Nature of your Country

[Longbowman]

Can't really improve on English Rose. Glad to say I've been to the vast majority of enumerated places.

My village in northern Wales:







Craig yr Deryn, Bird's Rock. Famous local landmark:



Turn right from where that's taken and you'll see this:



Sunnier day:



End of a sunny day:




We're three miles from the sea:




Looking into the valley from about a mile from the sea:




Looking down from Bird's Rock over the valley:






Finally, behind this house, there's a grass road. Go up 50 metres and my neighbour's house is there. To the left, a gate, and the rest of the road turns to soil. That's the beginning of our property:

[Longbowman]

Also very pretty is the village in Hertfordshire in which I grew up.

Local reservoir:







Some I've taken:

[Dylan]

this thread is such a joke for those of us who come from well known/well traveled/larger/more relevant countries.
it's cool for the smaller less explored ones though

[Longbowman]

Some lakes near my village (my photos):

[♥ Lily ♥]

England

I forgot to mention in this post that the top pictures are of where I grew up in Bournemouth, the hotels overlooking the beach, (there's 7 miles of clean sand there and award-winning gardens,) plus the Jurassic Coastline between Dorset and Devon which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and shows proof of life dating to over 185 million years via the continuous fossil finds there. Compton Acres in Dorset has Italian villas and Italian gardens in it. It's in south-west England. The top pictures are mostly of Bournemouth gardens, the Winter Gardens, (there's some palm trees in Bournemouth too,) and the other pictures are of the Lake District in Cumbria of north-west England and the Norfolk Broads in Anglia, East England.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Something I like about the nature of my country is that being a small island, we're never far from the countryside or the seas. The main island is surrounded by the Celtic Sea, the English Channel Sea, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, and the North Atlantic Ocean waves off the coast of Cornwall is nice for surfing.

The weather is mostly mild (I love the rain and dislike the sun, so the weather is actually something I like a lot, but it doesn't rain so much in the south as in the north.) We have 4 different seasons without having very severely cold winters or overly-baking hot summers/droughts (although we do still have heatwaves sometimes which last for about a week or two during the summer,) and sometimes the winters can be very cold and snowy, but in general, it's not as hot or cold as some other countries.

We don't get massive earthquakes, or big tornadoes, fire tornadoes, huge bush fires, massive thunderstorms, massive hurricanes, avalanches, and the British wildlife is mostly tame; even the spiders here are harmless and squirrels won't hunt you down in packs.

Also I love the mixture of old and new architecture; lots of National Trust places, preserved ancient sites, some preserved romantic steam trains, countryside cottages and pretty and charming villages, and lots of historic cultural sites, but also 21st century architecture and parks in cities like London.

Wales (a country with more castles than any other country) and Scotland (see Grahams video posted earlier) have lots of naturally beautiful scenery in these countries on our main island too.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Cornwall, south-west Britain.
A land of ancient Celtic sites, castles, the Eden Project,
Lost Gardens of Heligan,
charming country and fishing villages, rivers,
historic cultural sites, clean beaches,
lots of green hills, surrounded by the Celtic Sea to the north,
the English Channel sea to the east,
and the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Cornwall,
(popular with surfers due to the waves.)

[♥ Lily ♥]

Trebah Garden; a sub-tropical paradise with a stunning coastal backdrop.
One of the Great Gardens of Cornwall and rated among the 80 finest gardens in the world.
http://www.trebahgarden.co.uk/



The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall.


Kew Gardens, Greater London (Pictures are in the video below)
(There's 3 recreated rainforests in London; one in Kew Gardens,
one in the London Aquarium,
and a living rainforest inside the worlds oldest zoo and aquarium at the London Zoo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Botanic_Gardens_Kew
http://www.kew.org/

❀ 250 year old UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kew, London,
holds the worlds largest collection of living plants
(from around the world, including the worlds smallest waterlily),
maintained by over 650 botanists, horticulturalists, and scientists.
Kew Gardens holds the worlds largest library of plant books and drawings.

✿ Kew holds 4 grade I listed buildings and 36 grade II listed structures!
Tree-top walks 18 metres above the ground
covering 200 metres gives the public a birds eye view over Kew Gardens.

❀ The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens,
comprises 121 hectares of gardens
and botanical glasshouses between Richmond
and Kew in Richmond upon Thames in southwest Greater London, England.

✿ The director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
is responsible for the world's largest collection of living plants.
The organisation employs more than 650 scientists and other staff.

❀ The living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants,
while the herbarium,
which is one of the largest in the world,
has over seven million preserved plant specimens.

✿ The library contains more than 750,000 volumes,
and the illustrations collection contains more than
175,000 prints and drawings of plants.
The Kew site includes four Grade I listed buildings
and 36 Grade II listed structures in an internationally significant landscape.

❀ The elegant Temperate House and Palm House Conservatories
at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
are made from hand-blown glass Ornate wrought-iron spiral staircases
are within the palatial conservatories.

✿ A Japanese Gateway features in the Japanese Gardens,
a Chinese Pagoda Temple and Mediterranean Villa's
also feature amongst the range of architecture
within Kew's beautiful landscape and gardens.

❀ The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a non-departmental public body
sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
is an internationally important botanical research
and education institution with 700 staff
and an income of £56 million for the year ended 31 March 2008,
as well as a visitor attraction receiving almost two million visits in that year.

✿ Created in 1759, the gardens celebrated their 250th anniversary in 2009.

❀ "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew"
re also used as umbrella terms
for the institution that runs both the gardens at Kew
and Wakehurst Place gardens in Sussex.



