It is now getting dark before 8 pm and I've been wearing a light jumper for the past couple of days.
I have to admit though, summer here was pretty impressive. The first 'real' summer I've had in the UK. I was in T-shirts most of the time and even got my sandals and thongs out for part of it. Sun and more sun and even some heat.
So yes, it's getting cold and getting dark rather more quickly than I'm used to, but at least it was light and warm for a period of time. Remind me of that when it gets miserable, won't you?
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Friday, 17 September 2010
Backblog: Singing All Day Long...
On the evening of the 13th of March 2010 I wrote:
Amazing day! We (Plymouth Choral Society) just had a vocal workshop. This means learn the song in the morning, perform it in the afternoon. I just got back and my throat is ... croaky. But what a day! We were singing in St Andrew's Minster, which has an awesome acoustic, and had a wonderful mezzo soloist. She sang among other things, Adele's laughing song from Die Fladermaus (Johann Strauss II) and Mimi's introduction from La Boheme (Puccini). Wonderful.
The choir sang some equally great stuff. From Opera we sang Verdi's Anvil Chorus and his Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, The Villages Chorus by Rossini, Handle's Chorus of the Enchanded Islanders, Bizet's Habanera (Carmen) and Dido's Lament and Chorus by Percell. This was intermixed with some sacred music; from Brahms, Ach, arme welt, From Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus, from Anerio 'Christus Factus est', from Palestrina 'Sicut Cervus', From Vitoria, 'O quam gloriosum', from Stravinsky 'Ave Maria' and a piece by Bruckner that I forgo to write down. None of which elicit any immediate triggers for most of you I know, but I assure you, if you heard them, you'd know them - well, most of them anyway.
It really was a divine day. I haven't felt as Euphoric as that since the last time I performed in a Tea Tree Gully Youth Orchestra concert. Makes me wish I had had the dedication to keep up with my Violin practice. Well, there is always choir here to look forward to, and it will start up again shortly, so expect more singing related posts soon!!
Amazing day! We (Plymouth Choral Society) just had a vocal workshop. This means learn the song in the morning, perform it in the afternoon. I just got back and my throat is ... croaky. But what a day! We were singing in St Andrew's Minster, which has an awesome acoustic, and had a wonderful mezzo soloist. She sang among other things, Adele's laughing song from Die Fladermaus (Johann Strauss II) and Mimi's introduction from La Boheme (Puccini). Wonderful.
The choir sang some equally great stuff. From Opera we sang Verdi's Anvil Chorus and his Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, The Villages Chorus by Rossini, Handle's Chorus of the Enchanded Islanders, Bizet's Habanera (Carmen) and Dido's Lament and Chorus by Percell. This was intermixed with some sacred music; from Brahms, Ach, arme welt, From Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus, from Anerio 'Christus Factus est', from Palestrina 'Sicut Cervus', From Vitoria, 'O quam gloriosum', from Stravinsky 'Ave Maria' and a piece by Bruckner that I forgo to write down. None of which elicit any immediate triggers for most of you I know, but I assure you, if you heard them, you'd know them - well, most of them anyway.
It really was a divine day. I haven't felt as Euphoric as that since the last time I performed in a Tea Tree Gully Youth Orchestra concert. Makes me wish I had had the dedication to keep up with my Violin practice. Well, there is always choir here to look forward to, and it will start up again shortly, so expect more singing related posts soon!!
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Click on a Joe or a Yoe?
On the way to Powis castle t'other day, R & H put on a Play School album to entertain A with. Oh my gosh - I remembered so many of the songs! I knew the voices - I knew the singers names for heaven's sake! So many memories from childhood...
Anyway, one, a very Australian song which needs no introduction, was sung by the singers using a lyric I was unfamiliar with. To whit; 'Yeo' rather than 'Joe'. Yeo, it was explained by our singer, is an English dialect word for female sheep, so it does make sense. But it threw me a bit.
