April in Cardiff

Here are a couple more shots of Cardiff in the pink.

I walk through this park, Alexandra Gardens with the Welsh National War Memorial centre stage, on my way to work in the morning. Good way to start the day.





Beth in Paree

When you can't be there yourself, nothing beats being an armchair traveller.

I urge any of you perusing this blog, to check out Beth Kaplan's Born to Blog. There is a link to the right, but you can also get there from here.

Beth teaches creative memoir writing in Toronto at both Ryerson and the University of Toronto, and I was very fortunate to have taken a class with her. Not only is she an excellent teacher, but she's a wonderful writer and for the last couple of years has been sharing her spring visits to Europe -- as well as chronicling her life in Toronto.

April in Paris! She's there!

flower power



Magnolia magic

Last week was a glorious week of sunshine and summer heat. The flowering trees at Bute Park were among the most beautiful I have ever seen. Kudos to the Cardiff Parks department for amazing work.

Cardiff Castle from Bute Park



  

More of Bute Park





At the back of Bute Park are a canopied wood of camelia --  red, white and pink.
They look like roses and can grow into tree-size shrubs.  Simply breathtaking.



BobbyGeorge, the giant warthog troll, so named by my niece Sarah and nephew Shawn.
He has been given a fresh spring coat of sod.

all in the wash

Laundry day

Most flats in the U.K. come with washing machines, as did mine. Most do not have dryers, which leads to the proliferation in most British households of portable drying racks. As the machines also only hold loads about one-third the size as North American washers and each load takes an average (no kidding) of two hours (as opposed to the N. American 30-45 minutes) the sight of drying racks is pretty constant.

Clothes lines are available, and I have access to one in a shared courtyard, but clothes lines are not much of an option when it rains every other day.

This drying of clothes anywhere inside the house where there is a wall heater also leads to a very high moisture content indoors, which leads to a constant battle against mould. Britain is mouldy.

I have only seen two laundromats in my Cardiff travels and one was actually outside Cardiff in Penarth.

In the winter, on my walks home from work, I was able to see into windows of other flats, and everywhere, on staircases, railings and racks there were constantly clothes drying.