Day 273 Caerphilly Castle

As I was taking Dad to visit Mum this afternoon, we decided to make the most of the fine weather with a visit to Caerphilly Castle.  This is very close to home, so ideal for a quick morning out, but we haven't been there for some time. First a quick potted history.  Building was started in 1268 by the Norman lord Gilbert de Clare in order to subdue the Welsh. We retaliated and it was razed to the ground in 1270 by Llewelyn the Last, Prince of Wales. Building was restarted in 1270 & this time it was completed. It's one of the largest castles in the UK being second only to Windsor in size.  


We arrived there at about 10.00 when the sun was still relatively low giving a lovely yellow light. Parking at the back of the castle we had to walk around the outside and around the South Lake to reach the entrance.  It has been much restored/ rebuilt in the early 20th century so a lot isn't original but it remains a very impressive edifice.  I couldn't resist playing around with the processing and aging this first photo

Here's the original version, it just looked lovely from this angle in the sunlight.  

The tower on the right reputedly leans more than the leaning tower of Pisa. Here's a close up

 As there was little wind there were some nice reflections. This is part of the curtain wall with buttresses by the main gate.

There were plenty of ducks, geese and swans on the water.  The black headed gull on a post & a wet feather glinting in the sunlight caught my eye.

Day 272 Cycle to Cardiff Bay

The heatwave continues so today we cycled to Cardiff Bay for lunch. We did this back in June when we first had the bikes and that time we took the bikes on the back of the car, to Tongwynlais to avoid having to cycle up the big hill to our house on the way back.  Today we set off from home, confident we could make it back.  We were pleased to see the improvement in our cycling compared to last time.  We were faster, smoother and less tired.


 At the Bay we had a super lunch in a French restaurant "Le Garcon"  We sat outside on the balcony enjoying the hot sun. The food was excellent ham, venison & chicken terrine with onion chutney to start for both of us then moules frites for me and beetroot and goats cheese tart for Ian.  They were the nicest mussels I've ever had, fat, soft & juicy. Yum! We moved indoors for the coffee as the sun & heat were getting too much for us. Riding back we had shade for much of the way as the route runs mainly through wooded parkland and river paths.  The last half mile was a bit of a killer though.  There's no shade on Power Station Hill and by then the thermometer on my bike computer read 82 degrees ( bizarrely the bike computer gives the temperature in Fahrenheit if you set it to measure miles and celsius if you use kilometres!).  We walked up the first steepest part of the hill but cycled the rest, by the time we reached home we were very hot, sweaty & tired. We've done nothing but loll around this evening waiting for a respectable hour to go to bed! Here's the photos

Across the Bay to Penarth Head & the Barrage

Hamadryad Park

View from our Restaurant Table

Between Sophia Gardens & Pontcanna

Radyr Weir

Day 271 Brecon Beacons & a Feast of Photos!

This week we're having exceptional weather for the time of year, even better than most of the summer.  So this morning, after the gas man had finished our annual boiler service we headed off to the Beacons, in the MX5, with the roof down.  The thermometer read 23 degrees all afternoon, the skies were blue with only the occasional small fluffy white cloud.Driving past Ystradfellte we stopped at a carpark by the Afon Llia, a tributary of the Afon Mellte that gives Ystradfellte its name ( Afon means river in Welsh) Here they are streams rather than rivers. We ate our picnic lunch to the gurgling of the stream and birdsong without any of the noises of modern civilisation.  I took some photos then we moved on. 

 There's supposed to be the remains of a Roman marching fort nearby but we could find no trace of it. For a time the road runs over the old Roman road of Sarn Heln, which then veers off to the right over the hills.  Next stop was the bronze age standing stone of Maen Llia.

  I've photographed it before but not on such a bright sunny day.  Like Arbor Low we paused to consider the lives of the people who built it and also that of all the people, like us, who have passed it since. Unllike Arbor Low this stone apparently doesn't have religious significance but was probably erected to mark a route or trackway through the rather featureless landscape.   It's one heck of a big signpost!

