Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument (Stonehenge)

The building of the Stonehenge earth mound may have started around the same time when the pyramid at Saqarra, Egypt was built ( see my previous post).

This ancient monument of huge stones solitarily standing on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England has captured imaginations for centuries.

There were many mysteries surrounding this monument – who have built it?, for what purpose and how was it built?

Many theories have been put forward. Speculation on the reasons it was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.

Investigations over the last 100 years have revealed that Stonehenge was built in several stages from 2800 – 1800 BC. It seems to have been designed to allow for observation of astronomical phenomena – summer and winter solstices, eclipses, and more.

It is also a puzzle as to how the stones were transported to the site – including 82 bluestones weighing as much as 4 tonnes for 240 miles from the Preseli mountains in Wales to the Sarsen stones, up to 50 tonnes from 25 miles north of Stonehenge.

Flooding in the UK

It is all over the news that various parts of UK is flooded.

This time, the flooding is due to the more than normal rainfall that UK is experiencing.

Several decades ago, it was worried that areas next to the River Thames would be flooded because of tidal surges and for this reason that the Thames Tidal Barriers were constructed.

The barrier with rotatable tidal gates shown in the image were installed. They look alien to the surrounding but at the same time they seemed integrate well with it and become icons to the area.

Keeping the sea out is a problem, but getting the water out to the sea appears to be an even bigger problem!

PS The image has been retouched from a slide which I bought in 1985 when visiting thee Thames Tidal Barriers

Llyn Llydaw in Wales, UK

We have the coldest February since 1996. Where I live, the temperature was down to 6 degrees Celsius this morning. You may say that this is already high by many standards. But mind you, I am living in the subtropics!

It is rainy and gloomy  too. This reminds me again of my trip up Snowdonia in 1985.

From a high altitude, I had a good glimpse of Llyn Llydaw – one of Snowdonia’s deepest lake.

The following is lifted from Wikipedia which gives a detailed description of the lake:

Llyn Llydaw – 1,430 feet (440 m) high, 110 acres (45 ha) – lies in Cwm Dyli, Snowdon’s eastern cwm, and is one of Snowdonia’s deepest lakes, at up to 190 ft (58 m) deep. Various explanations of its name have been put forward, including lludw (“ash”), from ashen deposits along the shore, to Llydaw (“Brittany”). It contains evidence of a crannog settlement, and was the location of a 10-by-2-foot (3 m × 0.6 m) dugout canoe described in the Cambrian Journal in 1862. The lake is significantly coloured by washings from the copper mines nearby, and is used by the Cwm Dyli hydroelectric power station, which opened in 1906. The lake is crossed by a causeway, built in 1853 and raised in the 20th century to prevent the causeway from flooding frequently.

The most prominent feature on this image is the causeway – a causeway which I crossed when we descended the mountain.

Llanberis Pass in Wales, UK

This looks more like a geological picture for teaching about boulders or glazier erosion.

I have never thought of climbing the Snowdonia mountain in Wales, but on that rainy day in 1985, I did.

The picture was taken on the road when we were approaching the mountain site by car.

It was early Spring when we made our way up Snowdonia. Rain fell as we were laboring our way up the wet, narrow and steep mountain tracks.

After climbing halfway, my shoes were soaked with water and my feet were cold. Parts of the skin on my feet started to peel off.

The bad weather meant that I did not have many good pictures.

This photo brings back memories of an almost forgotten hiking.

Weekly Photo Challenge : Let There be Light

In the Spring of 1985, early one morning, I wandered down the beach of Harlech, Wales in the United Kingdom.

I walked over many sand dunes and found myself at this peaceful beach.

The light just shone through the clouds . . .. . . . . . . . . .  Let There be Light  . . . . . . . . . . . and there was light; an incredible view that I have never seen.

The Summer of 1985 at Hampstead Heath, London

I fondly remember the Summer of 1985 when I lived in London. Those were the Summers when global warming hasn’t set in, when the sky was blue and without a cloud. When the grass was green and the air was crispy clean.

We had a long and warm Summer that year and the Brits called it an Indian Summer.

One Sunday, I found myself in a park in north London – Hampstead Heath. That was an ideal Summer day I had been longing for – blue sky that could intoxicate me, well kept green lawn, white heritage building (Kenwood House) in the background, people lying on the grass enjoying the sunshine and children playing as if the whole world belonged to them.

On seeing this picture ( original slide now digitized) taken that year, my only thought is – take me back, take me back to the parks of London, take me back to 1985 when everything seemed so nice, slow and mellow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgic (2)

A couple of readers asked whether I also have a color version of the B&W photo taken at Rochester, UK in 1985 which was featured in my last post.

Yes, I do have one which has just a few more colors added – from the flowers. Otherwise, it is still mainly B&W,

Please enjoy!