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About | Bluemeanie | Scarlett
A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...
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Recent entries with comments
- London Mayor - (1)
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- Police incident in Tandridge - (2)
- British War Criminals - (2)
- Checkpoint Charlie - (3)
- Oxted from the “Woldingham Viewpoint” - (5)
- A figure of defiance - (1)
- What really happened in Croydon? - (3)
- Bike hire in Berlin - (1)
- Brandenberg Gate - (1)
- Three Way Chess - (1)
- Gamelan instruments - (2)
- Oh no! John! - (2)
- “Bells and Smells” Mass - (1)
- Turn cash into less cash - (6)
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Wales
1. Mind the Gap, 2. The Night Sky, 3. Pen-y-beacon, 4. Moss on the roof, 5. Jumeira Mosque, 6. Ossuaire de Douaumont, 7. Four sisters: May, 8. Elland Road, 9. minus 20, 10. Ratcliffe-upon-Soar power station, 11. Sunset in Stockholm
These are all some of the more “noteworthy” photographs on my now (almost defunct) Flickr account.
Filed under: Europe • England • France • Sweden • Wales • Asia Pac • Middle East • (0) Comments • Permalink
They don’t look like much from here but there they are touching the clouds behind that tree and across the valley (as seen from the national park visitors’ centre). The Brecon Beacons.
I have no idea why this sign is on the wall of a shop in Hay-on-Wye but apparently AW Bombs are phospherous bottle bombs used by the home guard in the Second World War. They were manufactured by Allbright and Wilson (a chemical company) and stored around the countryside at the beginning of the War. Every now and again a stash is discovered, causing a bit of drama.
This is one of the speciality bookshops of Hay-on-Wye, with an atmosphere to match: outline on floor (above), cobwebs, mystery displays. I didn’t buy anything here but it was an enjoyable 45 minutes well spent.
I wandered around various bookshops looking for Jane Harris’ The Observations, but ended up taking home another half dozen or so titles. As Paul Collins puts it in an old Guardian article:
Hay-on-Wye is not about the books you are looking for, it’s about the books that are looking for you.
Gratuitous link: elsewhere in the blogosphere Mandrake visited this bookshop in September 2006.
This is the inside of the famous Shepherds coffee shop, home of good ice-cream, among other things. It was packed in there, which may have something to do with the wet and cold weather outside.
Today we leave Hay-on-Wye, stacked with books, returning home for the New Year.
I woke up this morning next to this rather swollen river, and its peaceful sounds, accompanied by birdsong.
It’s almost a pity that one has to drag oneself out of bed, but at least the sun is shining today.
There is almost no mobile phone network here, so I’ll post this later when we get to Hay-on-Wye.
If this was as easy as it looks they would have pushed us off downstream in one of these on the recent trip to North Wales. Contrary to the perception of the photograph, this canoeist is actually paddling upstream. Not that he’s travelling upstream mind - he is riding a static wave caused by one of the rapids. I guess the trick with these things is (when you get washed over) to tip yourself upright without dashing your brains out on the rocks.
The house on the right is (apparently) London House in Bala, North Wales, home of the “famous” blind preacher, the Rev Dr John Puleston Jones (1862-1925). He was the eldest son of Evan Jones of Bala and his wife Mary Ann Puleston of Llanfair. After their marriage
Evan and Mary lived for a few months at “The Berth”, in the Vale of Clwyd, home of Mary Ann’s mother. Here their son John Puleston Jones was born in 1862, later in life known as ‘ the blind Preacher ‘. From the ‘Berth’ Evan Jones and his wife and infant son went to Bala to live for about a year at a house named “Tremarran” in Tegid Street, just opposite the Welsh Presbyterian Chapel. They then moved to a house named “London House”, in the High Street, Bala. The ground floor being a shop where Evan Jones sold a variety of goods, household and building materials. They were at “London House” for about ten years, during which time their son met with the tragic accident which resulted in his being blind for life. Mary Ann’s mother came to live with them at “London House”, where she died in 1867 and was buried with her husband in Llanfair DC Churchyard.
The quote is from the Puleston Jones website which has much information about the family.
This is the statue of Thomas Edward Ellis on the High Street in Bala, North Wales.
He appears to be no relation to the more famous Ellis.
The photograph above is from earlier this morning at Canolfan Tryweryn, the whitewater rafting centre near Bala in North Wales. You may want to click on the photograph to view the bigger version in order to better appreciate the mixed emotions. This was one of the smaller rapids, but it was our first one.
This is an outhouse at Trericket Mill in Wales. The outhouse is for the use of campers (who I think also have use of a communal bathroom in the mill guesthouse). I love Trericket, having visted there a number of times. They are a vegetarian guesthouse, and I believe they will feature in next year’s ecoscape, the green travel guide.
ecoescape was founded by Laura Burgess, a communications specialist working in the tourism industry. After working in marketing and communications for tourism destination marketing bodies at regional and sub-regional level in the East Midlands, Laura became increasingly aware of the lack of accessible information available about sustainable travel in the UK which has traditionally focused on travel abroad.
Laura set up ecoescape as an independent enterprise to ensure that the people and environment remain central to its purpose. All profits go back into making the sustainable tourism industry exactly as the name suggests: sustainable. Ultimately the project aims to help integrate sustainability into every aspect of the industry and sees its place as integral to changing consumer perceptions through communication so that demand for sustainability increases into the future.
ecoescape’s first project is the launch of a green travel guide in spring 2007. The guide will be the first free guide to green tourism in the UK and has received support from the National Lottery Fund. Alongside the guide, educational and industry events will take place to promote sustainable tourism focusing entirely on the UK.
ecoscape also has a blog.
I’m still ill and spent most of the day sleeping, in bed. I’m hoping that it won’t impact on the dreamtime tonight. This post will nonetheless be a mish-mash. The above image contains nine photos which I have posted here before. Here are their descriptions, with links to my Flickr stream: 1. Stream, 2. Pen-y-beacon, 3. la descente, 4. King Henry VII, 5. Hay Castle, 6. Shepherds and me, 7. Trericket Mill, 8. Moss on the roof, 9. St Mary the Virgin.
I ran this blog through Regender, a different kind of translator which asks the questions
- What would the world look like if the two sexes switched places?
- What would it look like if English had genderless pronouns?
- What would it look like if English identified races the way it identifies gender?
I have added a widget at the bottom of the sidebar showing a recently played list and link. This will indentify and share the songs I have recently been playing on my computer, using last.fm. I’ll see how this works over the next few days - I got rid of my Flickr widget because it seemed to slow the site down.
Philobiblon has a short post on the recent Neathandal genetic discoveries, with a link to a John Hawks post on the subject.
This is a photo I took in the attic of a junk shop in Hay Castle earlier this year.
Today I have been occupied with preparing for the migration of the bluemeanie blogs from the current software (PMachine) to the new software (Expression Engine). I have been working on this project for some time, but hopefully things will come together in the next couple of weeks. Everything is under wraps, but the bluemeanie home page is now run by the new software package. It’s a “site offline” message in disguise.
This is Hay Bluff, 677 metres high and a spot for hang-gliding (in summer). The couple in the photograph have just decended and are returning to the car park. The car park (adjacent to the Pen-y-beacon) is already high above the Wye valley, so the ascent is a mere 420 metres from this point. Directions on how to get here and the route of the walk can be found at the Walk Scene site.
This is the largest stone of the megolithic stone circle known as Pen-y-beacon (Blaenau). Situated at the foot of Hay Bluff, it was believed until recently to be the remains of a cairn, or a burial chamber. This stone is 1.5 metres high and 1.1 metres wide. Flanked by a series of smaller stones it helps to make up a circle that is 30 metres in diameter. (Source). A brief historical overview of this landscape can be found on the Clyd Powys Archaeological Trust website. This unfortunately doesn’t explain the cratered landscape which is visible behind the standing stone.