I investigated a little. Not only is the Yeo/Joe bit debated, it can be bare bellied, or blue bellied or even a Ewe! And other lines of the piece also get chopped around.
Well, there is no known author, so changes to the words can't really be contradicted, but still, strange to find so many differences in a song I thought I knew backwards.
I learned stuff though. As an Aussie, you'd think I would have some idea of the meaning of the words of a song I sang regularly. But I had no idea that a snagger was a shearer who rushed his job and therefore left tufts, or snags, of wool behind. In actual fact, I always thought the word was swagger! :D You learn a new thing every day. See this good website for explanations of the first four verses or so.
Anyway, here are the lyrics with some of the additions that I found. Interesting.
Click Goes the Shears
Out on the board the old shearer stands
Grasping his shears in his long bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied "joe"
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go
Chorus
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied "joe" (a.k.a. bare-bellied Yeo)
In the middle of the floor in his cane-bottomed chair
Is the boss of the board, with eyes everywhere
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention if it's taken off clean
The colonial-experience man he is there, of course
With his shiny leggin's just got off his horse
Casting round his eye like a real connoisseur
Scented soap and brilliantine, and smelling like a whore (or smelling like a sewer, or a.k.a. Whistling the old tune "I'm the Perfect Lure")
The tar-boy is there awaiting in demand
With his blackened tar-pot and his tarry hand
Sees one old sheep with a cut upon its back
Here's what he's waiting for "Tar here Jack!"
Shearing is all over and we've all got our cheques
Roll up your swag for we're off on the tracks
The first pub we come to it's there we'll have a spree
And everyone that comes along it's, "Come and drink with me!"
Down by the bar the old shearer stands
Grasping his glass in his thin bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg
Glory he'll get down on it ere he stirs a peg
There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands
Whilst all around him every shouter stands
His eyes are on the cask which is now lowering fast
He works hard he drinks hard and goes to hell at last
You take off the belly-wool clean out the crutch
Go up the neck for the rules they are such
You clean round the horns first shoulder go down
One blow up the back and you then turn around
Click, click, that's how the shears go
Click, click, so awfully quick
You pull out a sheep he'll give a kick
And still hear your shears going click, click, click
Anyway, one, a very Australian song which needs no introduction, was sung by the singers using a lyric I was unfamiliar with. To whit; 'Yeo' rather than 'Joe'. Yeo, it was explained by our singer, is an English dialect word for female sheep, so it does make sense. But it threw me a bit.
I investigated a little. Not only is the Yeo/Joe bit debated, it can be bare bellied, or blue bellied or even a Ewe! And other lines of the piece also get chopped around.
Well, there is no known author, so changes to the words can't really be contradicted, but still, strange to find so many differences in a song I thought I knew backwards.
I learned stuff though. As an Aussie, you'd think I would have some idea of the meaning of the words of a song I sang regularly. But I had no idea that a snagger was a shearer who rushed his job and therefore left tufts, or snags, of wool behind. In actual fact, I always thought the word was swagger! :D You learn a new thing every day. See this good website for explanations of the first four verses or so.
Anyway, here are the lyrics with some of the additions that I found. Interesting.
Click Goes the Shears
Out on the board the old shearer stands
Grasping his shears in his long bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied "joe"
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go
Chorus
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied "joe" (a.k.a. bare-bellied Yeo)
In the middle of the floor in his cane-bottomed chair
Is the boss of the board, with eyes everywhere
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention if it's taken off clean
The colonial-experience man he is there, of course
With his shiny leggin's just got off his horse
Casting round his eye like a real connoisseur
Scented soap and brilliantine, and smelling like a whore (or smelling like a sewer, or a.k.a. Whistling the old tune "I'm the Perfect Lure")
The tar-boy is there awaiting in demand
With his blackened tar-pot and his tarry hand
Sees one old sheep with a cut upon its back
Here's what he's waiting for "Tar here Jack!"
Shearing is all over and we've all got our cheques
Roll up your swag for we're off on the tracks
The first pub we come to it's there we'll have a spree
And everyone that comes along it's, "Come and drink with me!"
