Boxing Day Walk 2008

There is nothing more exhilarating than a walk on a cold sunny day. The photos each year are all very similar as we tend to repeat the same things but to me this is memories in the making. So it was off to Blaise Castle we went (it's not a castle but was a country mansion and estate)...I tried twice to get short videos to post with no luck so a couple of photos will have to suffice! Those who read my blog regularly might recognise it from previous posts. It was a lovely day and many people were out walking.
There were lots of dogs and some owners failed to clean up behind them...so who stepped in the *poop*??....luckily there was plenty of long grass!!
We always stop at the bridge for a little game of.....!!!
Embee is well fed as you can see!
There are two large slides and Ben tried to confuse me by coming down the opposite one to where I was standing-but grandmas are not always fooled!
Even big brothers aren't too old for a little fun!!

Archives:
2007: Playing Games
2006: Meet Bionicle

Silves, Portugal # 3

Silves is the former capital of the Algarve and is of great historical importance as it was founded in Roman times and later became an important town when the Moors invaded and was an independently ruled Muslim principality. The town is situated on a hill above the Arade River. Silves Castle (Castelo dos Mouros, Moorish Castle) is located on the top of the hill and as you drive into Silves you get your first glimpse of the castle in between the buildings.
In the past few years a lot of the town has been regenerated and from what we saw this is an ongoing process.
There are lots of pretty little streets and everywhere is kept tidy and clean.
As you walk up past where I took the pictures of the storks you find a little square with a fountain, and a cafe and close by are some shops and restaurants. This becomes a very popular meeting place for locals during the evening.
As you walk through the archway from the corner of the square you are gradually walking up very steep roads past old churches to the entrance of the castle.
This giant statue of a knight guards the doorway to the castle. It depicts D. Sancho I, who reconquered Silves from the Moors for the first time in 1189. You cannot see from this picture but where people have continuously touched the foot it is really shiny.
They are doing a lot of renovation to grounds of the castle and I have to say that I think the restaurant that is being built in the middle of the grounds will actually detract from the charm of the old fortress walls. But I guess they need to make it profitable.
You can just see the reconstruction of a Moorish archway in the inner yard of the castle. It shows a fine example of the architecture of that period. That's My grandson and his friend in the picture.
The fortified walls of the castle are armed with strong battlements. They are built out of red sandstone of the region, the so called “grés vermelho de Silves” and dried mud.

Ben was not too keen on carrying his own drink but I think he looks quite cute in this rear view.
From the walls of the castle, visitors can enjoy spectacular views over the rural landscape surrounding Silves.




After our visit we walked back past a restaurant where we had enjoyed a meal a few evenings earlier.

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour~ I took masses more photos of the different views around the battlements but if you have got this far I'm sure you will have seen enough!

Archives:
2007: Witty Wednesday 12

Name this tree!

I know I'm being rather silly but I'm feeling rather melancholic today. Not because of the weather, although that's extremely changeable; it's literally pouring down one minute and feeling quite cool, then the sun comes and it's hot and this has been the pattern so far today!! The real reason I'm feeling low is because Beccy and the family will be out of touch for the next three weeks. Don't get me wrong I'm absolutely delighted that they are having a three week holiday in France with Joules' family. Dillon, Mollie and Ben will have a brilliant time with their little cousins, aunts and uncles and their other grandparents; Ben rang me last night to tell me all about it and say goodbye- he's such a sweetie. I suppose I've got used to daily contact through the blogs and more recently skype and this is what I will, selfishly, miss. However Beccy and Ben are coming to spend a few days with us in July while Dillon and Mollie are away at camp so I have that to look forward to.
Now what have I been doing
Yesterday (Weds) on my walk with Angel I decided to concentrate on trees. Growing up in the country I was far more interested in climbing them than learning their names. Of course we all knew where to get our conkers and had marvelous fights to see who had the champion conker. I think this has now been banned in schools because of H&S issues, yes, there is an element of risk but what's a few bruises compared to learning good eye to hand co-ordination and having fun that cost nothing!! On the other hand were we just lucky and what would have happened if someone had been seriously injured, probably not a lot when I was a child; nowadays someone would be sued!! So I guess it has to be better safe than sorry- what do you think?
The Horse Chestnut which gives us conkers.
We suddenly came across a tree that had been unrooted, I couldn't decide if this was part of the estate management or whether it had been blown over in a storm.
I couldn't get a full photo of it as it was a really huge tree. In fact it was so big it spanned the river and I couldn't get it all in camera view, about half of it is in this picture.
It seemed strange to suddenly see this little conifer on the edge of the wood, alongside its tall friends!
Now this is the tree I cannot name and I'm relying on someone being able to tell me- I wonder if it is a rhododendron!! (The flowers were almost over).
We also stumbled across lots of molehills and Angel was more than a little interested and tried to dig into a couple of them.
We were out for a couple of hours and another hour yesterday evening - needless to say we both slept very well!!
Today (Thurs) I have been having internet connection problems and have only been able to stay on line for the last couple of hours which is why I am late posting this. I wanted to go swimming this morning which meant I was up and out with Angel by 7am. We only did a short walk 1.6 miles and she did not look impressed when I later went off without her. It was also the monthly Market this afternoon and I took my mother, luckily we just about got back between the storms. I was able to get a lovely lot of fresh fruit and veg grown about 30 miles away. I'm particularly looking forward to trying the early raspberries, strawberries and the asparagus and embee had to have a pastie for his lunch tomorrow!

Anyone for walkies!

Thank goodness yesterday was dry and sunny although cold. I retraced my footsteps from the previous day, armed with my camera for a walk through the Blaise Castle Estate. I have posted about these walks before and you will notice from the photos that it looks very different from the last time I took Angel there for a walk. After all the recent rain and now that it's well into Spring, everywhere is green and fresh looking. The trees have burst into leaf, some of the wild flowers are in bloom and birds are singing (sorry I can't provide that).

 

We had a great time exploring lots of the little pathways alonside the river, luckily it wasn't too deep for me to cross although it was nearly to the top of my wellies in a couple of places. We saw only one solitary duck which promptly left the pond to sit on the stone bridge and watch Angel from a safe distance. If you enlarge the photos you will notice a couple of caves have been fashioned in the rocks (the stones forming the roof of the one cave is quite interesting). You will also notice a picture of Angel looking out of my dining room window she likes to watch one of the neighbour's cats who sits on a wall opposite as if taunting her! I also suspect she is on the lookout for her family but she seems happy enough most of the time.