A few images i took this evening along the Montgomery Canal around Buttington  Wharf, quite relaxing spending time walking and taking a few photography compositions enjoying the fresh crisp evening air.    

The dreaded Monday out of the way which called for a short walk with my camera after work up to Powis Castle this evening  to try get some photography of the Deers around the castle, there tends not to be many people about in the evening up at the castle which allows  the Deers come up to the castle in peac, if no one is around you can just sit down quietly and they will not take to much notice if you keep fairly still.
I  have to admit this is quite rewarding photography and relaxing after work plus i get to have a walk at the same time, as for other wildlife a squirrel was hopping about and a few pheasants wondering around with the sound of a woodpecker in one of the oak trees, with a light hint of autumn not far away with conker trees showing some colour changes, you can see on the photo below this oak leaf has some of that golden brown starting to appear. 

I promised I would find Glenys a flat cycle ride and you will not get better than this cycle ride for flatness, this route today  we cycled was part of National Cycle Route 5 (NCR). 
The River Dee round is really safe to cycle we did however modify the route just by extending into Conner Quay for a bit of a explore, the River Dee round route is downloadable from   www.chestercyclecity.orgif  you fancy a go at this.

Overall we found Chester very cycle friendly,   for access to NCR5 we are following the towpath and then onto a disused railway line for NCR5. Turning disused railways and recycling them into cycle paths is brilliant and from safety perspective reduces the chance of accidents dramatically and especially for children, I have found cycling on the roads more of a ordeal these days, the amount of traffic on the roads much abundant unless i can cycle the quiet hilly lanes of mid-wales.

You can we from the Photos i took  the River Dee Round  it really is truly flat with the exception of a few slight gradients, i have not written to much of our ride as the download and map provides lots of details, i downloaded the details onto my phone but the route is perfectly sign posted.

The cycles we use are as follows-
myself- GT transeo 4.0  
Glenys - Carrera Crossfire
both very capable  hybrid bikes, Glens is fairly new and proved itself the day after purchase on the Mawddach trail, a rugged no nonsense ladys bike, if i ever needed a new hybrid i would buy one of these myself the mens version of course.
My GT like Glens rugged and perfect for cycling canal Tow paths of which i brought  for the purpose of,
it has a upright position as i can no longer ride a bike leaning down due to arthritis of my wrist another reason why i love my hybrid is it is so versatile.
 

More of a book review with a combined walk and Photography this weekend, just like last week i dug out one of my walking books which this one is one of the KITTIWAKE "walks around the berwyn mountains and the Ceiriog Valley".
Now this has been with me for a number of years and i have walked nearly walked every walk in it, from the photos you can see its quite worn ans tatty around the edges, its been wet a few times only to be dried out and reused the stuffed back in my rucksack, i tend to use it in combination with o/s map 255 Llangollen and Berwyn.

Following walk 12 from the book, starting at the former mining village of Glen Ceiriog, walk 12 is a hilly 6 miler following part of the Ceiriog way then onto the part of the disused Glen Ceiriog tramway which is owned by the national  trust.
Then onto a hilly open access land up onto and through Springhill wood the book quotes it is springfield wood which i have found a few inaccuracy's in KITTYWAKE books which hence i always use the o/s maps as a combination, another problem i have found with the books are the maps are a mix scale and lack of distance given between instructions.
So back to springfield wood, at this point we reached the furthest point just as the weather changed for the worse with some typical in the Berwyns  which the area is in a rain shadow which when it rains in the Berwyns it really does rain.
A good opportunity to dig out my new and unused waterproof jacket which was purchased back in May in Grasmere in the Lakes. 
Now at the highest point on the walk at 438 metres on spring hill in torrential rain were heading back all down hill via the lanes, imagining what warn dry feet feel like all the way,  the weather improving but soaking wet, thankfully some spare clothes back at the car in Glen Ceiriog then off to the Ceiriog Hotel, Glenys has gone for a glass of white wine and me... a strawberry and rubarb cider and a piece of bara brith....total bliss
 

