I took a tour in Wales, mainly along the coast. Wales, the southwest corner of Britain, is about 170 miles long and 60 miles wide, but hills, mountains, and rivers make it a lot more complex. My tour, with Road Scholar, began just north of Wales in Manchester, and circled south along the coast, finally turning east to Cardiff and then London.
We saw lots of green pastures, with cows or sheep
We stopped at the famous Bodnant Gardens. It was late September so only a few things were blooming, but it was lovely nevertheless. I was impressed by the number of American plants (for example purple asters (Symphyotrichum) and orange coneflowers (Rudbeckia) in the photo below) reminding me how much gardeners have borrowed plants from around the world
 |
| Bodnant Gardens |
Important to the history of Wales was its conquest by King Edward I of England (1239-1307). Edward solidified control by building castles (17!) all over Wales. Many remain, very picturesque, and tourists can't resist them. This is Conwy Castle at the north of Wales.
 |
| Conwy Castle |
Also essential to the history of Wales are its mineral riches. Copper, iron, coal, and slate especially.
This picture is of the town of Llandudno, once a major copper mining center, now an beach resort.
 |
| Beach at Llandudno |
Above Llandudno is Great Orme, a 679' high headland that was the source of the copper of Llandadno. Now a park, the copper has been mined for at least 4,000 years. Bronze tools, especially ax heads, made from Great Orme copper, were traded all over Bronze Age Europe.
 |
| Great Orme mine |
Of course we saw lots of towns,
 |
| street scene |
And we had days when the rain poured down (the photo doesn't do it justice!)
The Welsh language is one of three surviving Brittonic languagues (the other two are Breton and Cornish). For centuries English has nearly swamped Welsh, because the government since Edward I has spoken English and because many English speakers have moved into Wales. However, the language has been gaining recently; it is taught in schools, as a primary or secondary language depending on the language at home, and since 2021, signs, including street signs, have been in both Welsh and English. I don't seem to have taken pictures of road signs, but here is a yarn shop's sign: Ar agor is (we are) open; Siop Wlân is yarn shop.
Welsh is famous for its difficult names (Llandadno, above, for example) so I tried to learn some Welsh before the trip to be able to work out the pronunciations. Duo Lingo teaches Welsh, so I had six weeks of study before the trip. It worked, I knew agor and siop when I saw this sign.
And, the one below, Siop y Ddraig is The Dragon Shop.
I remain fascinated by Welsh because it is neither a Germanic language (I have studied German) nor a Romance language (I have studied Spanish) so I am looking forward to ways of speaking that are new to me. One already: if two words are hard to pronounce sequentially, Welsh will change the first letter of the second word. I think spoken English does that, but the spelling doesn't change. So to me a word's first letter is an essential part of the word's identity. Not in Welsh. Their spelling is phoentic and recognizes sound changes. For example, the word dragon is draig, but after y, as above, the d changes to the letter dd, which is pronouched th and follows more easily. It is dragon whether you spell it draig or ddraig. Similarly, Tuesday can be dydd Mawrth and dydd Fawrth. (Dydd is day, Mawrth is also the month March and the planet Mars. Those doubtless change spelling too). I can't yet articulate how that changes what I think a word is, but it certainly broadens the definition of a word. And, it undermines my tendency to lean on first letters to recognize words.
We saw other castles--this is Caernarfon Castle
 |
| Carnarfon Castle |
We saw huge hills where mining operations dug into the rock and threw the waste out of their way. In one way they were very ugly. In another, very interesting in terms of the mining that was so important to the economy of Wales. As products rose and sank in value, villages and regions experienced prosperity and poverty.
 |
| hill with mining operations and tailings |
Our encounters with the history of Wales included taking us to Machynlleth where in 1404 Owain Glyndwr held a Welsh parliament. The rebellion he led did not last, but the dreams and plans expressed at his parliament remained important to the Welsh and today have largely been realized. Despite the English putting down the rebellion, Owain Glendwr was never captured and his burial site is unknown.
 |
| mural in Machynlleth |
I was always looking at the plants, trying to identify them. This was stinging nettle (Urtica dioica, nettle family, Urticaceae). Telling stinging nettle from various false nettles is easily done by slapping your hand lightly against the leaves. Stinging nettles sting. This was the real thing, my hand stung for two hours.
 |
| stinging nettle, Urtica dioica |
The pink-flowered plant is willowherb. I planned to easily name it, but in fact England has eleven different willowherbs, including one introduced from North America and a hybrid (all in the genus Epilobium, evening primrose family, Onagraceae). They are closely related to the American fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium), an iconic plant of the Rocky Mountains. It is pretty common for North American and Northern European plants to be similar enough to recognize but be different species. (And, DNA data is increasingly separating them into different genera as well; its been a long time since a plant could easily cross from Newfoundland to England.) I think willowherbs/fireweeds are pretty plants, even when mostly through flowering as these were. These were small and growing along roads and paths.
 |
| willowherb, lots of curly open seed pods, a few pink flowers |
Another scenic landscape from the bus
 |
| View in Laugharne, close to the home of Dylan Thomas |
References
Crewe, M. 2024. Willowherbs. Flora of East Anglia. An Identification Guide. link Accessed 10/1/25.
Davies, J. 2007. A History of Wales. Revised and updated. Penguin Books, London.
Gruffudd, H. 2018. Learn Welsh. Y Lolfa Cyf. Talybont, Ceredigion, Wales.
Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
More at awanderingbotanist.com
Join me on Facebook
Buy a Book!
Collections:
Kathy Keeler Curious Stories of Familiar Garden Plants available from Amazon link
No comments:
Post a Comment