Nottingham Canal

Before tackling the delights of Tesco this morning, Malcolm had the bright idea to have a walk along the Nottingham Canal. What a good idea it was. The sun was shining although it was still a little breezy.

The canal was first thought of in 1790 in order to facilitate the transportation of coal from the pits around Nottingham. Despite many problems during construction - not least of which was that the canal ran through the estate of one of it's chief benefactors - it opened in 1796 at a cost of around £87,000.

As with many modern transport systems, the management of the canal soon began to alienate the very people who were supposed to benefit from it. The tolls payable for it's use were increased excessively and when the railways came along in the 1840's, many canal users quickly 'jumped ship' and abandoned the canal. the canal was finally closed in 1936. More problems followed with flooding of parts of Nottingham city in bad weather. This led to many parts of the canal being filled in.
Some parts of the canal are now run as nature reserves and judging by the bird life around this morning, very successfully. These cheeky little Coot chick were particularly charming.

Not so charming, but much bigger was this Grey Heron - looking for fish, frogs, small rodents, in fact almost anything which moves!

The plant life is equally interesting. These architectural Lesser Pond Sedges (Carex acutiformis) being particularly worthy of note.

Floral exhuberance

Taking a walk along the Nutbrook Trail this morning, Malcolm and I were treated to a floral extravaganza. From the smallest Grey Field Speedwell (Veronica polita)....

... and of equal size, tiny and blue Forget-me-not (Myosotis secunda).

Among the sprouting nettles are to be found the pinkish-purple flowers of Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum).

At a lower level among the grasses, were the well-known garden weeds (weeds are after all, only flowers in the wrong place), Ground Ivy (Glechoma hedracea).

Perhaps the showiest of all was a flower with which most will not be at all familiar - at least not close up. Bright cream-coloured flowers flushed with pink and yellow, held in large, upright panicles. More often referred to as candelabra, these flowers are usually to be seen only from a distance on high tree branches....any Ideas what it is?

Actually very well known to us all, it is the Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum).

Penmon Priory

While visiting the isle of Anglesey last year, we stumbled upon a quiet corner of the island called Penmon. The priory on the site is well worth a visit. There has been a monastic settlement on this small promontory since the 6th century.

The monastery - called St. Seiriol's - was established and grew until a wooden church was built in the 10th century. This was destroyed in 971 and a stone structure was built to replace it in the 12th century.

The oldest parts of the priory still standing, date from around 1140. It was enlarged in the 13th century under rule from the Augustinians. There was a dining area on the first floor with dormitory above and a series of cellars underneath.

The church of St. Seiriol was the focal point of the priory. The dovecot nearby was built about 1600 as a source of eggs and meat.

Containing nest boxes for 1000 nesting pairs and a system of ladders around a central column to allow for easy access to the nests, it remains an impressive structure.

Great Orme - Part 2

The Great Orme has a small road running around it known as the Marine Drive. Good to drive around (provided the toll is paid), but even better to walk, this four mile delight affords the walker an opportunity to see all the flora and fauna of the area - missed if you drive around.
You start with the sight of the 'gate houses' - one at either end of the walk.

Built in the same style as the decommissioned lighthouse which you come to a little further round. The lighthouse is now a bed and breakfast establishment and I bet the views from the bedrooms are fantastic out over the sea.
As you walk around , you are constantly given spectacular views of the cliffs and every turn you take takes your breath away.

Look very carefully and you might be lucky enough to find this beautiful, but diminutive flower growing among the grass.

Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris) is just one of a family of about 500 species. Milkworts are sometimes also known as Snakeroot.

Wales

We had planned to have a walk around the Great Orme at Llandudno on Thursday last week. That was until the weather took a turn for the worse and forced us to change plans. Not to worry, Malcolm and I did the walk in May last year. That time, the weather was beautiful and sunny.

Great Orme is a nature reserve made of an enormous lump of limestone with various seams of ore-laden rocks running through it, particularly copper ore. The underlying limestone creates the perfect growing conditions for a host of wild flowers, many of which are either rare or entirely absent from the rest of Britain. Wild Cotoneaster being perhaps the best example.

Among the more colourful plants has to be the Hoary Rockrose (Helianthemum canum). again a rare plant in the British Isles, it is more likely to be seen in the warmer climes of the Mediterranean.

Grazing on all these plants are the feral goats which can be seen giving the casual passer-by, a funny look!

More on the Great Orme to follow.....

Hawthorn

As the spring sunshine continues, the hawthorn bushes are starting to burst into flower. Small, white and numerous, they seem to froth all over the trees and have a sweet perfume.

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is a familiar small tree in British hedgerows and is also known as May, Mayblossom, Quickthorn, Whitethorn and several other names. The small, red fruits - or Haws - which appear in the autumn are very important as they provide food for a number of birds, especially all of the thrush family and the winter's influx of waxwings.
Haws are also edible to humans and can be made into jams, and syrups. They can be used for wine making and to flavour brandy.
The old adage "N'er cast a clout 'till may be out" refers to the blossom of this tree and not - some people think - the month of May. So on this authority, it looks like we can all start to throw off our vests with wild, spring-like abandon!

There's good news.......

...and there's bad news!
The good news is, I don't need a new camera or XD storage card. The bad news is, I've lost all the photos I took around Wales. Having purchased a USB card reader and downloaded several pieces of data recovery software, nothing has worked. It's so frustrating. When I scanned the card I was finding all the pictures and I thought everything was going to be OK, but then the PC crashed. Tried again with another piece of software and the same thing happened. Obviously the data card had become corrupted and the only way to rectify this was to do a full 'checkdisk' and recover the 'Bad' sectors. This however required reformatting the card, which in turn meant losing all the pictures. I said "Oh dear, Oh dear" as you can imagine! Never mind, onward and upward!

Wednesday saw Malcolm and I at St. David's Britain's smallest city with fewer than 2000 inhabitants. The city is dominated by the beautiful cathedral

The first cathedral was founded as part of a greater monastery by St. David around the year 600. The present building was begun in 1181 but suffered many calamities such as a collapsed tower and an earthquake.The nave is built in the traditional Norman style with a wonderful wooden ceiling. The wooden ceiling was built instead of the more usual stone vaulted roof because of the earthquake which distorted the walls at the west end. The huge organ seen in the picture above was originally built in 1883 but was repaired, rebuilt and reinstalled with additional 'bits' in 1980. It now has 4 manuals and 54 stops. Far more information about the organ HERE.

Pictures taken from Wikipedia Commons.