Bay apartments

This is Penarth marina, part of the Bay re development area.

Happy New Year to you.

Cardiff weather

With all the variations that the weather can throw at you in Wales, its always good to check out the forecast....even when early morning shopping.

Cardiff Central station - deserted

No trains over Christmas, so no one around!

Caerphilly Festival of Lights

This was a  procession through the main streets of Caerphilly , with hundreds of children, samba bands,  a brass band too, and ending with a firework display in the castle.  It was very well supported and no doubt the children already excited by Christmas, would have been wound up that little bit more.

A Merry Christmas to you all.

Christmas Market stalls

Sorry not  one for vegetarians, but it was the layout that appealed to me.

Contrasting towers

The old and new styles of Oxford buildings which still keep to the dreaming spires theme.

Oxford - dreaming spires

In Oxford for a couple of days.

Little drummer boy

A friend emailed me this link and I think its amazing.  His name is Howard and he's 4 years old.  Watch his face when towards the end he spots his parents in the audience.

Protest Camp

This is one of many around the world, and similar to the one outside St Pauls in London. Originally this camp was set up outside Cardiff castle but the protestors were moved and have relocated here in front of a Trade Union building. More sympathetic to their cause than Cardiff Coucil.

Does anyone else have problems uploading photos using Picasa and IE. After Googling the problem a way around it is to use a different browser to IE and upload the pictures directly from your folder.  If there is a better way please let me know. 

Senghenydd

Blogger seems to be playing up as this is my third attempt to put this post together.

This is Senghenydd, I'm sure I've shown you pictures of it before, but the reason why we visit it is that there is a wonderful hill up from the village to the moorland in the first picture.  Its like a ride through history, as looking back down you can see the remains of the colliery and the scene of the greatest mining accident in UK history.  In 1913 489 miners were killed in an undeground explosion, cause by a build up of "damp" gas.

In the top picture, where the top track going off to the right, is the remains of the "Senghenydd Dyke" an ancient 13th century boundary ditch, of the de Clare family who lived in Caerphilly Castle.

The Beacons

This was taken at Garwnant in the Beacons.  I went there to spot some Crosbills, but no luck, I only heard them.

Taf Trail tree

The autumn colours are not that vivid this year, probably due to the warm mild weather we have had and the trees are still producing glucose / food.  When they stop producing food, the chlorophyll in the leaves goes away and then we can see orange and yellow colours. These colours were in the leaves all summer, but the green covered them up.

This is also the worse part of the Taf Trail as there is usually so much broken glass around here that the chances of a puncture are high.

Autumn - Sourhead 4

The tea rooms and pub gardens .

Autumn - Stourhead 3

Some of the wonderful buildings in these gardens.  Stourhead was only used as a holiday home!!!

Autumn - Stourhead 2

The long and the short of trees.  The owl was on an old rotting tree. 

Autumn

These were taken on Saturday at Stourhead .

Only some trees had the autumnal colours, probably down to the recent changes in the weather.  I'll be posting some more pictures of the gardens later. 

Castell Coch - A fairy castle

This is Castell Coch in Tongwynlais, a beautiful local landmark.  Beautiful, but never lived in, just a whim of a very rich man.   This was taken from the valley floor and I have used photoshop to get this view.  I've enroled on an adult education course and this was one of my projects, to eliminated all the electric cables and anything else etc . Click the link for more information. 

Leaves on the Taf

Another tree framed shot, this time of the river Taf, running alongside the Taf Trail.

Llanrhidian - Gower

This was taken over looking the village showing the old mill and pond to drive the water mill, because until the beginning of the the 20th Century there was a thriving weaving industry here.

Vancouver

Whilst in Norfolk we visited Kings Lynn and it was interesting to find out where the name Vancouver came from.

Norfolk Broads - the setting sun

We had a few days away in Norfolk, and this shot was taken at Horsey just by the water pump.  I suppose Norfolk is mainly known for The Broads. but there's a lot of other very interesting  places as well. 

From this to this!!

This is from part of a cycle ride.  The first picture is as you are leaving Treorchy with its ribbon development and then heading up the mountain road to the top of the Rhigos Mountain.  Its 4 miles from where the first picture was taken to the top, a steady climb and not too steep.  I took these pictures whilst cycling.

On the way to the top you pass an old Iron Age settlement called Hen Dre Yr Mynydd [The old town on the mountain], some more pictures here.