On Friday 30th May we spent a weekend away in Ely, Eating, Drinking, Singing and being generally festive. More information, galleries and utube videos are in the gallery here – Indian Classical Music in Ely and Ravi, Emma joint celebration
Cambridge weekend in Carmarthenshire
Rosemary and I enjoyed the annual weekend away organised by the Berkshire Branch of the Cambridge Society. The weekend was in Carmarthenshire from May 16 to May 18. We met up with our friends at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines, old Roman workings, more modern Victorian workings and the 30’s mine. We took a tour through the old workings. On the way to the hotel we stopped off at Talley Abbey, a ruin. I managed to capture a reasonable image of a Nuthatch feeding its young in a small crevice in the ruin.
The evening was spent in the Cawdor Hotel in Llandeilo. The rooms were recently modernised, alas ours was a bit on the small size. The food was very good, and they even had draft real ale on tap. That is almost a first for a hotel.
Saturday we walked through some beautiful woods to Dinefwr Castle and then on to Newton House. Dinefwr was the original castle, which was left to decay after Newton House had been constructed. Some reasonable photographs of nest building Housemartins. After lunch we walked back to the hotel for our cars and travelled to The National Botanic Garden of Wales. This is the newest Botanic Garden in the UK, and was funded by the Millenium project. The site is based on Middleton Hall with many of the old gardens being recreated. The Great Glasshouse forms the centerpiece and was built where the old house used to be. This garden was a highlight of the trip, we really needed more time, there were areas we did not visit. I look forward to the trust raising money to reconstruct some old lakes. The glass house was used in the making of the Dr Who series ‘The Waters of Mars‘
Back at the hotel, another lovely meal accompanied by Welsh Harp music.
Sunday another garden, this time Aberglasney Gardens, another smaller but spectacular garden. All these gardens looked so fresh, and the blue skies definitely made them look their best. A good snack lunch and then on to the Gwili Heritage Steam Railway, where we had a ride up the track and back.
It was a great weekend.
Herb Garden now completed after several years
Raised bed herb garden
The raised bed herb garden has now been constructed on the site of the ex Willow tree. It is made of 6 railway sleepers and 30 barrow loads of earth and compost. The project has been on my to-do list for several years. The earth / compost was from several years of composting garden refuse. It has been planted with Chives, Rosemary, Marjoram, Thyme and Bay. Not sure the rabbits have yet appreciated this project, their home under and in the compost heap has been dug into. They though may come to appreciate the tasty leaves as the herb project matures.
I have rejoined the The Kingswood Gun Club
Its been a very long time since my shot gun has seen daylight. After 4 years of nagging by Jennifer on a Friday night at the P&A I rejoined the Kingswood Gun Club and shot for the first time since, I have no idea when. Amazingly the gun had no rust marks. The skeet jacket appears to have shrunk by a few sizes, looks like I will be needing a new one of those. I impressed myself on the first stand, 7 out of 8. Went downhill after that though. I have re-joined. Alas will be missing the Welsh trip next Sunday. Prior engagement, the daughter is coming for lunch.
Some changes since I was last shot. All automatic traps, and a tea break half way through the shoot. Nice to see some old regulars and lots of new faces. The club also has a smashing website and forum.
The Namibia picture gallery is now ready.
It is now well over two months since Rosemary and I were in Namibia. I have at last processed all the pictures (& you would not believe how many I have discarded) and put a few words together. I have added maps of where we visited. I tracked our drives and walks on my mobile phone and these have been uploaded to a website. (Slight misuse of a walking, running and training programme, so ignore the statistics of how much water I should have been drinking and the calories burnt.)
There is one small gallery of the better photographs, so if you are short of time take a look of those.
So get going, and visit Namibia by clicking here.
Ann’s 80th birthday party
I have put together a small gallery of pictures taken at Ann’s 80th birthday party. There are some of the people who attended, and a few pictures from around Blakeney. The blue skies, the sun with its hat on, was too good an opportunity to miss.
Pompeii and Herculaneum holiday.