Victorian wrought-iron staircases are inside the hand-blown glass elegant conservatories
at Royal Botanic Kew Gardens, which gives the public a view
over the top of the palm trees and giant waterlilies, etc.
One can feel the temperature become very hot ascending the steps,
and the cool-down on descending the steps.






An 80 metre high and 200 metre long tree-top bridge at Kew Gardens
gives birds eye views over the worlds largest collection
of exotic flowers and plants from around the world.







London has a lot of green spaces in the city,
such as the Royal Parks like Regents Park
(with an open-air theatre in the park, opera singers, fountains,
boating lakes, large tennis grounds, and more,)
Hyde Park (boating lakes and horse-riding,) St. Jame's Park,
Hampstead Heath, Hampton Court Palace Gardens,
Kensington Gardens, Epping Forest, Strawberry Farm,
Victoria Park, beautiful Clifton Villas Plant Nursery in Little Venice,
London Wetlands Centre, London Garden Museum,
Richmond Deer Park (3 times larger than Central Park in NY,) Primrose Hill,
in addition to lots of pretty squares in London,
and Kew Botanic Gardens in Greater London,
plus the 400 year old Chelsea Physic Gardens in London
(with edible and therapeutic plants, set in medieval surroundings,)
and the Colombia Flower Market in London is also a nice place to find different flowers too.



London has been named as the Garden Capital of the World (shown in the video report below)
due to the amount of green spaces compared to other large cities,
making London unique, along with the prestigious
Chelsea Flower Show,
and Kew Gardens holding the worlds largest collection of living plants.



ʚïɞ¸.•*¨♥❀ Sir Richard Bransons public Kensington Rooftop Gardens, London, UK ✿ღ¨*•.¸.ʚïɞ
Features a Spanish garden, an English Tudor style garden,
and an English woodlands garden.
3 gardens to choose from overlooking the city.
(Pictures are in the video below)



❀ The Kensington Rooftop Gardens features a Spanish garden, fountains, vine-covered walkways and Chusan palms;
a Tudor English style garden, characterised by its archways,
secret corners and hanging wisteria.
Roses, lilies and lavender contribute to the rich summer scent to the garden;
an English woodland garden,
with over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a garden pond
that is the home to pintail ducks and flamingos.

✿ There are over 30 different species of trees in the woodland garden,
including trees from the original planting over sixty years ago,
despite having only a metre of soil in which to grow.
Although they are on a rooftop,
the trees were made the subject of tree preservation orders in 1976.

The Kensington Rooftop Gardens also features ana open-air cinema,
clubs, restaurant with pianist,
live music, barbeques, DJ's, parties, events, dance floor.

❀ History of the Kensington Roof Gardens
Derry and Toms department store was opened in Kensington in 1933.
The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock,
a landscape architect,
on the instructions of Trevor Bowen
(then vice-president of Barkers, the department store giant
that owned the site and constructed the building).
They cost £25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter.

♡ Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £120,000
was raised during the next 30 years.

✿ The Roof Gardens
(formerly known as Derry and Toms Roof Gardens and Kensington Roof Gardens)
is a roof garden covering 6,000 m² (1.5 acres
on top of the former Derry and Toms building
on Kensington High Street, in central London,
in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

They have for a long time been the largest roof garden in Europe,
but was surpassed by the roof garden
on the shopping mall Emporia in Sweden in 2012.

❀ The Roof Gardens have been rented from their owners
by Sir Richard Branson since 1981,
and are part of Virgin Limited Edition
- the luxury portfolio of Virgin Hotels Group Ltd.

❀ Kensington Rooftop Gardens Website ❀
http://www.roofgardens.virgin.com/

❀ Public sky gardens are planned for the energy-efficient 'Walkie Talkie' skyscraper
(currently under construction in the City of London)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bByho1j4cTs

✿ Thousands of new trees have been planted across London
since Boris Johnson became the London Mayor.
Joanna Lumley and the Mayor of London
are trying to organise a public 'garden bridge'
over the River Thames
which will be known as 'The Thames Garden Bridge.'
https://www.gardenbridge.london/




The annual stylish Chelsea Flower Show in West London
is 'the floral equivalent of a fashion catwalk show.'
Each May, new designer gardens and floral displays are
created by the worlds finest horticulturalists and florists for the annual show
featuring international garden designs from different countries.
The event is attended by the Queen, the Prince of Monaco, celebrities, etc,

[♥ Lily ♥]

Compton Acres in Poole, Dorset, south-west England

'The South's Finest Privately Owned Historic Gardens'

'Compton Acres invites you to experience the beauty of our historic gardens.

Compton Acres was built in 1924 and is a wonderful example
of a historic garden in the UK.

It is of late Victorian Mixed Style design
with seven distinct gardens to wander around and enjoy,
including the famous Italian and Japanese Gardens.

Having undergone extensive refurbishment in the past 8 years,
Compton Acres is now highly regarded
as one of the most important historic gardens in England.

We employ a team of gardeners and designers
and use modern horticultural techniques to ensure year round interest.
We have added over 1,000 different new plants
to our collection to recapture the genius of the original gardens.

As well as its ten beautiful acres of gardens,
There are two cafes, a specialist Plant Centre and Shops.

Compton Acres offers a warm welcome to your whole family
with a range of seasonal activities.'
http://www.comptonacres.co.uk/

[♥ Lily ♥]

Old Knobbley in Mistley, Essex, is Englands most ancient oak tree,
and is thought to be at least 800 years old




The ancient oak tree - one of the 10 nominated trees in a national 'Tree of the Year' competition -
is believed to have been a sanctuary for hunted witches.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-29846373

The tree, which is more than 800 years old, has its own Facebook page




Old Knobbley has been crowned as 'The Prince of Trees'. http://www.oldknobbley.com/