Pentre Ifan burial chamber, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Pentre Ifan - which translates as 'Ivan's village' is an ancient burial chamber. It was built somewhere around 6000 years ago. All that remains now are the large stones, but once there was an earth mound covering the whole thing.


These stones are large - you can walk under the cap stone without any difficulty. It's been estimated that the capstone weighs somewhere between 16 and 40 tons. It makes you wonder how the people who built this moved the stones here? And why?


What were the ceremonies to do with burial that were so important to them that they took the immense effort and time to buid this, and other, burial chambers for their dead?


The site of this burial chamber is fabulous. It overlooks the coast near Fishguard, Pemmbrokeshire, and there are other burial chambers nearby, as well as a reconstructed Iron Age viillage, Castell Henllys.

Between Brecon & Sennybridge, Wales, UK

On New Year's day, we had a rare event in south west Powys - we had a severe air frost. It had been dry, and although the ground wasn't all frosted, the winter trees and bushes looked stunning We went for a walk and took some photos, which I have finally gotten around to sharing. This picture of a very white world was taken near Llanspyddid, about 2 miles from home:



and here's a close up of some Rosebay willowherb:


and some cow parsley:

and some ferns:


We drove a mile or two further to Cwm Camlais and found some lovely frosted conifers:


and an extremely friendly robin:





and quite a friendly horse:





We found some beautiful iced spiders webs:



and icy branches in the hedges:









and the frost even made the wire fencing look pretty!



but this is my favourite scene of the day:

with this close up looking almost as good:

Budapest stauary

There are some beautiful statues, friezes and fountains in Budapest. This was a very ornate fountain in one to the city's squares; it has 3 gods and 3 goddesses. The godesses are larger than life size, it is pretty spectacular.








What a shame that somebody has defaced this godess:


This statue was near the parliament building:

This boy is on the Pest side of the Danaube, on the riverside walk:



This boy is on the main shopping street, at one of the major pedestrian junctions:

Franz Liszt's statue, near the academy which bears his name:

Hermes, again on the main shopping street:


Wonderful girl with dog, on the Pest Danube riverside walk:



Fabulous statue of King/Saint Stefan, between the Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion, on Buda Hill:

Finally, assistance for those with poor, partial or no sight - a bronze landscape with braille labels, interpreting the view of Buda Hill from Pest, again on the riverside walk: