L is for LLANBERIS

This week we are honouring the letter L as in lion, letter, language, leapfrog, lettuce, llama, lovely, and literature.

While visiting Wales this summer, I learned that lots of places haves names beginning with a double LL...like Llandundno, Llanarth, Llandona, Llandyfrydog, Llanellen, Llangeview, and Llechcynfarwy. Now the "Ll" part at the beginning of the name sounds kind of like a hard "chl..." and Llan means "village" or "parish" and Llech means relating to slate. One of the loveliest places I visited was the village of "Llanberis" which is where you get the train to go up Mount Snowden.  It was a lighthearted day with my friend Jane and the village was lively with tourists, both Welsh people and people from other parts of Great Britain and the world. 

We started off on our own tour of the area, first stopping at a local lake called Padarn Lake, where we saw boats lazily drifting along.  There is an entire country park at this lake (or Llyn, in Welsh) where you can see Dolbadarn Castle, Quarry Hospital - a museum housing the restored ward, operating theatre and various gruesome 19th Century hospital equipment, the National Slate Museum, a diving center, and more.  We stayed on the side of the lake where we got the train up the mountain, and while awaiting our turn, we had an hour to kill.  So we wandered over to the Llanberis Lake Railway where a little steam engine takes you on a five-mile return journey around the lake. Watch the youtube video below and be sure to turn up your sound for the music and some explanations and you can also watch it in full-screen, just clicking on "escape" to go back to normal. I'm going to do this trip next time I'm in Wales.

https://youtu.be/hJQwuHRCO9o 

Then it was time to load the train with the 3 o'clock visitors so off we went.  It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't raining so we locked hands and hoped the weather would hold until we reached the summit, which was an hour's ride away.  We had to laugh as we got about halfway when the rain started coming down in sheets!  Well, we wouldn't get the lovely view from the top, but we did have a coffee and bought some postcards of the view when we got there.  It was a bit better going down, and the sun was shining when we reached the bottom.  It was well worth the ride, though, and I would do it again in a minute.  Enjoy the brief slideshow of our time there. All the photos are mine except two at the end that I found online but don't know the photographer. 

With legendary thanks to the Lady Denise Nesbitt, creator of ABC Wednesday, and to Lord Roger, our administrator, for all the laborious work he puts into organizing our weeks. Also, thanks to the loyal and lively group of assistants who leap through their day so they can leave all of us lavish and limitless appreciation of our contributions.

K is for KITES

This week I'm interrupting the flow of my "travelogue" to bring you a bit of local fun - flying kites! I was busy doing something really exciting one day (laundry, dusting, etc.) when my daughter called and said to grab my camera and head down to Patterson Park.  There was a keen bunch of people flying kites!  So, feeling a bit peeved that I had to knock off my fun activities, I did as she suggested.  I was quite bowled over at the size of these kites and all the kaleidoscope of colours. I took quite a few shots and here's the end result. (It's very short)

With thanks to the group at ABC Wednesday - Denise Nesbitt, our creator, and Roger, our administrator. 

J is for JET

Jet is a semi-precious stone and when it's polished, it takes on an extraordinary lustre of deep black.  This rich black colour never fades, and the shine is so intense that polished jet was even used as mirrors in medieval times. It comes from a pure and hard form of fossilised wood and is found in thin seams of shale rock. 

Whitby, in North Yorkshire (England), is famous for its jet. In the 19th century it was found and mined throughout the North York Moors and brought into Whitby by pack pony to be made into a wide range of decorative items ranging from jewellery, busts, dolls house furniture, models of Whitby Abbey, chess tables to many other small objects.

However, when the railroad lines eventually made their way to Whitby, the Victorians started to arrive because it made a jolly seaside holiday destination.  And a piece of jet was de rigeur as a souvenir!  Queen Victoria even began wearing jet jewellery in remembrance of her husband Prince Albert.

My joyful and dear friend Jill, my hostess this past summer in North Yorkshire, took us both on a jaunt to the old part of Whitby where we jostled the crowds and looked at lots of jet jewelry.  I wanted to bring my daughter a small piece (it's not cheap, believe me!) to thank her for looking after Tegan while I was away.  We went into many jewelry shops and peered at all the jazzy displays.  You can see the ones I chose on the slideshow.

If you're interested in a presentation of how jet is produced and some samples of current day jet jewelry, please feel free to check out the slideshow I've put together.  In order to have time to read the brief signs explaining each piece of equipment, etc., just pause the slideshow and then click to continue.  It is quite fascinating to see all this old equipment they used back in the day!

With jovial thanks to the creator of ABC Wednesday (Denise Nesbitt) and to our jocular administrator, Roger.

I is for ITALIAN GARDENS

Welcome to ABC Wednesday where this week we celebrate the letter I as in ice-cream, igloo, innovative, idol, injure, image, and irony.  I'd like to introduce you all to a place I visited while in south-east Wales this summer - the Italian Gardens at St. Fagen's National History Museum.  I had visited this immensely innovative outdoor museum back in 2006, but the month of November was not a fitting time to see any of the gardens.  I must say that I lucked out with the sky being grey but no rain fell.  Suffice to say that my goal this trip was to view the gardens on a brilliant sunny day!

From a historical standpoint, the gardens were created some time after 1864.  It is a walled area that was adapted in 1902 by Lady Paget so her children could go swimming in the pool.  The walls at this pool are now fitted with water jets that arc into the pool.  There are grassy steps, ornamental tubs that contain orange trees, and roses that are trained to grow upwards on the walls.  Lady Paget also had a room beside the area where she could do painting and enameling.

HRH the Prince of Wales, had the honour of opening the restored area as an Italian Garden on July 27, 2003.  I'm so glad my friend Jane and I decided to follow the path towards this spot.  We were getting tired from all the walking and had considered heading back to the car.  I'm so glad we didn't. Anyway, here are a few of my own photos of the gardens.  By clicking on the photos, you can see them in full screen format.

 

With immortal thanks to the imaginative Mrs. Denise Nesbitt, creator of ABCW, and to the imperturbable Roger, our administrator.  It's also imperative to give thanks to the impassioned
assistants who visit each and every contributor to leave invaluable words of praise.