 A really good session of photography today at Lake Vyrnwy, we finished a cycle ride of the lake which in itself is a pleasure on a sunday afternoon, then off for some photography. 
With the DLSR with me for some post cycle wildlife photography session  as the area is a abundant of bird  wildlife, some of the photography you can see were on the bird feeders outside the RSPB shop  (post code,SY10 OLZ) which with plenty of birds around provided some great Photography.
The second session of photography was at the nearby bird hide, which we were lucky enough to see three young Great spotted woodpeckers and a sleepy squirrel sleeping on a nearby log, fairly challenging providing quality clear images due to photographing through a perspex screen in the hide,  a steady hand and some finicky manual focusing needed.      

firstly I have to say this was my 60th welsh mountain summit, not including multiple climbs and summit bagging in the lakes, yet this is part of my own personal challenge to bag all the welsh mountain peaks and the adventure continues. 
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So with Aranig Fach on today's agenda on a very hot sunday deep in the Aranig mountains north of Bala, Starting the walk just of the very scenic mountain road A421 with Llyn Celyn dominating the area. Most pass by unaware of the flooding of a small welsh community to feed the city of Liverpool of water as well as Lake Vyrnwy combined they both feed the ever expanding city of more and more water, the flooding of Capel Celyn is a very sad story.

Aranig Fach with its summit at 689M located at os Grid SH827370 and its parent peak of Aranig Fawr nearby, the mountain itself rises from a area known as the Migneint, a large vast remote 200 square Km of moorland including plenty of blanket bog, to give a idea of its scale it has the second largest area of blanket bog in wales with the Berwyns being the largest they are both special areas of conservation in Wales.

With no paths to the summit navigation is using the old O/S map and the Garmin GPS to the summit, walking in poor weather and visibility is something i would advised against on-top of this we found the ground we found was Tick infected in the heather and Knee deep in the stuff,  I have a put you off yet? we took the western side of the mountain with its glacial lake tucked at the bottom of the mountain.

Extensive views from the summit Trig and looking  north west the vastness of the Migneint is stretched out before us, a passing Hawk flew over the summit and dived onto its pray somewhere down the mountain.
The Snowdon mastiff hidden under a blanket of cloud with Pen-y-Pass Visible, the only next significant summit north being the 872m summit of Moel Siabob and the Conwy Valley gave us a Glimpse of the sea at the end of the valley.
This is a very changeling walk not on the distance but on the lack of paths and deep heather but worth the challenge and the views.

I have just got to blog this chance visit to this amazing 1940 themed tea-room,we came across this amazing place following being sent round a detour at Craven Arms as we were heading to Ludlow to visit the castle.
Heading on the B4367 heading south at Abcott, Shropshire. we were amazed to find this place, we just had to have a look and it would be rude to to stop for a cup of tea and cake.
I have taken lots of photos as you can see, the people running the tea-room were so friendly and let us take some photos, they also took the time to talk about the two vintage imported american fords that sat outside and even started the ford pickup totally amazing cars not restored but just in excellent original  condition.
I have provided location at the bottom of the page.
As for the tea room it was full of anything 1940s and out of this world and of course lots of different teas.
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At last i got round to planning a cycle which involved using the train and avoid using the car, i use the train on the Cambrian twice a week between Welshpool and Newtown then cycle after work back along the Montgomery canal tow path, which i have to say is really convenient, its cheep and keeps me fit and health plus i get to see the wild life for 15 miles.
With the train and cycle commute it inspired me to plan a bike ride  - so  jumping on the train with my partner Glenys, using my cambrian rail card and saving 20% with the ourselves and cycles pre- booked we traveled  on the train taking the bikes and enjoying a blissful  train journey to Machynlleth and from there we heading to Aberystwyth A487 with thankfully a few places were cycle path existed otherwise some careful road cycling.
 A pleasant stop of to admire the huge and well preserved waterwheel at Furnace, which the waterwheel is.....a  mid 18th century  waterwheel to make pig iron.
Very few hills along the A487 the as far as Trer ddol its a right turn onto the B4353 which were heading towards Ynyslas and then the totally fast and flat ride into the small seaside town of Borth and of course to enjoy a morning coffee.
Now the things  have changed in the way of flat roads, leaving borth its heading up the B4572 on a 25% gradient, which i have to say was a challenge but also worth it for the great views over Cardigan bay and looking north it was easy to pick out the mountains of Snowdonia     
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Not the best of weather to walk today but its Sunday and we don,t mind a bit of rain. there was a plan B but thats for another day now.
So yesterday i took a nice walk up Bridden hill to Rodney Pillar and today we used a one of the Tittiwake books, this one which has been used quite a bit now was CLWYDIAN RANGE, which we used walk 22 AROUND THE NANT, starting at the unspoiled village of Llanarom yn-ial.
The highest point being Bryn Alyn summit, plenty of Limestone escarpments and old mine working around the Bryn Alyn  summit.
​Just a shame the weather was not brilliant but still great to be out and explore.

