A Walk in the Winter Garden: Roath Park

From hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping in the town centre of Cardiff, just some 5 minutes drive, I was in the Roath Park.

It was a drizzling mild morning.  The flowerbed near by the conservatory in the botanic garden, a part of the Roath Park, was emptied and showed the dark brown manure, where some gardeners were working on.  It was quiet.  While having been walking toward the lake, I have seen only a few dog walkers.

(This tree is, however, no Japanese Maple.)

I haven't been to the park for years, but still remembered there was a Japanese plant area on the way to the lake.  I would come here sometimes with my children and a playgroup when they were very young.  The Japanese maple trees still stood there, but the all the leaves fell down.  The leaves kept their vibrant red colour as it didn't take so long after the fall.

I didn't expect so much colours in the botanic garden.  But the peculiar light purple colour was caught by my eyes.

Murasaki-Shikibu, Japanese Beautyberry!  I had seen them, in fact, only in pictures.

Next to the Japanese Beautyberry, I found another Japanese shrubs, Nanten, Nandina Domestica.  They are commonly called Heavenly Bamboo or Sacred Bamboo (in Wikipedia) although they are not the bamboo family.  

This shrub is seen widely in every garden in Japan.  My parents' house, my grandparents' houses, my friends' ....... this plant is so familiar.  Nanten is evergreen bush and has berries in the winter.  My mother would decorate the branches with berries for the New Year's celebration, and often put the leaves under or next to food on festive plates.

In the rain, despite the rain, they made me a little bit happy like being in Japan, my home country.

Some shrubs like thorns under big trees had still green leaves and red berries.  Holly-like shrub had strikingly red and green holly-like but tiny leaves.  I cannot find the name.

South Wales has usually wet mild winter.  The autumn has just gone and left colourful gift behind.  The winter brings the plants to rest and looks after them until the spring takes turn.

Calendar 2014 Is On Its Way

The Calendar for 2014:

I have been printing the next year's calendar now, again of the leaves of British plants.  They will be in a landscape acrylic case.  This time I am trying a hanging version as well.  I'll see.  The picture below is Virginia Creeper for October.

Memory of our trees: Sycamore & Ash

There used to be two big trees between the fence of our neighbour's and ours.  Until just a few months ago.  

We have talked about concern of the overgrown trees over the roof of both of us for years.  Then at last, the chance came round in the early spring.
( If you don't know, please see my 'Tree Diary' on 15. April 2013.)

I really wanted to make a nice memory of trees for our next door neighbours, who have been the first to greet us when we moved into our house more than ten years ago and been always so friendly and gave hands for help whenever we needed.  Sadly the couple are going to move out because of downsizing of their family.

Sycamore (left) is on our neighbours' side, and ash is on our side.  The squirrel family has nestled somewhere near by and they run around our house.  They are running around outside, climbing up trees, jumping over from a branch to another branch.  The bird box has been at our ash tree still there (please see the photo on the previous diary) for our regular guests, blue tits, in the spring.

  Sycamore and Ash 2013

(23 x 30cm on A3 cartridge paper, 7 panels with 12 colours)

The leaves are coming out

I haven't written for a while...., and the summer has arrived at last.  It was quite late.  Many leaves are now growing quickly to catch up and to enjoy the short summer.

The ash tree in our front garden, which has had a massive pruning in April.  It looked very odd and bleak, but now young leaves are thriving from the pruned branches. 

 And,  as usual between the spring and the summer, a couple of blue tit nested in the bird box at the trunk of the ash tree, flying from branch to branch, perching on the roof of the nesting box, looking into through a small whole (Is a mum-to-be already sitting on eggs inside?).  The tiny blue tit is very busy.

Summer is coming!

