Welsh Wales

By shendyNo Comments
We've been spending a few days in Welsh Wales - the weather has been pretty good, but it's been damn cold. It's bloody May - it shouldn't be this flamin' cold! First up was Manorbier in Pembrokeshire. We've heard how lovely it is - it wasn't. Might have been something to do with the Arctic gale blowing, but we didn't hang around for very long. There's a surprisingly pristine castle, but it's not National Trust so we were buggered if we were going to pay to get in... After that, we went to Colby Woodland Garden, which *is* National Trust. Quite nice, with a reasonable walled garden, but nothing desperately exciting. When we were in Wales in September, SWMBO was trying to find a beach on the Cardigan Bay coast that she visited as a child. We've been to about half a dozen of the damn things now, and we still haven't found it. I suspect that the passage of 30 years has...
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January Snow

By shendyNo Comments
I've been living in Bristol for more than 13 years now, and we've had negligible snowfall in most of that time - probably 2 snowy mornings - and I reckon the last decent snow I saw was probably in 1991. But in the last 12 months, we've had 4 decent snowfalls - 2 in Jan/Feb, one at the end of December and another one today. Being the inveterate snapper that I am (which you wouldn't guess from the amount I've posted to this blog, would you?), I've taken the opportunities to get out and take some photos. These are today's. The Downs A bicycle on Whiteladies Road Snowboarding on Brandon Hill St Mary Redcliffe The lump of metal in the foreground is a fairly famous piece of tram track that landed in the grounds during a German bombing raid in WW2...
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Bosherston

By shendyNo Comments
We also visited Bosherston in Pembrokeshire, where three small valleys were flooded in the 1800s to form a large series of lakes. These are full of water lillies, and look fantastic. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f5.6, ISO 100 Having walked for a mile or so along the valley, you suddenly come out at Broad Haven beach - completely unexpected and very picturesque. Without wanting to sound rude, you wouldn't guess it was Wales, would you? Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f4.4, ISO 100 And on the walk back, we came across this cormorant, which happily sat there for ages while I took photos. Panasonic FX-37, 130mm equivalent, 1/125 @ f5.9, ISO 200 ...
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Llansteffan

By shendy1 Comment
We spent a few days in Wales in early September, which coincided with several days of fantastic weather. For a change, I deliberately left my digital SLR at home and shot a bit of film. I'll post those up when I get them back from processing and scan them - these shots are from my little digital compact. I'm so impressed by the macro facilities you get with them, making shots like this dead easy. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/640 @ f5.6, ISO 100 Llansteffan was lovely - it was really quiet, and at times all you could hear was a bit of wind and some seagulls. The tide times were just right, which enabled us to walk out surprisingly far onto the sand banks. And yes, we did take care to make sure we weren't cut off. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f5, ISO 100 And finally, I resurrected an old family habit of drawing "DON'T PANIC" in the sand (from Hitchhiker's Guide...
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