ABC Wednesday - K

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K is for ... Kidwelly Castle. This incredibly well preserved Welsh castle is located on the banks of the River Gwendraeth, at Kidwelly. It was first established around 1107, by the Normans. The small Carmarthenshire town of Kidwelly lies roughly half way between Llanelli and Carmarthen, near the coast.

I only had my old digital camera when I took these pics, about five years ago, so was unable to take any wide-angle shots of the castle. This is the main entranceway.



The castle is so well preserved that it's possible to wander around inside many parts of the building. These pictures unfortunately do no justice whatsoever to the sheer enormity of this amazing building.


This next shot may give you some sense of the sheer size of the castle. This is one small part of the whole structure - but look how tiny that person looks on the ramparts, near the centre of the shot. And that's a full grown adult, not a child.


It was weird standing up here, in this ancient structure, whilst seeing modern military aircraft flying overhead, and hearing them dropping bombs on the military practice range at Pendine, just the other side of Carmarthen Bay. Just think - the occupants of Kidwelly Castle, in its heyday, would have fought their battles with bows, arrows, swords and shields, maybe even catapults and crossbows. How times have changed. Or have they?



K is also for ... Kennixton Farmhouse. This old farmhouse was built in the early 1700's, near Llangennith, on the Gower Peninsula. In 1961, it was carefully dismantled, and transported to the St. Fagan's National History Museum, on the outskirts of Cardiff, the Welsh capital. The farmhouse was then completely rebuilt, and furnished in an authentic eighteenth century style. I took these shots of the farmhouse during a recent visit, with my cousin, Wayne.



I'm afraid I didn't get any shots of the interior of the building. For some reason, every time I've walked into this building, I've been severely creeped out. The last time was no different, and I bade a hasty retreat. Apparently, a number of people have had a similar reaction to the place. The fact that it is painted with a traditional old paint, made from limewash coloured with ox blood, doesn't help my discomfort. Old buildings were traditionally daubed with limewash, to both keep out evil spirits, and drive out any already in the building. Ugh!



Anyway, that's my ABC for this week. I hadn't planned on having a historical theme. It just kind of happened, as these were the only K pics I could find. Happy Wednesday!

ABC Wednesday

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I've missed the last couple of weeks, so I'm playing catch up. Today's letter is J, but first I'd like to bring you a couple of images for H and I.

For H, I'd first like to offer you this shot of the village of Horton, on the Gower Peninsula, as seen from Port Eynon beach. This shot shows the area of the village known as Lower Horton. Much of the village lies along a steep hill leading down to the beach.



I is for Island. This next pic shows the island of Worm's Head, off the coast of Rhossili, also on the Gower Peninsula.



Now to this week's letter, J. Here's a jet ski I saw on Port Eynon beach a few months ago.



How about a jellyfish?



I'm glad this jogger had his jogging shoes on, otherwise he would have received a nasty jolt had he stood on the jellyfish!



Anyway, I'm done for this week. I'm looking forward to visiting as many other participants as I can. Happy Wednesday!

ABC Wednesday - G

GREETINGS, GUYS n' GALS! I have a lot of G pics for you today. I even started my post with a G!

First up, are my cats, Liberty, who is GREY and white, and Leo, the GREY, naughty one, both relaxing on my GREY, GENUINE faux-fur throw.


Here's GREY and white Liberty again, sitting next to some hardy GERANIUMS in my GRAVEL GARDEN.



Here are the GERANIUMS by themselves.


We head 120 miles or so north, from Swansea to Shrewsbury, for these next pics. The first shows the lovely GARDEN on the way into the GROUNDS of Shrewsbury Castle.


I took this shot as I peeped through a GATEWAY into the main castle GROUNDS


Just before passing through the main GATEWAY, I spotted this very old-looking GATE set into the wall.


On the way back out of the GROUNDS, in the pretty GARDEN I showed you above, I found these old GUNS. The castle itself houses a military museum.




There is also a house in the castle GROUNDS, next to the pretty GARDEN. I assumed these two characters, the GINGER cat and the GREY and white tabby cat, lived in the house.






Oh well, I could go on forever, as I seem to have vast amounts of G pics. But I'll GO away now! GOODBYE!

ABC Wednesday - F

FIRST of all, my apologies for not getting around as many ABC posts as I would have liked to last week. Things went a little awry with my blogging, for various reasons. But I will make extra effort to visit as many other ABC-ers as possible this week.

This first image is of a rose, which I think is of the FLORIBUNDA type, although I could be wrong. I wanted to get a better shot of it than this, but some drunken FOOL shouted abuse at me from the holiday cottage it was outside, and accused me of being a secret agent and a spy who was out to get him. My immediate reaction was to FLEE in FEAR as he sounded quite deranged!



Here's a FROG I met a while ago, as it sat on my FRONT doorstep. My next-door neighbour is FRIGHTENED to death of FROGS, but I'm quite a FAN of the little amphibious ones.



Here's a rather FIERY and FEARSOME sight - my FIRETHORN bush, also known as pyracantha, absolutely laden with berries. It looks pretty, but has the most vicious thorns ever. Although the FIRETHORN looked FABULOUS, the rest of the garden looked rather FRAZZLED. Due to my health problems, I'd rather neglected the place, as you can see by the FIELD bindweed and FERNS romping through my poor FIRETHORN.



Anyway, there are my F pics. Oh, okay, you've heard and seen enough. I guess I'll just F off :). Happy Wednesday!

ABC Wednesday - E

E is for ... Erigeron, which is the botanical name for the daisy family. I believe these pics show a member of the Erigeron family known as fleabane.





E is also for ... Ericaceous, which describes the nature of this heather, which I saw growing in huge swathes on the Brecon Beacons.



Those are my E pics, folks. Time to take a look at what everyone else has come up with...

ABC Wednesday - D

D is for ...

Digitalis

Dog rose

Dog

Dunlin

ABC Wednesday - C

C is for ... Caswell, which is the name of the lovely bay you see in this image.



Caswell Bay is just a few miles west of the city of Swansea. It gets crowded in the summer, so anyone with any sense heads for the cliff path instead, and takes a leisurely stroll around the headland. As soon as the weather warms up a litte, I'll be heading there.

ABC Wednesday

B is for ... Boathouse. But not just any old boathouse. This is the Dylan Thomas Boathouse at Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.



The poet and his family took up residence at the Boathouse, which overlooks the Taf Estuary in West Wales, after Margaret Taylor, wife of renowned British historian, AJP Taylor, purchased it for them in 1949, at a price of £3,000. It is now owned and operated by Carmarthenshire County Council as a tourist attraction, and as a venue for various literary events. Keeping up with the 'B' theme for this week, the tea room at the Boathouse serves up a mighty fine slice of Bara Brith (pronounced Barra Breeth), a traditional Welsh fruit cake/tea bread.

ABC Wednesday

A is for ... Astronomy

I've decided to give ABC Wednesday a go, after seeing that Dragonstar has taken the plunge. I discovered ABC Wednesday a few weeks ago, but didn't join as it was almost at the end of the alphabet. Well, today, it's starting from A again. If you want to find out more about ABC Wednesday, just click the above graphic, to visit the host.

So what does my pic have to do with astronomy?



It shows Swansea Observatory, which stands just above the beach, in the Maritime Quarter, or Swansea Marina, as it's more commonly known. I like the way it kind of looks like a space rocket with a booster strapped to it. Happy Wednesday!