A small adventure!

I didn't travel far today,
but I saw some beauty in nature
and thought I would share it with you.

I took a 5 minute walk around my garden


A peony, just beginning to drop it's petals


a reddish clematis, the first flower of the year,
many more buds on the plant,
which is climbing up a tree


a purple clematis, which is fighting with the honeysuckle to take ove the fence



a pale yellow iris in the pond



2 little frogs, who thought they were invisible



this one posed nicely!


this one didn't realise I was looking!


this is where he always hides


sometimes his friend joins him



we dug the pond, with the help of friends, in May 2003. It's not very big, maybe 5 feet by 8 feet, and 2 feet deep in the middle. We positioned it at the back of our garden, in an area where we knew frogs passed through. We had frogspawn in spring 2004, and now have a colony of frogs living in the pond, with new tadpoles each year. We don't know how many frogs there are, but we counted 11 adult frogs last weekend. I also often find very little ones in the flower borders when I am weeding. We have noticed that we don't have a problem with slugs in the garden any more, but I wish they'd learn how to eat snails, so that my hostas could look majestic instead of holey!!!!

Montgomery Castle/Castell Trefaldwyn

Montgomery castle was built in the 1200s, was pretty much a ruin in the 1300s, and was refurbished in the 1500s. A grand house was built on the site in the early 1600s, and it was siezed after a big battle in the civil war in the 1600s, and then ordered demolished in 1649.

The ruins were excavated in the 1960s, and what you see today is what remains of the castle:


The 'grand entrance', with the remains of the two towers
that would have dominated and protected the entrance.


A panoramic view of the main castle remains



The castle remains from the ditch below


A misty winter view of Montgomery town from the castle

There is an aerial view of the castle and surrounding area here:



http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/blowup1/338

Bronllys Castle

Bronllys Castle is about 10 miles from my home - it is a ruin which is too unsafe to enter, but can be admired from the exterior.

Gerald of Wales mentioned it when he undertook his trip around Wales in 1188...



If you want to know more, check this link out:

http://www.castlewales.com/bronllys.html

Christmas day walk - aka the Holy Tree walk

We went for a walk on Christmas Day morning, as the weather was good.

We started off about 4 miles from home at a small village called Llanfrynach, and I saw the magnificent Yew avenue leading to the church door. Yews are often planted in and around churchyards, and can live to be very old - thousands of years old - they are the longest living plants in Europe. Every part of the yew is toxic, but some birds are immune to the toxins and can eat the berries. The yew was exceptionally important to the Celtic people, and perhaps the planting of yews in and around churchyards is another example of the early church taking existing pagan symbols and ceremonies and incorporating them into the 'new' religion so that it would be somewhat familiar to those who joined. yews were also a very important tree in medieval times as the wood was particularly good for making longbows. In fact, there was a serious shiortage of yew wood for longbow making in 1350, and king Henry II ordered his bowyer to enter private land and cut as much yew wood as he needed.

The church porch window with holly branches as decoration.

A large oak tree, with an enormous growth on the trunk. I wonder what causes this?

A close up of the growth

This is also oak bark, but with lichens and moss growing on it.
I love the texture and colours.

We saw many trees with hollow trunks and holes, I took pictures of a few of them. This one appears to have very little inside, and yet it didn't look dead - I did wonder how it remained standing, though!

This was another hole - this time at the base of a tree.
We decided it would make a nice hole for fairies to hide in!

This was quite a large tree - you can see a small hole roughly in the centre of the picture but the large irregular shape at the bottom right was also a hole right through the tree...

This tree was just spectacular - unfortunately there is nothing nearby to give any idea of scale, and I had to stand quite some distance away to be able to get the whole tree in shot.
We estimated that the distance from the ground to where the first branches leave the trunk is about 12 foot, making the tree over 100 feet tall... and wide...
I must come back in summer and take a picture of it in leaf.

This is an old abandoned farmhouse. The views are fabulous in all directions. I guess there were either no children to inherit the farm, or maybe it was just too small to be profitable. There is a deep valley between the front of the buildings and he hills in the distance.

This is a close up of the farmhouse wall - wonderful colours
and textures provided by the local stone, ferns & lichen.

Trip to north Wales

Travelling north from Brecon, after 50 miles or so I reach Llanidloes, and find this old market hall right in the middle of town. It's amazing it has survived so well when you see how much traffic travels around it each day.

Leaving Llanidloes on a small mountain road, this is the view of the Dylife valley.
Photographs somehow don't capture how breathtaking it looks when you are there!

A view of the upland area between Llanidloes & Machynlleth

Llyn Clweddog, which has a scenic drive around it, and is also used for yachting

Beautiful, isn't it?

A viewpoint along the way - on really clear days you can further,
and can also see Snowdon - but too hazy for that today!

Another photo taken from almost the same spot


This is the building in Machynlleth where Owain Glyndwr
held the first all-Wales parliament. Built in the late 1400s.

The road between Machynlleth & Corris. We're in Snowdonia now. Splendid view?

An old tin building in Blaenau Ffestiniog. They don't make them like this any more!
This town developed around slate mines, which used to be very labour intensive. Slate mining isn't what it used to be, and there is also much more mechanisation, so this town has plenty of unemployed and is quite deprived these days.

Looking north from Blaenau Ffestiniog - the mountains of Snowdonia are getting closer

Looking south from Anglesey to Snowdonia near the end of the day. This journey has been about 120 miles, and took 3 and a half hours. Most Welsh roads are more for enjoying the view than for getting anywhere fast!

A Snowdonia sunrise....

A local journey

I had to travel about 25 miles east of Brecon for a meeting, and as it was a beautiful day, I thought I would stop the car and take a photo every 5 miles. The countryside in this area of Wales is not as dramatic as that of north Wales, but is beautiful in its own way.

This photo, 5 miles into the journey, was taken at the gates
of Peterstone Court (beautiful hotel with great restaurant!),
and shows the Brecon Beacons in the background.

A view of Bwlch, a small village between Brecon & Crickhowell.
All Welsh place names tell you something about their
location - 'bwlch' means 'gap' or 'pass'
nd the location of this village is in a pass between two valleys.

15 miles from home. A dead tree with a charm all of its own...

A second shot from the 15 mile point - the roadside trees and hedges prevented me from getting a good short of the surrounding countryside, so I looked up... and found a rookery.

20 miles from home. This is a view from the road leading up the hill from Abergavenny to Blaenavon - looking back at where I had travelled from - the mountain on the right is known as the 'Sugarloaf'.

At the top of the hill - Wales's own version of Ayers Rock!!!!
Actually a mountain of coal dust and spoil form a disused mine.
The wind and rain have carved it over the years.

I cheated - these last 2 shots were not 5 miles further along. They were taken at the same spot that the coal spoil heap was, I turned around and thought the views were too good not to show.

I often think about how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful country.
I hope you enjoyed sharing a small corner of it.

Autumn Colour in Wales

Some trees near Bwlch, mid Wales - just glorious colour!

A beech tree in Crickhowell, changing into it's autumn attire!