Down by the bar the old shearer stands
Grasping his glass in his thin bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg
Glory he'll get down on it ere he stirs a peg
There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands
Whilst all around him every shouter stands
His eyes are on the cask which is now lowering fast
He works hard he drinks hard and goes to hell at last
You take off the belly-wool clean out the crutch
Go up the neck for the rules they are such
You clean round the horns first shoulder go down
One blow up the back and you then turn around
Click, click, that's how the shears go
Click, click, so awfully quick
You pull out a sheep he'll give a kick
And still hear your shears going click, click, click
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
A question of pens...
Not that he reads this, but Happy Birthday M-Moose!
This post is all about Zebras - I swear!
I went shopping online today for a very important implement; A new pen for NaNo.
This can be no ordinary pen. It has to have ink that flows quickly and freely across the paper I most prefer using so I can write at the speed of my brain. It has to have a non-slip grip so that when my fingers start getting sweaty, with the stress of keeping up with my mind, I don’t loose the pen. The same grip has to be comfortable and slightly giving so I don’t end up with ridges or blisters on my fingers from the extended use I make of it. It has to have a large diameter so that when, in my panic to get my word count up, I grip too tightly I don’t give myself cramp. It also has to have enough ink to last me for at least 50,000 words. No mean feat I can tell you.
The search has been long. Over the years I have survived many inferior pens. When I was at school I liked Schafer pens, tapered and angular, but these actually gave me blisters somehow. After I had started writing regularly I spent years using uni-ball micro roller-ball pens, bog standard and relatively cheep, which were great for easy-flowing writing and weren’t too uncomfortable although the finger-ridges thing happened regularly. Only problem was the damn roller-ball point kept detaching itself with my vigorous use. I would always manage to break the pen well before it ran out of ink. I went through at least thirty before giving up. I tried Bic four coloured pens as these were slightly more chunky than the usual pen, hoping to overcome finger cramp, but they have no grip and my fingers just slid right off.
And then about five or six years ago I started using PaperMate’s four-coloured multi-pens. Really nicely chunky, a soft, non-slip grip, a lot of ink (four times as much!), comfortable... But it just didn’t flow as quickly as I wanted, and it’s standard nib-size (1.0 I think), is too thick for my preference. I like a fine line.
Well, they don’t sell PaperMate’s here, so last year in Plymouth I went looking for a substitute and discovered a Zebra brand four-colour pen. I had already fallen in love with their Tapli Clip pens as work-pens in Canberra (unfortunately TapliClip are now discontinued :S) so when I saw the four-colour ones, I grabbed the very last two in the WHSmith in Plymouth.
And right there, for me, heaven in pen form had been discovered. The nib size was perfect, the ink flowed beautifully, the grip was great and NaNo was a breeze – well, I notched up 100k words, so yes, it went well!
Unfortunately, I never saw the pens in ‘Smith again, although I looked routinely hoping to buy more. My current two are all but out of ink now, so I have been studiously looking for replacements. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched Plymouth, I searched London, I searched Melbourne over Christmas, I searched Aber, I searched Shrewsbury, I searched Birmingham: No Zebra four-colour chunky pens did I find. So I went online. I went to the UK Zebra website and the US Zebra website and even to some websites in Japan, Zebra’s home country, but they no longer make them.
*deep groan*
I was properly horrified. My favourite pen has been discontinued! Even worse, they haven’t (as yet) come up with a replacement for it! I am devastated. Why do these companies have to keep improving and re-inventing the wheel? Have they not heard of the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’?
*sigh*
I discovered a sort-of substitute four-colour chunky pen from a company I have never heard of – Reynolds – which works ok, suffering from the same problem as the PaperMate pens being not-flowy enough and a bit too thick for me. And although they’re good enough for everyday writing, they’re not good enough to survive NaNo. Not as I do it these days at any rate.
