Into Snowdonia

The day after Boxing Day we took Rene home to her house in Milnthorpe, south of Windermere in the lake District. We had rented a cottage in Snowdonia for the New Year and set out lunchtime the next day for Rhyd Ddu, a hamlet sitting under Snowdon.
We took the long way, firstly because of blocked traffic on the M6 and then as we wanted to pass through old haunts in North Wales, in the Clocaenog Forest between Ruthin and Cerrigydrudion.
By the time we got into the Snowdonia area it was getting dark and I managed to grab a couple of shots, firstly of Llynnau Mymbyr, by Capel Curig and secondly of Lyn Gwynant, with Moel Hebog behind.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ancient Agora of Athens

Image
  After our trip to the seaside we thought we should examine more of the ancient sites of Athens. So we walked to the district of Monasteriki, the very busy touristic area, where behind iron railings lies the Greek Agora. This occupies a large area and was originally a place where the Athenians senate met, as well as holding the market, places for socialising, temples and craftsmen's workshops. We started by walking up the hill to the Temple of Hephaestus which overlooks the Agora. This temple was completed around 430BC and as Hephaestus was the patron god of metal work and craftsmanship it was built on a very fitting site, although it was used as church from the 7th century AD to 1833. We passed workmen tidying as we walked. From the top we got very good views over Athens. Directly under the temple lies the site of the ancient Bouleuterion which was the senate house where political discussion took place and the Metroon where the state archives were kept. The boule was a sort of pa...
Read more

A weekend in the Dingle, a damp drive and exciting lichen

Image
We woke to a drizzle the day after our 'Tom Crean experience'. We had not enlisted for the Tom Crean 19 mile endurance walk, and luckily that was sold out anyway, and given the weather would not have been pleasant by any yardstick. Instead we did what any old codger would do under the circumstances and go for a drive. The Slea Head Drive to be more precise and part of what the Dingle tourist board call the 'Wild Atlantic Way'. Wet and wild that particular Saturday. It is manners to drive clockwise around this circular route as the road is very narrow and cars coming the other way, as a couple did, cause all the traffic to snarl up. We started in Dingle where we stopped briefly by the harbour, before continuing until we shortly came to a museum. It was a private, commercial sort of venture, run by an American and called the Celtic and Prehistory Museum. And it was actually very interesting, containing some animal skeletons and stone axes and other such artefacts. Th...
Read more

Athens by night

Image
  The evening after we had returned from Piraeus we decided to have a walk around the bottom of the Acropolis Hill. The Parthenon and other temples were lit up so it was very scenic. We strolled to the entrance to the Odeon of Atticus, the amphitheatre at the base of the Acropolis. There were a few other people here taking in the atmosphere. We managed to get a view in through the iron gates of the seating area of the amphitheatre. We then walked to the footpath that led up the Hill of the Muses, another hill opposite the Acropolis. It was quite dark up there and a little creepy. At the top is the mausoleum of Philopappus. He was a prince who died in 116 AD and apparently so greatly mourned by his sister and the people of Athens that they built this monument to him. We got some tremendous views over Athens from the top and on coming back down into the town we could see the massive curtain wall around the base of the Acropolis. 
Read more

Encounters with Duchamp's 'Fountain'

Image
On a visit to Tate Modern I thought it might be fun to do a study of Duchamp's 'Fountain', a piece of 'readymade' sculpture which the Tate quotes as topping a poll of 500 art experts in the UK to be the single most influential piece of art created in the 20th century. I was keen to see what the galleristas at the Tate would make of it, so I sat on a convenient bench for about an hour and photographed the passers by. The work itself was submitted by Duchamp, under the guise of R Mutt (Mott was the maker of the sanitary ware), to the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York. A group that Duchamp had himself helped to found. The works submitted by members were supposed to be hung without reservation, but the directors of the society present during the hanging decided to exclude the urinal as not fitting to be shown on the grounds of both art and decency. Duchamp resigned from the society and  retrieved the urinal which was photographe...
Read more