It's now in May!  After the long chilly spring, the summer is approaching to the South Wales.  At once many flowers have started blooming here and there.  Though, only a few common toad flax's sprouts are coming out of the soil.  In the front garden, now!, early dog violet are blooming, which bloom usually in April.  The plants have delayed their growth schedule a couple of weeks (even a month), but I hope they catch up soon by the summer comes.

By the way, I have taken part in a 2-days brush-up workshop for screen printing over the weekend.  (Hurray, tomorrow is a bank holiday.)  I have learnt screen printing in my student time, many years ago.  But I didn't remember how to do it precisely; perhaps the method might have changed.

But, it hasn't changed much.  As we proceeded the screen print, I was gradually remembered how to do it!  


I brought one of my latest paper cut as a try how to transform it onto screen prints.  We were allowed to make prints up to A3 size.  So I brought an A3 size black paper cut work.  All the flowers I cut out from the paper were grown in my garden.  In fact, it doesn't matter to see this picture up-side-down or from whichever side.

My Summer Garden 2013

(paper cut, black paper, A3)

I tried 2 coloured prints and 1 coloured prints on the second day.  At first I separated the picture into 2 parts with Photoshop.  For the 1st layer yellowish colour was used, fully covered with the colour all over except clouds in the centre.  The 2nd layer was practically the same as the original paper cut, and coral orange was used.

My Summer Garden Orange 2013

(Screen Print from original paper cut, 2 colours, water-based acrylic colour, white cartridge paper, A3)

My Summer Garden Green 2013

(Screen Print from original paper cut, 1 colour, water-based acrylic colour, white cartridge paper, A3)

Without great guide and a lot of useful suggestions by Jude, who led this workshop, I couldn't have enjoyed much.  Thank you so much, Jude!

(The workshop was held at the Printhaus, Cardiff.  Click the name, left, or see the Link List at the bottom of this page.)

A big trim at last...

There had been young two trees, sycamore and ash, in a big garden many years ago.  Some decades ago the big garden was divided between these trees, and a new house was built on the ash tree side.  They grew every year and gave shade for the houses on the both side and rests for birds.

But their branches became overwhelming.  In the small town facing the Bristol Chanel it was often windy.  The trees became a nuisance; the branches fell down over the roofs when the storm came, the leaves in the autumn fell down on the roofs and stopped the rain drainages, their shades prevented other plants growing etc.....  The most dangerous possibility was that these trees fell down one day on the houses next to them.

The big trim was needed for them before they came back to life.  My neighbour decided to get rid of the whole tree on his side, sycamore.  We decided to keep our ash tree but with a lot of trimming.

Last week 4 tree service men came round in the morning.  It was so quick until the sycamore tree was cut into piece and disappear from my sight.  There were a lot of pieces of trunk and a big pile of small branches left on the ground.

They came to our tree around noon.  After only one and a half hour or so, our ash tree was drastically trimmed down.  It looks bleak and probably will stay not much different from now  this year, but will grow back to normal in a couple of years.

'We took care of your bird box', one of the tree men said to me.  I noticed in the next morning a pair of blue tit going to move in.  The spring has come!

It looks a bit bleak.

English Oak with leaves (2nd of 3: Tree&Leaves series, A5)

The first one of the trilogy was published on 11/2/2013.  (Turkey Oak)

Today, I'm going to upload the second one.  (The third one will be uploaded some time later.)  This is English Oak.  English oak is so common that it's seen everywhere in the UK.  The one I made this print stands on a small field in my town.  English oak can be quite massive, but this one, I would say, is middle-sized.  I liked the balanced form of its trunk.  Its branches were growing down almost onto the ground, but the thick trunk holds them strongly.

English Oak 2012

(Japanese vinyl relief, 2 rounds with 2 colours, A5)

Happy Easter!

It was sunny on the Easter Sunday yesterday.  We went for a walk in a woodland near by our town. The air was still cold although we felt warm in the sun.  The summer time has just started yesterday in the early morning.