So I went searching today for substitutes. I looked under ‘4-Colour’ and ‘Multi-pen’. I found bic's but steered well clear of them. Then I thankfully discovered a good website selling hundreds of different brands of pens. I found three four-colour pens that look like they might be chunky enough to be comfortable. Actually, there were only three four-colour pens on the site! Two Pilot pens – the Feed GP4 and the BegreeN Feed GP4 and something by a company called Tombow – their Reporter 4-Colour Pen. I thought I’d try out each, so I bought all three. They were dispatched almost immediately. I should get them in the next day or so.
And then of course this evening when I got home, I looked at the shell of my favourite pen and realised it wasn’t called a multi-pen or anything nearly as snazzy. It was called Clip-On. Just that. How very undescriptive.
So just on the very off chance that they might exist in some hereto-undiscovered corner of the universe, I went looking for the 'Clip-On'.
And guess what they have up on the WHSmith website at 10% off right now?
You guessed it, the Clip On! I bought six, which is all I can really justify at the ‘mo as at over 3 quid a pop, they’re not cheep. But they still exist!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!
*Kat Happy Dance*
Of course, they are still discontinued, but ‘Smith have a surplus supply so yay for me! When I feel sufficiently extravagant, hopefully before WHSmith run out, I will buy some more.
But for the meantime, I’m very happy. I have discovered a supply of my favourite Zebras and they are on their way to me right now!
See, I told you this post was about Zebras! NaNo 2010, Here I Come!
This post is all about Zebras - I swear!
I went shopping online today for a very important implement; A new pen for NaNo.
This can be no ordinary pen. It has to have ink that flows quickly and freely across the paper I most prefer using so I can write at the speed of my brain. It has to have a non-slip grip so that when my fingers start getting sweaty, with the stress of keeping up with my mind, I don’t loose the pen. The same grip has to be comfortable and slightly giving so I don’t end up with ridges or blisters on my fingers from the extended use I make of it. It has to have a large diameter so that when, in my panic to get my word count up, I grip too tightly I don’t give myself cramp. It also has to have enough ink to last me for at least 50,000 words. No mean feat I can tell you.
The search has been long. Over the years I have survived many inferior pens. When I was at school I liked Schafer pens, tapered and angular, but these actually gave me blisters somehow. After I had started writing regularly I spent years using uni-ball micro roller-ball pens, bog standard and relatively cheep, which were great for easy-flowing writing and weren’t too uncomfortable although the finger-ridges thing happened regularly. Only problem was the damn roller-ball point kept detaching itself with my vigorous use. I would always manage to break the pen well before it ran out of ink. I went through at least thirty before giving up. I tried Bic four coloured pens as these were slightly more chunky than the usual pen, hoping to overcome finger cramp, but they have no grip and my fingers just slid right off.
And then about five or six years ago I started using PaperMate’s four-coloured multi-pens. Really nicely chunky, a soft, non-slip grip, a lot of ink (four times as much!), comfortable... But it just didn’t flow as quickly as I wanted, and it’s standard nib-size (1.0 I think), is too thick for my preference. I like a fine line.
Well, they don’t sell PaperMate’s here, so last year in Plymouth I went looking for a substitute and discovered a Zebra brand four-colour pen. I had already fallen in love with their Tapli Clip pens as work-pens in Canberra (unfortunately TapliClip are now discontinued :S) so when I saw the four-colour ones, I grabbed the very last two in the WHSmith in Plymouth.
And right there, for me, heaven in pen form had been discovered. The nib size was perfect, the ink flowed beautifully, the grip was great and NaNo was a breeze – well, I notched up 100k words, so yes, it went well!
Unfortunately, I never saw the pens in ‘Smith again, although I looked routinely hoping to buy more. My current two are all but out of ink now, so I have been studiously looking for replacements. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched Plymouth, I searched London, I searched Melbourne over Christmas, I searched Aber, I searched Shrewsbury, I searched Birmingham: No Zebra four-colour chunky pens did I find. So I went online. I went to the UK Zebra website and the US Zebra website and even to some websites in Japan, Zebra’s home country, but they no longer make them.