It has been a few weeks since our holiday to Italy, and our next holiday is just around the corner. I have though managed to process and reduce the number of photographs. Well some might not agree and they are now ready to view.
We had a fabulous time with Andante, and our guides were fabulous company.
Our first was a visit to Paestum where there were three fantastic Doric temples. After lunch a visit to the museum where we saw the diving man. Then a visit to the local buffalo herd.
Our third day was a tour of Pompeii where we spent the whole day. Highlights were the Villa of Mysteries, the special entry to restoration area and of course the brothel.
On day 4 we visited the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Here many of the items from Pompeii and Herculaneum were on display.
The afternoon of Day 4 saw us in Pozzuoli to see one of the largest and best preserved amphitheaters in the world.
The morning of Day 5 saw us in the Aragonese Castle Museum. Good views of the bay from here
Before lunch on Day 5, we visited the Roman batching complex at Baia. Starting at the top working down and then out of the bottom for lunch. Amazing to see the use of cement and concrete, and how these domes have lasted almost 2000 years.
On ther afternoon of day 5 we went to Cumae. Amazing tunnels used for transport. Puts cross rail to shame.
The morning of day 6 was another great day visiting Herculaneum. The skeletons in the boat sheds are haunting
Day 6 after a good lunch we visited Boscoreeale a modest farm house called Villa Regina. Onsite was a museum displaying environmental evidence from the sites destroyed by Vesuvius in AD 79
The last full day we walked up Vesuvius, or the last part. The views were not great with heavy haze. What I though was Pompeii on closed examination turned out to be a quarry.
The final afternoon, after lunch and wine saw us a villa Oplontis in a middle of a housing estate. Amazing preserved wall paintings
The Andante tour end, our final meal together in the Hotel Scapolatiello.
Let the Train take the Strain
Off to Carlisle in the morning, at least this will be on the train most of the way. This last week has been a bit of a strain. One day in Doncaster, the next day in Bournemouth, and then back to Doncaster the day after. Putting a few miles on the old Citroen, hopefully it will see my working days out.
Also had sleepless nights this week. The A41 was closed for road resurfacing in Waddesdon overnight for the last week. The sound of silence was a tad disturbing, lay awake at night wondering when the next vehicle would come by, they never came, so couldn’t get to sleep.
I did a little bit of work on the Blasdale website this weekend. Upgraded to a version 3.6 of WordPress, and a new version of Nextgen Gallery, 2.0. Nextgen 2.0 has a new way to implement galleries, and a really quite nifty gallery display which works on mobile phones with the swipe action. Love it.
No new pictures, but hope to get the Cambridge Society visit to the Malverns online this week.
Larder Envy
Several months ago, Rosemary had a serious case of larder envy (seems to affect ladies of a certain age) after seeing a friend’s. She came home and sighed at her larder shelves built of fronts of old wardrobes, bits of tongue and grooved, brick supports and even spare end pieces from new kitchen. She wrote a to-do list item and began her search.
She was triumphant and now has the larder of her dreams complete with three roll-out wooden boxes, one of which is a snazzy two drawer vegetable rack. The larder is under the kitchen stairs and the shelves have been designed so you can stand right inside and hence see everything and reach into the full depth.
Designer and maker, in oiled ash, was Mark Williamson of Mark Williamson Furniture.
She’s crossed the “larder shelves” item off her to-do list.
But shelves are an addiction…….
Glastonbury Festival 2013
Well I made Glastonbury 2013, my sixth Glastonbury, the last four all in a row, This time I arrived on Wednesday evening, driving up from Bournemouth where I had been working. Arrived at 7 to a nice sunny evening, pitched my tent in a quiet spot and met up with Ed for a few pints.
Weather wise it rained on Thursday evening and most of the night, and cleared up for a lovely festival weekend.
Bands I saw all the head lines on the Pyramid stage, Arctic Monkeys, Rolling Stones and Mumford and Sons. Other bands to remember were Nick Cave, and Vampire Weekend. The rest of the weekend was a bit of a haze.