Today took a brisk walk up the 403m (1322ft) summit of bridden hill and aloft its summit Rodneys pillar.
After having a mini heat wave the weather today was just a bit gray.
so i have taken the long steady way up via a forest road which is just so easy to walk up and a little bit of a push for the final summit.
which on my arrival of the summit was meet with some really impressive weather with the summit just below the cloud level, at least on the pillar you can sit and enjoy the view sat on the stones of the pillar its self
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In our eyes the most amazing cycle trail you could ever cycle or even walk, even Julia Bradbury wrote and covered the Trail on TV for her railway series, which i have to mention i was fortunately blessed with meeting Julia at Honister in the Lake District, which i have to say she is so enthusiastic on walks and very frendly.   

A really hot sunday and to hot for hill walking so we had another go at cycling the Mawddach Trail, which is 15km of winding along the disused Ruabon to Barmouth railway. we made it the time a bit different and headed to Fairborne and had great fun catching the ferry from Fairborne to Barmouth then back over the Mawddach estuary over the wooden railway bridge, which we saw the most biggest jelly fish swimming under the bridge and these were the size of i would say a wheelie bin.
We did two tea stops which were at the Penmeanpool. both ways which was a relaxing stop of point and away from the crowds of  Barmouth.
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I would recommend Julia Bradburys book railway walks which covers the Mawddach Trail.

   

​A spot of luck having the afternoon of work which i am going to have some productive walking time.
Back in late January this year i went summit bagging to bag Black Mixen at 650m and then onto Great Rhos at 660m summit and the highest summit in the Radnor Forest Dome , which i bagged Black Mixen in some very poor weather conditions i sensibly aborted Great Rhos 1km from the summit due to poor weather and almost nil visibility, which even then i covered 20 miles.
So at last i bagged the summit of Rhos Fawr or translated meaning Great Moor of which its remote summit sits on a huge peat plateau.
I started this walk from the fishpools car-park near the village of Bleddfa on the A488, which from the carpark is a number of walking trails.
There is a small tower not far from the car park which at a glance looks unimportant but in reality it played a big part in the construction of the Elan valley aqueduct as its true role was used as a sighting tower for engineers to line the tunnel up with which was long before GPS mapping and lasers in civil engineering projects.
Most of the walk was through forest trails and the last part was on the open Plateau of Rhos Fawr which commends some fantastic views,including the Brecon Beacons and the Shropshire hills.

Just a word of caution if walking on the Radnor Forest, between Black Mixen and Rhos the is a deep valley, it is strictly out of bounds as home to a British Army firing range and a shoot club. when i was there the red flag was up but i would advice keep well away and vigilant of not straying onto the ranges.
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Some photography today walking around the back streets of Shrewsbury in Shropshire,
a little bit of fun with camera, I have used my favorite lens which is my trusty and reliable 35mm lens due 35mm photography get you moving the angles and stops some laziness of leaving a zoom lens to to the work, excellent quality of the photography as well avoiding some of the dreaded tilt and shift affect with  Architectural  photography,ISO set to 200. I just kept it nice and simple   

This is really part to a blog which the first part being the photography from the train at Llynclys heritage center, You probably noticed in the photos the the weather was not to brilliant, well the weather improved and we went down the road  2 mile down to Llanymynech to the Heritage center there to start a walk upto  Llanymynech Rocks and hill and following a short section of Offas Dyke path around the hill and then following the dried section of the Montgomery Canal back to Llanymynech which the canal is much better restored,
You probably notice  the first images  appear as in a mine, they are really inside the  Hoffmann lime kiln which Llanymynech Rocks are all part of a huge Lime stone workings.
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Just a nice effective piece of Photography of some ivy on this old building, Taken in HDR and added switched to black and white, i have made the ivy on the left the main focal point with as it has light reflecting of the leaves.
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A little bit of railway photography including a ride on this wonderful old 1957 class 101 diesel train,which i was kindly let into the cab of the train for a few cab shots.
The Llynclys Heritage has a short section on track running for mile  which you can have a nostalgic ride on this train and get some photography in, there is number of old rolling stock which makes some good photography subjects.