*deep groan*
I was properly horrified. My favourite pen has been discontinued! Even worse, they haven’t (as yet) come up with a replacement for it! I am devastated. Why do these companies have to keep improving and re-inventing the wheel? Have they not heard of the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’?
*sigh*
I discovered a sort-of substitute four-colour chunky pen from a company I have never heard of – Reynolds – which works ok, suffering from the same problem as the PaperMate pens being not-flowy enough and a bit too thick for me. And although they’re good enough for everyday writing, they’re not good enough to survive NaNo. Not as I do it these days at any rate.
So I went searching today for substitutes. I looked under ‘4-Colour’ and ‘Multi-pen’. I found bic's but steered well clear of them. Then I thankfully discovered a good website selling hundreds of different brands of pens. I found three four-colour pens that look like they might be chunky enough to be comfortable. Actually, there were only three four-colour pens on the site! Two Pilot pens – the Feed GP4 and the BegreeN Feed GP4 and something by a company called Tombow – their Reporter 4-Colour Pen. I thought I’d try out each, so I bought all three. They were dispatched almost immediately. I should get them in the next day or so.
And then of course this evening when I got home, I looked at the shell of my favourite pen and realised it wasn’t called a multi-pen or anything nearly as snazzy. It was called Clip-On. Just that. How very undescriptive.
So just on the very off chance that they might exist in some hereto-undiscovered corner of the universe, I went looking for the 'Clip-On'.
And guess what they have up on the WHSmith website at 10% off right now?
You guessed it, the Clip On! I bought six, which is all I can really justify at the ‘mo as at over 3 quid a pop, they’re not cheep. But they still exist!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!
*Kat Happy Dance*
Of course, they are still discontinued, but ‘Smith have a surplus supply so yay for me! When I feel sufficiently extravagant, hopefully before WHSmith run out, I will buy some more.
But for the meantime, I’m very happy. I have discovered a supply of my favourite Zebras and they are on their way to me right now!
See, I told you this post was about Zebras! NaNo 2010, Here I Come!
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Aunt Millie's Garden - Block 8.
Done and Dusted. This means I'm half-way through the blocks, and have completed one block of each of the colours that will be represented on the quilt top!
Block 8: Purple - I like the way the green leaves make an additional pattern inside the flowers, but it does make it rather a bit too green!
And here's a refresher- Click to enbigen!
The warm colours:
And the cool colours:
Yay! They are looking good, even if I do say so myself!
Block 8: Purple - I like the way the green leaves make an additional pattern inside the flowers, but it does make it rather a bit too green!
And here's a refresher- Click to enbigen!
The warm colours:
And the cool colours:
Yay! They are looking good, even if I do say so myself!
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Core of my heart...
I have a lurgy. I have no energy. So a Poem it is...
It was T's Birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday T!) and I got homesick, so here is one for the home I miss. Apparently it was originally called 'Core of My Heart', hence the blog title, and also that the last line of the third stanza used to read 'And ferns the crimson soil' which I like much better - but here is the currently accepted version thereof:
My Country
by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
It was T's Birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday T!) and I got homesick, so here is one for the home I miss. Apparently it was originally called 'Core of My Heart', hence the blog title, and also that the last line of the third stanza used to read 'And ferns the crimson soil' which I like much better - but here is the currently accepted version thereof:
My Country
by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Aunt Millies Garden: Blocks 4, 5, 6 and 7
Aunt Millie's Garden progresses!
Block 4 in Orange: Very Cheerful!
Block 5 in Red: It took me a long time to accept the centre petals of these ones but I think they work.
Block 6 in Indigo:
Block 7 in Yellow: - Not too happy with the centres of these, but will have to change it later - I don't have my fabric stash with me!
And here are Blocks 1 through 6:
I am now working on Block 8 which is the first purple one, then I just have to do 9-16 and the borders of course... oi vay!
