Photo Dump: Portmeirion
May. 5th, 2025 12:02 pmI never posted the photos I took when we were in Portmeirion for Christmas.
( So please find them below the cut. )
( So please find them below the cut. )
Den Gamle By
Sep. 23rd, 2024 07:34 pmWhile in Århus, I went to Den Gamle By ("The Old Town", as I understand it) which is a collection of buildings, mostly moved to Århus from other parts of Denmark at various points in the 20th century. It's loosely arranged into three themed areas - 1600-1900 (The Old Town), 190-1927 and 1950-1974 though there is also a little bit of 2000-2014. You could enter most of the buildings and view the interiors - though most of the rooms were sectioned off behind glass.
( Pictures under the Cut )
( Pictures under the Cut )
Park Run Volunteering
Aug. 5th, 2024 11:40 am
This photo popped up on the South Manchester Park Run facebook recently, as part of their regular push to recruit more volunteers to help marshal Park Run. I don’t volunteer all that regularly, but this is from a Saturday in July when I was marshalling rather than running.
Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway
Mar. 31st, 2024 02:02 pmOn Thursday we awoke to bright blue skies and snow on the mountains. There had been some discussion on Wednesday about whether we should, perhaps, leave the village at least once during our stay. B. was initially keen on the idea of a steam train but then cooled when it occurred to him that this would mostly be spending three hours on a train. However, by this point Marmalade Sparrow had been told about the possibility of a steam train and was strongly in favour of it and against the alternative option of a castle. After a bit of negotiation we decided to ride from Porthmadog (near the village) up to Blaenau-Festiniog (the place has one F but the railway has two. I got the impression that the railway's additional F was some kind of publicity move to emphasise its welshness). Anyway we enjoyed the journey, though there is not, frankly, a great deal to do or see in Blaenau - but it got us up to the snow line so B. could touch actual snow. The views from the train were lovely but we would probably have been just as happy though if it had taken an hour less time!
( Pictures under the cut )
( Pictures under the cut )
Portmeirion Picspam
Mar. 27th, 2024 06:35 pmWe are on a short break in Portmeirion, mostly dodging the weather while trying to complete our respective dissertation projects and grant rebuttals.
( Pictures under the cut )
( Pictures under the cut )
Quarry Bank Mill
Jan. 8th, 2024 07:00 pmWe went to Quarry Bank Mill on New Year's Eve. This is a National Trust property consisting of a Cotton Mill, Mill Stream and Gardens and Apprentice House. Despite it being very close to us we had never seen it because Marmalade Sparrow was taken by school at some point and never wanted to go again! She claimed no memory of this experience or injunction when asked. We elected to go there entirely because the weather was doubtful and the Mill was open - unlike most other properties in the area where only the gardens were open.
It was a nice change from a lot of the Country House fare one normally gets with National Trust properties. In particular it had a lot of working machinery, including the mill wheel and several generations of spinning and weaving machines, many in working order with people present to demonstrate them in action! You could watch the cotton go through from fluffy bales, to strips of cotton wool, to cotton thread and then watch it woven into cloth. As usual, as well as plenty of interpreters, there were many information boards detailing life in the mill - it took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out how the maths of the mill population worked since it was supposed to be a "job for life" but also employed more children than men and women put together. There was also a second looking at how the slave trade interacted with the cotton industry (the kind of thing that has become surprisingly controversial in recent years, with a pressure group dedicated to returning the NT to its glory days and, presumably, excising all mention of slavery from its properties).
Also, as usual, there was a good restaurant serving hearty food, a shop and, less usual, a second-hand bookshop. Some elected to remain in the bookshop while the rest of us seized the opportunity of a break in the weather to explore the grounds. B. and I chose to wonder upstream to view the weir that controlled the water that powered most of the mill and which is now part of a small hydro-electric station.
( A few pictures under the cut )
It was a nice change from a lot of the Country House fare one normally gets with National Trust properties. In particular it had a lot of working machinery, including the mill wheel and several generations of spinning and weaving machines, many in working order with people present to demonstrate them in action! You could watch the cotton go through from fluffy bales, to strips of cotton wool, to cotton thread and then watch it woven into cloth. As usual, as well as plenty of interpreters, there were many information boards detailing life in the mill - it took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out how the maths of the mill population worked since it was supposed to be a "job for life" but also employed more children than men and women put together. There was also a second looking at how the slave trade interacted with the cotton industry (the kind of thing that has become surprisingly controversial in recent years, with a pressure group dedicated to returning the NT to its glory days and, presumably, excising all mention of slavery from its properties).
Also, as usual, there was a good restaurant serving hearty food, a shop and, less usual, a second-hand bookshop. Some elected to remain in the bookshop while the rest of us seized the opportunity of a break in the weather to explore the grounds. B. and I chose to wonder upstream to view the weir that controlled the water that powered most of the mill and which is now part of a small hydro-electric station.
( A few pictures under the cut )
The village of Wroxeter occupies one corner of the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum. English Heritage has preserved an excavation of the substantial baths, next to a modern recreation of a Roman town house. Most of the baths, as is common with Roman remains, had clearly been covered by the landscape but "The Old Work" must have stood visible in arable land and one can't help feeling that the nearby residents of Shrewsbury missed a trick when they didn't loot it for building material.
( Pictures under the Cut )
Montgomery Canal
Sep. 16th, 2023 06:16 pmWe walked along the Montgomery Canal twice during our holiday - once going north from Welshpool and once south.
( Pictures under the Cut )
( Pictures under the Cut )
Hadrian's Wall: Days 6 & 7
Feb. 14th, 2023 04:31 pmOn our final day we walked from Chollerford to Heddon-on-the-Wall. There wasn't a great deal of wall left to be seen now we had come down from the hillier parts.
This was our last turret - just after Chollerford. It's more exciting when you are coming in the other direction and it is your first turret.
Although there is no wall visible here - the ditch and vallum have left their mark on the landscape visible even after 1900 years.
We got to Heddon-on-the-Wall in good time to meet![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sir_guinglain for dinner in a pub. We didn't actually visit the wall at Heddon until the next morning.
Then we went home.
This was our last turret - just after Chollerford. It's more exciting when you are coming in the other direction and it is your first turret.
Although there is no wall visible here - the ditch and vallum have left their mark on the landscape visible even after 1900 years.
We got to Heddon-on-the-Wall in good time to meet
sir_guinglain for dinner in a pub. We didn't actually visit the wall at Heddon until the next morning.Then we went home.