We continued our drive, stopping every now and then when a nice view presented itself.  Not far from Maen Llia the road drops steeply down from the uplands into a valley, dotted with farmhouses and green with small fields . We stopped at the top of the drop.  Some old rusting fencing gave an unusual foreground to this view and then, as we came down the hill we could see up another valley to the dramatic escarpment atop Fan Gyhirych.

 


Finally we made our way homewards stopping off one last time at the picnic area by Llwyn Onn Resevoir to finish off our drinks and admire the water

Back home Ian cooked a lovely mushroom risotto, a suitably yummy ending to a great day out.

Day 270 Roath Park

Mother in Law has bought herself a new walker for outdoors.  She uses a Zimmer frame in the house but it's no good outside.  The new one works a treat so we took her to Roath Park today so she could try it out properly, see the ducks and have lunch. It went very well.  She is walking with more confidence using it and, more importantly, she is safe. Lunch was suprisingly good and the ducks, geese, swans and pigeons enjoyed our bird food and provided entertainment.

Later Ian played golf with Huw while I prepared a meal for us all, Mel included.  After they left I started setting up a photo shoot. Todays challenge was Wet. I'd been unable to get a suitable photo at the lake even though it had seemed the ideal spot so snapped some wet fruit instead.  It was suprisingly tricky as I couldn't get any big drops to stay on the fruit. Even if the fruit doesn't look particularly wet everything else is!

Day 269

Again nothing exciting to report on although it was a constructive sort of day.  We got stuff done but it was all quite mundane.  i had thought to make a real creative photographic effort today but inspiration failed.  Iwas playing inane games while trying to think of something. The phone screen seemed very appropriate!

Day 268 Bristol

We were determined to do something a little more interesting today.  The original plan was a cycle ride to Cardiff Bay but it was quite damp and drizzly this morning and we didn't fancy splashing through muddy puddls.  Plan B was Bristol, in particular the zoo, only about an hours drive from home but we've not been there for ages. En route & totally out of character Ian announced he really fancied a MacD's, so we stopped at one just off the motorway for an early lunch.  From there the route into Bristol took us over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. We parked on the far side and walked over it as it seemed worth a closer look.  It's a very impressive bit of engineering, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened, after his death, in 1864. The light wasn't great for photos as it was drizzling with rain but I had to take a few!  Next was the zoo.  It's changed a lot since we were last there and even more since we remember going there on school trips in the early 1960's.  The awful bear pits have vanished, the large animals such as zebra, giraffe and elephants are gone.  The old giraffe house is still there but now housing a couple of okapi. The pens and cages are bigger with more undergrowth and activities or the animals,  this did make it quite difficult to see some of them at times. There are more smaller animals and the emphasis now is very much on conservation.


My main photo is of a very sad looking spider monkey.  He was in a big enclosure with plenty of ropes, swings etc and other spider monkeys but he just looked very sad, sitting on a rope hugging his knees.  I wonder what he was thinking & feeling.

Spider Monkey

Pygmy Hippo

S. African Fur Seal

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Bristol & River Avon @ low tide form Suspension Bridge

Day 267 Boring

A really dull day.  the man came to see the washing machine, the motors gone & he'll have to order a new one! It's less than two months old but outside the one month period when they would have given us a new washing machine! Nothing else of interest happenend all day.  Our daily challenge was twisted.  Ian's earphones and Macbook seemed a suitable subject.

Day 266 A Quiet Day

It was a very quiet day for me today.  In fact I've nothing interesting to say about it so lets get on with the photos! The Daily Challenge was magnify so I had fun with this one!  Ian was not keen on posing so I did a self portrait which was quite tricky.  I had to take lots of practice shots to get the positioning & focusing right. then I went a bit overboard on the processing!

I like this next one too but it shows the problem of focusing when your not looking through the viewfinder. I thought I'd got the depth of field such that everything would be in focus but obviously not! I seem to have three eyes but the really clear one is shrunk not magnified. Weird!

Day 265 93rd Birthday!

