Christmas is coming

At least it is to the shopping malls, as here at princes quay, although the decorations seem less extensive then those of previous years. At least we have already done most of our Christmas shopping.

Images taken on Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S7500

We were expecting a winter wonderland!

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As usual we visited Castleton today, and after the dire weather forecasts this week expected a winter landscape, but no such luck!
Heavy rain, a few sleet showers, and high winds were the order of the day, and even a lttle sunshine too!

Still fortunately free of snow at the moment..

We went shopping in Driffield and I couldn't resist a slight detour to photograph North Dalton Church, a huge Gothic creation that seems lost in quiet rural countryside.

Because it's so tall I've had to correct the verticals, and also do a bit of both shadow recovery, and Jazz up the highlights..  All good fun

19th November: first Winter snow

We were lucky in that we only had sleet, but up on the Moors they had two inches, we drove out to Hornsea at sunset and captured this little lot coming in from the East.

Makes you want to hibernate, doesn't it?

The last Rose of summer?

Took this yesterday on the Samsung Phone Camera before the first hard frost of the season

Visited Scarborough today

Still some people about even though the season is over, we parked on the Marine Drive, which is free during the winter months, and ate our packed lunch watching this group of "would be" surfers hoping rather forlornly for a wave.
It was not to be! hardly a ripple disturbed the sea. It must have been cold out there!

Bonfire Night

Once again, as has happened for 35 years or so that the estate has been built, the local kids built their November 5th Bonfire and put a Guy on top.

And for a change, the weather was kind, no wind or rain, and apart from a chilly wind, it was a very pleasant evening

It's been so long since I last posted!

I had forgotten the blog still existed!
Anyway here are a couple of images from our trip up to Castleton last Friday

The weather was awful heading north, but eased after lunch to give short bursts of sunshine in the valleys at least.

With any luck I shall be posting more regularly again!

19th May: Last day of the holiday

And it started off rather disappointingly with continuous rain and a cold wind, but off we went anyway down to Beaumaris, taking time out to drive along the cost road first

We needed a bit of shoppping and had lunch in the triple8 cafe, and spotted this quaint local custom, apparently they think Palm trees need Monkeys, even if they are stuffed ones, we had seen this in other places on the island too

they obviously dont have a big problem with petty crime here, just look at the way shops spill out their goods onto the pavement!

It was very windy and chilly so we resisted the urge to walk out onto the short pier, which had been renovated since our visit last year.

the weather had by now started to improve, so I thought it would be nice to visit the burial mound at Bryn Celi DDu, which we hadn't gone back to for over forty years! Remembering that it was a long muddy track to get there, Pat decided to wait in the car andd do a bit of crochet, and I went off on my own to found that things had changed and there was a great surface footpath there now!

Perhaps my memory is defective but I seem to remember walking right through the tomb, yet now the back entrance is partially blocked by a large stone.

at least the other entrance is still clear and you can enter if you wish

A youg couple took this photo of me against it to give you an idea of the scale

then we had a pleasant sunny afternoon wander up down the very narrow road to Rhoscolyn, a pretty bay over four mile bridge on Holy Island

A perfect spot to visit on the last day of the holiday, and the weather was perfect too!

18th May: Anglesey Sea Zoo

A dull and breezy morning with a chill wind, so the Sea Zoo seemed an attractive idea We got there about 10:30, this was the colourful entrance sign

There is a very striking Stained glass window in the entrance too

The tanks in the first room take the form of open ponds

The fish and molluscs here are all from cold seas, like these wolf eels

And these well camouflaged floinders merging with the shingle bottom of the tank

In the next room ave tank set into the wall or as columns, containing some striking anemones

And a fine starfish too

Also hermit crabs

And in the next room Cuttlefish

And dogfish too

One of the attractions of the Sea Zoo is the darkened corridor decked out to give the appearance of the interior of a sunken ship, its always popular with kids of all ages, and a real challenge for photography, here the phone camera did rather well, I thought

cute Blenny lives in one of these tanks

Theres a good cafe here too, where we enjoyed Chicken korma, rice and salad

I was rather taken with this model boat mounted up near the ceiling

The weather did cheer up during the afternoon, so after tea we had a short tour around the narrow lanes above Amwllch to find the ancient church at LLangengan, there has been one on this clifftop site since about AD 400!

17th May 2012: Church Bay, Pili Palas, Bangor Pier

When the rain cleared we headed out towards the head of the island for a look at Church Bay, it gets busy in summer, but right now we were the only people there.

when it started to rain we decided to use the fact that our tickets for Pili Palas were valid for a week, so drove down the A55 and were there in time for lunch! Here the board greeting you as you drive in.

We had Baked Potatoes with salad, Pat With cheese, mine Coronation Chicken) in the cafe, which were very good, and watched the Meerkats through the windows.

then it was time to face the tropical heat and moisture in the Butterfly Room

We were in time to see one of the butterflies emerging from its Pupa

And there were lots to photograph,

There were a couple of sculptures in the room, like this strange figure

And this realistic looking Gila monster

The weather had picked up outside so Pat fancied a walk along Bangor Pier, which is only about a third of the length of the one at Llandudno, but in better repair.

There was only one of the little businesses running in the small pavilions, and the cafe at the end of the pier, but when we visited last summer they were all doing a roaring trade, and we had a delicious "welsh Rarebit" at the third one along on the left.