Block 4 in Orange: Very Cheerful!
Block 5 in Red: It took me a long time to accept the centre petals of these ones but I think they work.
Block 6 in Indigo:
Block 7 in Yellow: - Not too happy with the centres of these, but will have to change it later - I don't have my fabric stash with me!
And here are Blocks 1 through 6:
I am now working on Block 8 which is the first purple one, then I just have to do 9-16 and the borders of course... oi vay!
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
New Home: Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Right, so I moved to Aberystwyth in May this year, four months ago. Yes, I've been slack. But anyway, Aber, as it is known locally, is located half-way up the West coast of Wales. Essentially a University town these days, it had its hay-day in the 1800s when it was a favoured sea-side resort for the upper class. The Georgian promenade is still an attraction but it is the Welsh who come here for their holidays now.
It is at the end of the train line and with roughly 12,000 inhabitants, not including the annual influx of 8000 uni students, it is a rather small place. The smallest I've lived so far in actual fact.
For all that, living here has been lovely. It's a very relaxed place. The weather has so far been great (I'm told to expect endless rain in Winter, but Summer was brilliant!), it's very easy to get around, with lots of interesting independent shops to browse and walking along the sea of an evening has been just perfect. Very easy to lose track of time in a place like this.
Really, how could I not love a country whose flag sports a dragon?!? And it is oh-so-easy to imagine that 'There be Dragons' in them thar hills!
Anyway, some pics for show and tell: 1. The view from my Attic, 2. Along the Bay, 3. The ruined Castle, 4. The Foreshore, 5. View of the town from the top of Constitution Hill.
It is at the end of the train line and with roughly 12,000 inhabitants, not including the annual influx of 8000 uni students, it is a rather small place. The smallest I've lived so far in actual fact.
For all that, living here has been lovely. It's a very relaxed place. The weather has so far been great (I'm told to expect endless rain in Winter, but Summer was brilliant!), it's very easy to get around, with lots of interesting independent shops to browse and walking along the sea of an evening has been just perfect. Very easy to lose track of time in a place like this.
Really, how could I not love a country whose flag sports a dragon?!? And it is oh-so-easy to imagine that 'There be Dragons' in them thar hills!
Anyway, some pics for show and tell: 1. The view from my Attic, 2. Along the Bay, 3. The ruined Castle, 4. The Foreshore, 5. View of the town from the top of Constitution Hill.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Powis Castle
Ok, as promised, a start to the backlog. Well, this actually only occurred last weekend, so not so much backlog but at least it's keeping abreast of things!
So, this last weekend, I visited Powis Castle with R & H & A. Powis is located just outside the town of Welshpool, in Wales, near the English border. It dates from the Medieval period and has the most beautiful gardens I have ever been in. Absolutely humongous! Some 26 acres or so they say. I couldn't take any photos inside the castle itself, so you'll just have to be awed by the gardens. I was!
So, this last weekend, I visited Powis Castle with R & H & A. Powis is located just outside the town of Welshpool, in Wales, near the English border. It dates from the Medieval period and has the most beautiful gardens I have ever been in. Absolutely humongous! Some 26 acres or so they say. I couldn't take any photos inside the castle itself, so you'll just have to be awed by the gardens. I was!
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Finishing the Book...
Something else rather major I did in May was finish the final draft of my 2009 NaNoWriMo book. And sent it off, to get a real-life, hard copy thereof.
So damn exciting, and I'm so damn proud of myself! And I'm swearing too much again... shall stop now!
But WHOHOOOOO!!!!
... of course, the very first sentence I read contained a typo. My dragons don't die, they debate the philosophy of right and wrong. But them's the breaks! :D
So damn exciting, and I'm so damn proud of myself! And I'm swearing too much again... shall stop now!
But WHOHOOOOO!!!!
... of course, the very first sentence I read contained a typo. My dragons don't die, they debate the philosophy of right and wrong. But them's the breaks! :D
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