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Tag Archives: RSPB

Snoozing, Squelching and Silvery Mud

29 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by wellywoman in Countryside, Environment, Out and About

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Cardiff Bay, Gwent Levels, Newport Wetlands Centre, Richard Mabey, RSPB

Christmas presents

Christmas presents

So the big day has been and gone for another year. In the Welly house it was a nice chance to relax after the previous busy days of preparation. Gardening featured heavily as a theme for presents. I was delighted to get some wooden seed trays which will look perfect in the greenhouse, there was Richard Mabey’s excellent Flora Britannica, membership of the RHS and 2 mugs which will keep me supplied with tea throughout the growing year.

Then Boxing Day arrives and we enter ‘Chrimbo Limbo’ as I heard it rather aptly referred to on the radio the other day. For some reason, I do seem to have spent a lot of time over the last week asleep. I even nodded off one afternoon whilst reading my new book, although that is no reflection on Richard Mabey’s writing, I hasten to add. I think the dark, gloomy days are getting to me and my body clock. We like to get out over the Christmas period and get some fresh air and exercise but this year the weather has done its best to put a halt to this idea. It has officially been declared the wettest year on record in England; as for Wales, well if there has been a wetter year I’m just glad I wasn’t there to experience it. The incessant rain has made most of our favourite places to walk no-go areas turning them into muddy quagmires with huge puddles. We’re hardy folk though and we’ve donned waterproofs and wellies and squelched our way around the appropriately named local RSPB Wetlands Reserve, despite lashing rain and howling gales.

Newport Wetlands Centre

Newport Wetlands Centre

The reserve was created in 2000 to compensate for the loss of mudflats further up the coast at Cardiff. The Cardiff Bay project constructed a barrage to make a freshwater lake with the idea of regenerating the old city docks by creating a marina. Mud flats are an incredibly important habitat but unfortunately a muddy tidal estuary doesn’t look that attractive when you want to build penthouses and bars, so it had to go.

The Wetlands Centre at Newport used to be a dumping ground for waste from the nearby power station but it has been transformed into 145 acres of reed beds and lagoons. Situated on the Gwent Levels, an area of ancient marshland grazing and reen systems (drainage ditches), and looking out onto the Severn Estuary, it is a flat, bleak landscape. I like walking here. It isn’t what you would call beautiful in the way that a Cornish beach is or the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales are but there is something about the place. For one, I love being by water and, whilst there is no sandy beach or stunning cliffs, I still find it incredibly soothing and good for the soul.

The Severn Estuary

The Severn Estuary

There is also something about somewhere that is bleak. You have to try that little bit harder to find the beauty but it is possible, even with a power station not too far away. On a frosty day, with the bluest of skies the weather bleached reeds glisten, golden in the light. Even on a gloomy winter’s day feint shafts of sunlight appear from the heavily laden clouds and there is enough light to create a silvery, shimmering effect on the muddy beach as the tide goes out. Dotted about the mud are hundreds of footprints of the birds that have been here seeking out food buried below and flocks of birds scoot along only a few feet above the water.

Frozen lagoon

Frozen lagoon

We’ve seen the lagoons frozen, creating duck ice rinks and, at the other extreme, some of the ponds almost dry after month upon month of drought. We’ve stood transfixed by murmurations of starlings and watched agog as a heron swallowed a duckling whole. In summer, the place is a teeming with dragonflies and damselflies, moths and butterflies, and stunning orchids appear alongside the paths. We’re ever hopeful that one day we’ll spot the magnificent bearded tit or hear the boom of a bittern, both inhabitants of the site. Fellow visitors taunt us, their sightings written on a board in the visitors centre. One day we’ll be lucky too.

The Year of the Tree – My Crab Apple

23 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by wellywoman in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

apples, bees, blossom, crab apple tree, RSPB, Westonbirt

I recently posted about my visit to the arboretum at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire and my love for trees so Flighty at flightplot kindly sent me a link to www.thetreeyear.wordpress.com. It is a blog to celebrate trees in this, 2011 The Year of the Tree, allowing people all over the world to blog about a tree or trees that are close to their heart. The idea is to pick a tree/s and study that tree throughout the year. To record how the tree changes through the seasons, what wildlife uses the tree, what plants grow around the tree, in fact anything that tells the story of a year in the life of that particular tree.

What an amazing idea. I love it. Anything that makes us take a closer look, to appreciate our natural environment is so worthwhile. Unfortunately, I have come to all this a little late in the year but I still wanted to contribute so I want to introduce you to my crab apple tree.

I don’t know what variety it is. The tree was already here when we bought the house. It is such a beautiful tree that gives me a lot of pleasure.

In Spring it is smothered in whitish-pink blossom that has a beautiful fresh scent. I will always stop to have a sniff – a smell that embodies Spring. As the blossom fades fresh green leaves unfurl. These zingy fresh leaves provide a perfect background to the Spring flowers bursting into life. Then, as Spring merges into Summer the tree has a quiet spell allowing other plants to steal the attention. Occasionally I will notice that little green fruits are beginning to swell, a taster of what is to come. As daylength shortens and temperatures start to drop, the fruit now the size of a small sweets, become streaked with red. Then, by the middle of autumn, the whole tree is covered in glowing red balls of tiny apples. This is how the tree looks now.

I’m not the only one to appreciate this tree. The birds love its myriad of branches, providing them with somewhere to perch, safely hidden from predators. The RSPB recommends crab apples not just because they provide valuable food for birds in winter but also because they are home to over 90 varieties of insects. Bees love the tree as well when it is in blossom, gorging on the nectar.

That’s all for now but I will post again between now and the end of the year with other stories and photos from my crab apple. Take a look at thetreeyear for more tree tales.

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My latest book – The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My Book – The Cut Flower Patch

My Book - The Cut Flower Patch. Available to buy from the RHS online bookshop.

The Cut Flower Patch – Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014

The Cut Flower Patch - Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014
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