Thursday 22 September


No not my birthday but my fathers!  He doesn't like making any fuss over birthdays but when I called I was pleased to see he'd received a nice pile of birthday cards and my two sets of aunts & uncles had visited him in the morning.  The two of us had lunch in the local pub together and then went to the hospital to see Mum. Although she was asleep in a chair when we arrived she soon perked up and spent an hour and a half playing with a balloon with us. we just hit it back and for although she spent quite a time trying to shoot it at me by pulling on the knotted end and letting it go.  Unfortunately she kept hold of the balloon neck with her other hand and couldn't understand why it wasn't moving! She enjoyed herself and it is so much nicer for Dad & I when she's engaged with us and smiles and laughs rather than looking blankly into space or falling asleep.  I just wish we could think of something other than a balloon to entertain her. I must say I'm finding the game rather boring now!


Anyway, back home, I took my camera and flash out into the garden at dusk.  Our Daily Challenge was " From the Ground" so I was looking for some low level shots or things coming out of the ground. In the end my best photo was of a spider on its web wrapping up a dead fly.  The shot of the dead ivy was ok too.

Packed Lunch!

Waiting

Ivy Stump

Day 264

Wednesday 21 September


I spent virtually all of today messing about online.  Although the internet is quicker than the old fashioned way it still to me ages.  Firstly I researched and purchased some pre paid travel/cash cards. We've used Euro versions of these successfully for some years but now we also have one in Australian dollars together with a sterling card that has much lower charges than using our standard bank and credit cards abroad.  The other advantage of these is security.  They're not linked to our bank accounts so are relatively more secure bith in terms of identity & financial theft. I also aquired our Australian visas, renewed our travel insurance and researched though haven't booked parking & hotels at Heathrow. In case I haven't told you & you're wondering what this is about, Ian and I are off to visit Gaz in Australia at the end of October.  We'll be away from home for 5 weeks, spending about a month in Oz, a few days in Singapore and the rest of the time in the air.  By the time I'd done this I had square eyes and was not interested in photography.  I spotted one of the boys old darts so thought that would do for a photo.  Here it is and a second choice of a packet of press studs

Day 263

Tuesday 20 September


Bother! Just missed today!  It's now just gone midnight and Wednesday.  Had a fairly quiet day pottering around at home this morning while Ian had his guitar lesson. This afternoon we went and bought two new suitcases ready for our trip to Australia in November.  Our old suitcases have done us proud but aren't the easiest to manouevre.  They're quite shallow with two wheels on the narrowest part of the case so when pulling them over the slightest bumps they wobble alarmingly and are prone to falling over.  It's a shame as they're really strong and a bright yellow that can't be missed on an airport carousel.  As we'll be travelling around a bit in Oz & having a 4 day stopover in Singapore on the way home we decided to invest in a couple of new ones.  They're slightly larger, with four wheels and a longer handle that we can loop our hand luggage over & should be much easier to manage.  I also called in to the optician today to get my glasses repaired and to order some prescription sunglasses.  We just need to organise the currency & visas now then we'll be all ready to go! Photos are of the suitcase of course!.

Day 262 Parents

Back home and time for the parents. Ian went down to see his Mum & I did the Porthcawl/Bridgend run.  dad was fine & we enjoyed doing the crosswords together before visiting Mum. Suprisingly she noticed I had a new cardigan on, said she liked it and asked how much it was! The rest of the time she was either silent or mostly talked gobbledegook as usual.  We played balloons again as that keeps her attention better than anything else we've thought of. Afte Ian had gone to bed I started thinking of photos.  I'd discovered a glass paperweight in the cupboard, in its box.  I can't remember where we got it from.  It seemed a nice night time subject with a bit of flash to brighten its interior bubbles.

Paperweight by Moonlight

Detail

Day 261 Home Again

Packing up the van takes quite a time, especially as we're not likely to use it any more this year and I wanted to give it a thorough clean.  We can't do this when it's in storage as we've no access to water. By 11.00 we were all packed and heading back home. After an uneventful journey the van was safely put in the compound and we arrived home just after 4.00.  After unloading the car we had a phone call from Huw asking if it was ok for him & family to visit.  That brightened up the end of the day nicely for us.  Mia discovered our old photo albums and she & I enjoyed looking at our photos of the boys when they were little.  After they left I thought the photo albums were as good as anything to photograph for the day.  They clashed with the red stripey carpet so I converted to black & white.