We walked into a deciduous woodland, mainly of beech, where the sunshine came through the bare branches and it was sheltered from the cold wind.  When looking at the bare branches, we could see tiny buds awaiting the warmer days.

The young green leaves of English bluebells were coming out here and there.  Primrose scattered the pretty cream yellow spots in the woodland.  A bunch of wild strawberry had tiny tiny white flowers on a warm sunny slope.

  

It was a quiet Easter Sunday afternoon.  Only a few people with dogs passed by.  Trrrrrrr.  !  A woodpecker was drumming on a tree.  We could still see the hills under the crisp blue sky through the bare trees.

London Plane leaf

This spring is awfully cold.  It's almost at the end of March; the early cherry blossoms should've been over but their buds stopped growing.  The crocuses in the front garden have still flowers.  It's odd.

When I got up today morning, the sky was grey and stormy.   The thermometer at the house  showed minus 2 ℃!  Here in the south Wales it's very rare even in the middle of the winter.  The BBC weather forecast said it would remain cloudy and cold.

So, I ended up to stay at home and finish my work.  There were distractions in between (cooking; I made handmade pasta, children fighting, etc.) as I usually do not sit at my desk on Sunday.  But finally I finished the last panel today on the prints.  It had taken almost 3 month since I made a draft in January.  I'll take pictures of the print some time soon and put it on this blog later.

Anyway, I'd like to put my work one by one.  This time is a small print of a London Plane leaf.

I made prints of its bare tree.  (See the blog on 11/12/2012)  London Plane has large fan like leaves and hairy fruits (followed by red hairy flowers in the early summer) in the summer.  These trees are seen often in towns.

This work was created quite early as a colour study; I tried layering different colours on the leaf and the background.  But it's hard to distinguish the subtle colour in the picture.  

London Plane Leaf

Plywood relief printing, water based ink, 6 panels, 6 colours, A4, 2011

Such a name for a tree! 'Bastard Service'

You can find such upside-down broom-like trees at town roadsides in the winter in my town.  At the beginning of the winter they have plenty of red berries, but they disappear as the time goes.  The berries are birds' favourite winter food, of course.  When all the berries gone, the spring must come soon!

In fact, I hadn't doubted they were rowan tree as the shape of branches in the winter (no leaves) was similar to rowan.  But I found out eventually their name, 'bastard service' in my tree guide book (as noted somewhere else before: Colins Complete Guide to British Trees, this book is brilliant to identify many spices of trees in the UK).

Bastard service is ' natural hybrid of common whitebeam and rowan', which is why I misunderstood.  When looking at their leaves, it's obvious.  Common whitebeam has cherrytree-like round leaves and rowan (mountain ash) has rough comb-like leaves like ash tree.

And yet, I'm still wondering who on earth gave them such a name....  There is service tree ('service' comes from sorbus, the Latin name)  And, the word bastard maybe not related to the straight meaning of itself, bastard, we usually think.  I looked up the Oxford English Dictionary and 'bastard wing' caught my eye.  Accordingly 'bastard wing' is a group of small quil feathers on the first digit of a bird's wing.  Ah!  It might be because of the shape of their feather-like leaves.

(from my sketch)

Anyway I like the bastard service tree with red berries (in November), any matter how they are called.

Bastard Service Tree

(Asian plywood relief, water-based ink, 3 pannels with 8 colours, 

A4, 2012)

Tree Leaf Freak: Paper Cuts: Spring Flowers 2013

Tree Leaf Freak: Paper Cuts: Spring Flowers 2013: It's getting brighter and brighter, and I'm delighted that it's not dark more when I get up in the morning.  The winter time ...

Paper Cuts: Spring Flowers 2013

It's getting brighter and brighter, and I'm delighted that it's not dark more when I get up in the morning.  The winter time will be switched to the summer time a couple of weeks!  Well, I have to get up 1 hour earlier but can feel the evening longer, which is nice.

I like flowers as well as trees.  These papar cuts are of primrose, early dog-violet and wood anemone.