OK i have not blogged for few weeks, so here is five blogs in one, after having week of walking in the lakes i thought i should blog this one, i decided to make one big blog rather than do individual blogs each day, so as you can see i have broken each walk down and formatted the same and normal the images are in order to depict the walk. 
Now i did not get down to much photography as we were just into the walks, we did have a session to find and photograph a red squirrel  which was a total success.

The one thing i have to say about our week away was the weather...not one day or night did in rain so absolutely perfect.
Our location was just outside Grasmere at Broadrayne Farm self catering in a perfect stone cottage and  our second time the same cottage, we will be back again next year........  

1/5/17- bank holiday Monday- a distance 17.5KM,   we had this in the planning  last year.
Starting in Glenridding and following he Ullswater way to Pooley Bridge at the far end of the water, returned on one of the Ullwater steamers..
This was quite epic walking the sense of adventure as the return was planned  via the steamer, what i really liked about this walk was the sense of achievement of walking Englands second largest body of water also the height at the highest point above the water was 400ft and Ullswater is serpent shape so the view was ever changing, we were blessed with the sound of birds singing there hearts out three quarters of the way, the return trip was just so relaxing and surrounded by mountains...

On a final note of this walk,just before reaching Howtown which was a planned tea stop we  stumbled across a new tea shop which was not expected but a welcoming sight of us and any other walkers, while we were getting our morning tea and cakes at this totally unexpected venue over looking Ullswater we over heard a lady comment "Like a Oasis in the desert" it most certainly was..if you walk this route make it your planned tea stop, highly recommended by ourselves, Known as the Lowther TeaRoom, I don,t do free advertising but i am blowing there trumpet       

1/5/17 Distance 10.8km Cats bells, i love the name of these hills and rising from Derwent water they do look like mountains which is probably gives it some popularity,
 For this we took quite a different route which involved walking bridleways,  lanes and bit of scrambling up Knotts end and High Craggs then up onto maidens moor with its summit at 576m, then following a more conventional mountain track to the summit of Cats bells sorry but i just love the name Cats Bells for a hill, which over looks Derwent Water which i was surprised to find the advantage of the Derwent was only 15ft considering Derwent is 1 mile wide.
Skiddaw which is a Lakeland 3000er make the perfect backdrop.    

3/5/16 Distance 12,6km - This was a mountain hike to Crag Hill which at 839m above sealevel puts Crag Hill into the mountain category being over 601m, my local major mountain is Cadair Berwyn in my Homeland of North Powys has a summit of 830m with just a meter difference i decided to twin it Cadair Berwyn with Crag Hill, incidentally Crag Hill was formally Known as Eel Crag.
Starting at what is hard to find in the Lakes a free parking spot at the bottom of Causey Pike which was a twisty mountain path up with the last part having a real alpine feel and some Grade one Scrambling to its tiny summit of 637m.
Then a ridge walk along Scar Craggs,
What we were presented next i can only describe as the amazing path twisting up to the summit of Sail and its 773m summit . 
The final push for Crag Hills summit was a challenge to cross a acrete namely-The Scar, high winds must of hit the head of the valley (my welsh terminology coming out here)   must of funneled up into the Gully, creating high pressure which made crossing the Scar a challenge, which we were very exposed on the acrete and a bit of scramble to the 839m summit.
most worth the climb as were presented some fine views over to Scotland and the Isle of Man......Crag hill is most definitely a mountain  

4/5/17-Distance 23.6KM- no mountains on this walk but millions and millions of blue bells.
A flat walk from Grasmere to Ambleside  and back following paths with total distance of 23km.
The most amazing walk with bluebells everywhere, the photos do not do justice it was something short of amazing, I cannot write much on this a the bluebells are just something out of the world.....just look at these bluebells 

5/5/17 Distance-5.9km - out last day in the lakes a short walk alongside Windermeres shoreline to a National trust 18th century Wray Castle,
A very relaxed walk stopping at the Castle for tea and cakes, blessed with more and more Bluebells 

After four holidays in the Lakes we had not seen a single red squirrel, which the Lakelands are known  these elusive beautiful animals.
​After a little bit of research which was the courtesy of a helpful lady from the National trust, we were informed the best place to spot any was in Grasemere...what a bit of luck that was, as were staying just outside Grasmere.

