sun - and I had to look twice to be sure it wasn't another bronze sculpture like the one in the other lily pond. 

This was an intriguing narcissus, with alternate layers of coloured and white petals

And this one made us both think of one of those classic origami flower folds. 

Better late...

 All month I have been meaning to get back and add some photos from the Sculpture in Context exhibition. Life just seems too busy - but a singularly wet morning and a day off are a good combination.

All 74 photos I uploaded from my visit are HERE, but for anyone like me with less time, here's my quick pick of some favourites.

This was a whole array of raised dishes in a circle under some trees. The fallen leaves were a great addition

There was a companion hare to go with the fox

I'm pretty sure I remember a chickenwire sculpture from another year, a fox perhaps. I must look back. 

I can't remember the title of this, I think it had Spring in it. I would have called it Bird Brain.