Sunday 18 April 2010

Back from the Borders

View from the track to Llandegley Rocks

Despite appearances, I have been away for the last week on our annual spring visit to Wales. It used to be our "Easter visit", but the schools have recently disassociated themselves from that vagrant fixture in the Christian calendar, in an attempt to regularise the length of the Summer term. The recent posts have been the blog equivalent of house-lights left on a timer -- not a ruse to deter blog burglars, however, but a shameless bid to keep my viewing figures up. The lack of comments show that you saw through my duplicity.


Window of British Legion, Presteigne

It was a good week but, as I have suggested before, holidays are not the best place to build a body of serious, coherent photography (which, if you hadn't noticed, is what I'm trying to do). Even though the Welsh Borders -- after 30 years of visits -- are very familiar territory, I wouldn't presume to have anything illuminating to "say" (show? see?) about an area I visit for seven days a year. Mid-Wales is rotten with talented resident artists, after all.

So, here are a few of my holiday snaps.


Quarry off the A481


Near Pen Offa



These two make an interesting pair. On the left is the doormat of our regular cottage, which puts me in mind of fossils every time I see it. On the right is a nice large trilobite tail embedded in a rock in a path we walked. The track has recently been repaired with rocks from a local quarry, and was almost literally paved in places with trilobites. The area around Llandrindod Wells was once famous as a fossil location, but has largely been collected out in most of the publicly-accessible quarries and exposures. Fresh fossils like these are a rare treat, but we weren't greedy, and restricted ourselves to a few nice specimens. After all, a walk in hill country is rarely enhanced by several pocketfuls of rocks.

More later, perhaps.

1 comment:

Bronislaus Janulis / Framewright said...

Mike,

I'm happy to see some rectangular images; lovely trilobites and troglodytes, though the quarry image really gets my abstraction gland flowing. As to comments, mid April here in the former colonies, the Taxman cometh, and this year, in spite of the recession, he cometh hard at our house. Along the lines of "greetings, give us all your money, as you screwed up last year." Well, there's not much of it, so if they want it, they can have it, though I am arguing.

I'll try and do better on the comments.

spopook is the word. I know you don't pick them, or have reason to even see them, but sometimes I find them amusing.