Allan bank was the venue for the hunt to spot a red squirrel, a warm evening, peace and quiet, mixed woodland, patience and of course a Nikon DLSR with a 300mm lens are the ingredients for the squirrels spotting, .  

After a some slow stalking in the woodlands we thought were at a dead loss not to give though, and more slow stalking i spot some movement to my right, i stop and there it is...our red squirrel, happily sat in tree grooming his coat, its just a matter of being sat there watching our native red squirrel in his own surroundings, its his home and we quietly leave the wood as quietly as we entered it.    
Photography wise not the best photography as i was pushing my 300mm manual zoom lens to past its limits..overall a very rewarding  field trip.       

The native sheep of the Lakelands  the Hardwick, photographed in the heart of Lakes.
 Hardwick- derived from the old Norse herdvyck which meaning sheep pasture,a hardy sheep capable of living up in  Lakes 300o footer mountains

A beautiful amble along the Monty at lower Frankton today with camera at hand on a stunning April afternoon, a little bit of a explore on Weston Arm of the canal which was a section of canal branching of the Montgomery canal, it was never completed and its intention was to link the Monty (Montgomery canal) to Shrewsbury.
A short walk but we managed a lot of photography along the way with a mixture of nature,
landscape with a hind of the industrial revolution thrown in.  

Lower Frankton is the start of the Monty on its 35 mile journey to Newtown, the Monty is linked to the Llangollen canal on T junction and marked by a simple finger post.
As the Monty heads its way to Newtown it drops down a impressive step flight of four locks and a very well restored lockkeepers hut.

Please  enjoy my Photography from today and please feel free to comment, share or just ask a question  
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s0 i get good Friday off work so no doubt i am off walking for the morning, so this morning i had a go at walking in the Shropshire hills and i been quite keen to try walking a Hill just outside Church Stretton on a interestingly welsh named hill of Caer Cadadoc which is quite a distinctive and dominating hill which can been seen from most of north Shropshire.

I found this more of a mini mountain feel some good hard steep walking to the summit with impressive views looking north over the Shropshire and Cheshire  plain.

This impressive hill with summit 499m (1506ft) above sea level, listed a Marilyn
OS grid SO477953, its well marked path starting in Church Stretton which made this a very accessible walk which i tracked the distance on my GPS as 8km and a walking time of 2 hour 40 minutes on a none rushed walk.

Church Stretton appears very walker friendly with maps and information boards around the town and large sign above the car park pay and display "Walkers Welcome" put a smile on my face overall.... a very good Friday walk 
 
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I spotted this mainline railway incline today a thought it looked quite interesting from the bridge at Ruabon.
The first photo was taken with a 35mm lens then my 300m lens to get the gradient visible.
You can see it dipping of in the distance, I just thought I looked interesting to photograph with line dipping away in the distance 
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.A absolutely stunning April morning today walking along a 3 mile section on Glyndwrs Way a section along Llanerchydol Drive to the summit of Golfa Hill.
A good early start to catch some early morning light for Photography was worth walk., very peaceful with sound of woodpeckers around..
 

Here is a few photos i took at dusk and a bit of a relaxing bit of photography after work at Powis Castle.
Being fairly quiet there were  a few Deer about and Pheasants about which gave me some photography subjects to photograph, being low light with a 300mm zoom lens which was quite challenging with the fast changing light, with plenty of changes of aperture and shutter speed setting,keeping my ISO to the lower settings, if i photograph anything industrial i go got the higher numbers for that grainy affect.    
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I can never get any sort of different compositions of Powis castle and its quite limiting to were you can photograph it, so tonight i avoided it and just stuck with the resident Deer and pheasants and enjoyed the warm evening and walk with my camera finishing my walk back alongside the Montgomery Canal which was lovely and peaceful.