Memories

Day 260 Arbor Low & Hartington

We had a slow start today as we were distracted by the Ireland Australia rugby World Cup game.  Anne & Bill are leaving today so packed their stuff, checked out of their room &  then came over to our van.  We watched the end of the game & post match commentary as Ireland had put in a surprise performance and won against the odds.  Dodging the showers we then visited Arbor Low, a 6,000 year old henge just up the road from us.  The stones have all been toppled and lay flat on the ground but it must have been very impressive in its day.  Visiting places like this always makes me think of the lives of the people who built it.  People like us with the same feelings and emotions but with such different and hard lives.

Next stop was the village of Hartington where we thought there was a cheese factory that we could visit.  the factory, which made Stilton cheese, closed three years ago but the village was very pretty.  There's still a cheese shop, so we bought some local cheese, & two pubs.  We had a super ploughman's lunch in the Devonshire Arms & lingered there over coffee while waiting for the showers to pass.  Back at the van, mid afternoon we said goodbye to A & B.  We've had a quiet time since then.  At least I've been able to sort through yesterdays photos.

I only took a couple of shots today.  My main one is of one of the showers surrounding us at Arbor Low and the other a view of the henge itself.

Showers

Arbor Low Henge

Day 259 Arkwright's Mills

The weather forecast wasn't good for today, with frequent heavy showers predicted. It seemed a good opportunity to sample some of Derbyshire's history - indoors.  Just a few miles from here is the small but historically very important town of Cromford.  This is where Richard Arkwright built his first large water powered cotton mill, one of the worlds first factories using innovative machinery for the bulk of the processing and division of labour of the workforce.  It was a major development at the start of the industrial revolution that transformed Britain and subsequently the rest of the world. Although Arkwright was an astute businessman he stole and patented other peoples ideas and of course the cotton trade was founded on slavery.  Very thought provoking.

Anyway we went to his first mill there which was more of an archaeological dig but nonetheless very interesting. Next we visited Masson Mills which has a museum of textile industry with the various equipment in situ and explanations.  It was a fantastic place for photography though somewhat dark & gloomy.  I really could have done with using a tripod.  I took loads of photos, particularly of the repetitive shapes and patterns there. Later, back at Rivendale Campsite we had a nice meal in the campsite pub - The Prancing Pony.  This is a really cosy stone built pub but only opens at weekends in the low season. Fortunately there were no Nazguls to bother us! The day ended back at the van with us teaching our friends the card game Cheat. I haven't played it for years and years. It's a silly game but a fun way to end a good day.

I took so many photos I've done two compilations, one of the mills interior and one of shapes and colours.  My main photo is a black and white conversion of a shot of some cogs.

Masson & Cromford Mills

   

Day 258 The Tissington Trail

With the bonus of sunny autumnal weather we had a pleasant day out on the bikes today. Our friends hired two bikes in Ashbourne where the Tissington Trail begins and we had a leisurely cycle northwards and uphill along it. We had a picnic lunch en route and a cup of tea in the teashop at Tissington on the way back. It was a linear route so once we turned around we had a lovely long freewheel back to the car. I only took a couple of snaps of us cycling so I'll have to think of an interesting photo later. Time now to start cooking our sausage supper!

Didn't get round to taking any arty photos so here's a couple of shots of us on our cycle ride.

Day 257 Old Friends

Today we were joined by some very good friends who are staying in the B&B at the campsite for a few days. We last met them in February when we stayed at Kingsbury Water Park so had a lot of catching up to do. After lunch we thought a short walk was in order and donned our walking boots and rucksacks.  from the campsite we were able to walk down into the upper reaches of Dovedale and then had a lovely stroll upstream  alongside the river.  We were followed by a couple of very persistent ducks, obviously hoping for some food.  They swam walked and flew to keep up with us and only left us when we turned away from the river to head home up Biggin Dale. The route back was a bit longer than anticipated and we were all glad to get back to the campsite.

The evening was fun with one of Ian's paellas the star of the meal.  Rather too much alcohol was consumed as we chatted over the dominoes and playing cards but we had a great time

Sunny Intervals

Ducky Follower

Autumn Toadstools