Spring Flower Series 2013

<Primrose; Early Dog-Violet, Wood Anemone>

primrose 

(paper cut, black origami paper on white backed paper, 7.5x7.5cm, 2013)

Primrose has actually baby pastel yellow flower.  I didn't know that before having come to Europe from Japan.  Primroses there have mostly (or at all) vivid red, pink, violet flowers.  They are found in shady meadows, or on the ground near by woodland.

early dog-violet 

(paper cut, black origami paper on white backed paper, 7.5x7.5cm, 2013)

This tiny pastel violet plants have dwelled in our front garden for 5, 6 years.  Perhaps some small animals (like hedgehogs, cat, or even fox!) transported the seeds.  In a year the violets were scattered everywhere in the front garden.  They look very sensitive, but in fact, they have very strong roots, which are not simply got rid of.  I have tried to reduce them, but failed.  Now I gave up and enjoy the flower for tea, cake, salad.  I made even delicious jelly from the flowers.

wood anemone 

(paper cut, black origami paper on white backed paper, 7.5x7.5cm, 2013)

This wood anemone looks like fritillary, and yet I didn't doubt that it was so.  The bunch of white flowers were in a woodland near by Michealston-le-Pit (outskirts of Cardiff).  They looked like this picture when I saw.  It might be because it was in the early evening and the petals were closed for sleeping (or dreaming).  But anyway, this wood anemone is the only one of the three which has white flowers.

At last, put colour on

Having started in January, I've been still working on a print making.  My target to finish off is by the end of this month.  Otherwise the Easter rabbit won't come to me!

The painstaking work is engraving; no, parting a draft into different colour parts, for which I spend a lot of time.  Engraving needs simply patience, care, and of course, time, but straightforward.  Once everything done, I can enjoy the final colouring, or say, printing process.  It is the most rewarding time during the whole printing process.

At last, I've started putting the first colour on paper yesterday.   I bought a new hand-crafted baren (a rubbing disk to print the colour from a block) from Japan in December.

At the first try, how smooth, how light I could move on the paper!  It was well worth to spend for that baren.  I'm very happy with it.

I can put one colour on one day so that the colour on paper gets completely dry.  Today I've put the second colour.  It is always a thrilling moment if two colours can match well.

They are awaiting the next colour.  Tomorrow the third colour comes onto them.  Then the fourth colour comes the day after tomorrow, then the fifth the day after the day after tomorrow.... only if I can manage to carry on every day!

Hazel, I'm looking forward....

My little hazel trees have had catkins!  I have seen a couple of female catkins but no male catkins last year.  Mid February I found a few female catkins 'and' male catkins.

According to my tree bible (Collins' "Complete Guide to British Trees"), male catkins should have appeared in the last autumn.  They should have been short and green, which was why I didn't noticed them at all.  The both female and male catkins, now long and yellowish, have been at branches for almost a month.

I am really looking forward their fat brown nuts this autumn!  Alas, my trees have only a few pairs of male catkins, and only a handful female catkins....

Some 3 or 4 years ago I collected coupons of a cereal company, which has dedicated to British countryside for years, to get 2 baby trees for free.  In a way, I was trapped into the company's sales plot.  Anyway, it was a good cause.  The campaign was called something like 'Grow your own hedgerows'.

Recalling now, I had options of hazel, ash and something else.  Hazel was the only one, which produced 'edible' nuts.  How greedy I was!  Well, I didn't expect it took many years until they are ready to produce their fruits (nuts).

Now, look.  How tiny and beautiful the catkins are, especially female one!

female catkins (0.5cm or less)

male catkins (around 4cm)

Still Chilly Week, Daffodil Shivering

I thought, it would get warmer this week after the last week's crisp sunny days.  But it hasn't.  The dark gloomy grey clouds has brought the cold air, even snow flakes!  Though, it stayed dry at least.  And yet plants need the warm weather and the moisture to boost their sprouting.

