Tuesday 24 September 2013

North Yorkshire Moors and Wales



I've been having trouble with my computer lately, so this is a bit of a catch up post.

Last weekend we went to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway which is a small preserved line running steam trains.  My husband prefers diesel to steam and that weekend they had brought in old diesel trains for a special event.   Not being a train enthusiast myself, I went along with the intention of walking between some of the stations while he rode about on the trains, but we ended up doing both together and I really enjoyed it.



If you want to see what the inside of a driver's cab is like, this is me in one (the driver is a friend of my husband)




One of the stations is at Goathland where Heartbeat was filmed.



Some of the shops still have their Aidensfield signs and there are old vehicles from the series.







~~~

This weekend I went to the Llangollen canal in Wales with my daughter and her friend to see the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, which is a World Heritage site.  
We caught the train to Chirk where there is a smaller aqueduct, with a viaduct alongside it


The canal goes through a really long tunnel (421 metres).  We could see the daylight at the other end which made us think it wasn't that long and a boat was coming through from the other direction with it's lights on so it wasn't too dark, but when it had gone past it was pitch black!  Luckily my daughter's got a torch on her phone so it wasn't too scary.
Here's the boat, taking it's light with it!



Pontcysyllte  aqueduct is the largest one in Britain at 1007 ft long and 126 ft high and was built in 1805.  It's hard to show in a photo just how high it is, and it's only the width of a boat so it must be quite scary to sail over and have nothing at the side.








This is a view from the aqueduct 

At the end of it is Trevor Basin



We were going to walk to the next rail station to go home, but decided to walk back to Chirk so that we could go through the dark tunnel again!  There was another tunnel too but that wasn't anywhere near as long.





Tuesday 3 September 2013

August 2013 Photo Scavenger Hunt



I've struggled a bit with this month's list but managed to get them all in the end

10
bales of straw as the sun was setting - as it's a bit dark you'll need to click on it, to enlarge for a better view



Brown

these are seed heads of a dock plant.  When I was a kid we lived on my uncle's farm, and attached to their farmhouse was a unused hay loft.  The door was high up in the outside wall with no steps up to it, so it was accessed by using a ladder.  My cousin and I made it into our play house.  We acquired some old vases for the wild flowers we picked and had pretend tea parties.   We used to strip the seeds off docks for pretend brown sugar and put it in a bowl like this.  We didn't have any other pretend food, just the sugar!
Whenever I see the dock seeds it always takes me right back to then



Windows
in Huddersfield


Petrol station
on the side of the canal at Bingley



Boats


Framed



Chopsticks
the background fabric is a satin maxi skirt that I made in the 70s.  It's a bit tight for me now, but I can't bear to get rid of it because I love the fabric so much.   I really ought to make something with it....


Transport
three different types of transport running alongside each other.  Rail, road and canal 


Playing
he might not class it as playing, but this is my son on his motorbike



Fantasy
I didn't think I was going to get anything for this, and then spotted this flying horse on the side of a lorry


Sharp
anti climbing spikes on top of a wall


Post card
posting a birthday card


You can see other people's interpretations over at Made with love,
plus next month's list if you want to join in