• We had a day out shopping in Cardiff today. I saw the pair of shoes in John Lewis and thought they were a pefect example of form over function. They are not exactly perfect for playing basketball in!

    The Daffodil hat was in the window of a shop selling everything Welsh. I imagine there must be rows of human daffodils that turn up to rugby games at the Millenium Stadium.

    I took a short cut through a little garden park in the centre and was almost bowled over by the scent from a tree that I think might be a witch hazel.

    On the way home, we were preceded by a fabulous rainbow that danced across the road in front of us. I can’t remember when I last saw such a bright one.

  • In case you missed it, you can still see Around the World by Zeppelin a fabulous film about a 21 day round the world voyage by the Graf Zeppelin in 1929.

    The story is told from the viewpoint of the young journalist Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, reporting for the Hearst media empire. The film is based upon her letters and diaries and told exclusively through archival and newsreel film from the time, this film relives the incredible voyage.

    It is told in a wonderfully slow and graceful way and has some astonishingly ephemeral moments that must have seemed trivial at the time, but are now a fascinating insight into the times. You can see it on BBC iplayer here

  • The trouble with going downhill is that you have to go all the way back up again. I was determined to find where two paths meet, so I carried on downhill until I got to the bottom of the valley. The circular route back up was very steep, but at least it opened out into this view across the forest.

    I think my favourite tree is the Beech. I love their root systems, they way they twist and turn, making little caves and hollows. The bark has a metal quality, it looks as strong as iron. When I was a boy we woulld make little villages in the caves and garages for dinky cars at the bottom of a huge beech tree.

    The edge of the forest is often used as a garden rubbish dump by locals. I came across this cyclamen, which must have been dumped there at some point. It’s not a wild variety.

    Walking down the hill, I came across the barred up mine entrance in the picture. The Forest is riddled with mineshafts and quarries. This quarry will eventually break through to another, massive quarry behind it. A lot of the landscape is made from quarry and. Watch where you are going!