Daffodils, crocuses and hyacinth in our front garden have had some flower buds, but they hold their buds still tight.  Once the temperature rises, I'm sure they will all bloom at once.

Oh, I will have to tidy up our garden before the plants start to activate.

Daffodil (paper cutting, used origami paper, 10 x 10 cm)

A sunny day in February at the Cosmeston Lake

It's been sunny for a couple of days here.  Our garden is in a mess, needed to tidy up of the old dead plants and stuff.  Looking close to the ground, new green leaves of the wild strawberry, mint and so many weeds are coming through the dead leaves, already!  Anyway, I have started gardening on the sunny Sunday, but it was far more to be done...  It didn't look that I had spent a whole afternoon for the gardening.

It was still sunny today, so I went out to the Cosmeston Lake near by my house for sketching.

The Lakeside looked still winterly.  The thermometer showed 7 ℃, but quite a lot of people were walking in pairs, with small children, with dogs.  An elderly pair were sitting on a bank facing the lake.  You could hear the children laughing, crying, near by the playing area next to a small woodland.  It was sunny anyway; people were enjoying the beginning of the spring.

The entrance of the woodland next to the playing area.  The ground was muddy, which was stamped with dog pows and Wellies; obviously here is a dog-walkers' favourite spot.

Inside the wood land of deciduous trees, consisted mostly of beech and ash, which was airy and bright.  The fallen leaves have almost gone back to the soil.  On the upper side, slightly left, in the middle, slightly left, you can see a dot, which is a bird nest.  I'm not sure whether it's from the last year or a bird pair recently made it.  But I've seen birds like pigeons holding a branch in its beak.  They are preparing for their new family, which means the spring is coming very soon!

Having come out of the woodland, the sun was brighter.  I saw a cherry blossom tree, standing freely in front of the woodland.  Look!  The red buds are awaiting the warm days.

Turkey Oak (1st of 3: Tree&Leaves series, A5)

February is short, but the winter and the spring are squeezed in this month.  I feel the sunlight is becoming brighter and longer, with which I am delighted.  Although the air is still cold, the spring is stretching its arms and legs, and its new feather (my image of the spring has feathery) are growing in the damp air.  Here is Wales, which is why it rains a lot in the winter and the spring comes early!

I've been working on the new print, but it's still on the way.  (I aimed at finishing it by the end of this month!)

These are a set of prints of a tree, Turkey Oak.

Turkey Oak Tree 2012

(Japanese vinyl relief, 1 round with 1 colours, A5)

I found it at the small lake near by my house the last winter.  The print itself is small, but in fact, the tree is quite large, perhaps 10 metre high or taller.  I liked the shape of the naked tree, of which branches were slender, rather like birch.  It was hard to recognise what kind of tree was, and didn't imagine it was a family of oak.

Then, I went to see this tree in the last early summer.  I was quite surprised when having seen its leaves.  They look definitely a family of oak tree, besides the leaves were unusually long.  Having taken some leaves home, I discovered soon in a book the tree was called "Turkey Oak".

Turkey Oak Leaves 2012

(Japanese vinyl relief, 1 rounds with 2 colours, A5)

Turkey Oak is non native tree, which was introduced in the 18 century (from my guide book) and naturalised.  I don't know if it is originated in Turkey, but it doesn't matter.  I like this tree, looking forward to seeing it with long distinctive leaves at the lake in the early summer again.

Turkey Oak 2012

(Japanese vinyl relief , 2 rounds with 2 colours, A5)

January Trees

New year has begun.

January has half gone, and trees and shrubs show signs of the spring.  Although there are still cold days, tiny buds on branches are awaiting the sunny warm days.  Here, in South Wales, the spring comes soon after the wet dark winter. I go outside to find beautiful naked trees in the dry crisp weather before they wake up, which will be transformed into my printing work.