Photo Album
Mid Wales
Machynlleth and
Aberdovey
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This is the centre of Machynlleth, an ancient
town which used to be the Capital of Wales. There is a Royal House, sadly
in some state of neglect at the time of writing, where the famous Owain
Glyndwr presumably ruled his country. Now, it is a busy little town,
frequented by farmers and tourists with an eclectic collection of shops. |
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Whilst inspecting the contents of one shop, I
realised that I too was being inspected! |
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I stayed in the nearby and pretty resort of
Aberdovey, where an unseasonably cool and extremely strong wind was
battering all who ventured out. Such are the variables of the weather in
our little island!
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Just outside my room was this rather
interesting piece of shoe cleaning equipment! |
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"Bright and Breezy" |
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"Oh I do like to be beside the
seaside!" |
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Just a few miles north of Machynlleth, the
centre for Alternative Technology is a very worthwhile visit. They have a
web site at: www.cat.org.uk
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Over the
last 27 years or so, they have been demonstrating that it is possible to
live and work in a society without relying entirely on imported materials
and electricity from the National Grid. There is much for those of us who
want to know more about 'green' technology. |
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The visitor is carried up the steep slope
from the ticket office to the compound by a water powered funicular
railway. |
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All very smooth, water is run into a large
tank in the base of the upper car. Gravity does the rest. |
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This is a wind turbine close up, its lower
two blades somewhat truncated for the sake of being able to see the
'works'. It generated about 250 kilowatts in its time. |
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This modest example of
hydroelectric power generation produces about 4 Kilowatts |
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This is 'Myfanwy's' cottage garden. No lawn
here, in Myfanwy's day it was all about what could be grown to eat. |
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In the restaurant on site, everything is
wholesome and organic: even the beer wine and lager!! |
Below, I include the bulk of an e-mail from
one of my web site visitors because he has spent a lot of his youth around
Wales and the Marches and might trigger memories of some who met him in the
late '50s and early '60's.
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Duncan Richards |
An ex pat in la France!
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| 'Just congratulations on your shot of the
Aberdovey store front. I have no idea in which year it was taken, but it
captures the feel of this delightful little town perfectly, at least as I
knew it form the early fifties 'till the mid-nineties. In addition to the
graphic qualities of the shot...
I've actually spent the better part of my life (34 years) in just one Paris
arrondissement, the 13th, I'm currently between Chinatown and the new
National Library redevelopment zone. I know most of France, however; all in
fact, theoretically : I was (am?) the editor of the first ever English
edition of the Guide Bleu (Hachette) to France, in 1985. 7 million
characters. Theodore Zeldin no less praised the contents and the style (but
he was with Collins, our UK publisher ;-)...
I started work in I962 at the Wrekin Brewery (where my father worked for 30
years) in Wellington, as a trainee brewer... free booze. I think I can
safely say that between my field trips in the job, plus the decade of
holidays with my Dad the rep, I knew every pub the brewery supplied from
Herefordshire to Harlech! During his visits, I graduated from sipping warm
pop in the car, to strolling around the village, to discreet shandies in a
dim corner of the bar, to real pints (the first was bought by the local
bobby at the Severn Arms in Penybont : "a big lad like that shouldn't be
drinking halves"; I must have been thirteen. (I also "did" the beer tent at
Penybont races three times in my
early teens : now there's a photo subject! Never did a thirteen year old
washer-up rake in so many tips, drink as much, hear such beautiful singing
or end up as knackered...).
For the moment, I'm still doing regular freelance work for a specialised
professional music magazine (mainly classical). It's low circulation/tight
cost, but is the "voice" of the musicians, schools, festivals, authorities,
etc. involved). I do the English one-page round up (summaries from 70 pages)
as well as looking after the Web site.
www.lettre-musicien.fr (I
inherited the graphics and lay-out, but hope to use my newly found spare
time to renew it). No apologies for the typo's, as I work alone, without
benefit of corrector or copy editor.
Anyway, it's only rock'n roll...' |
     
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