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.
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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. 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. ![]() The vast man made Reservoir of Llyn Celyn. the valley and it's community flooded to feed the city of Liverpool by adding more water to the river Dee. A memorial Capel was built out of the original stone chapel, this is situated on the edge of the lake, with graves moved to the new chapel before flooding commenced. Lost forever under the water includes the village, school, post office twelve houses and farms, the chapel now lay submerged at the bottom of the lake..the landscape and lives changed forever 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. ![]() 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 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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