More evidence of spring-like weather
It was almost 60 degrees at 9pm last night, and the wind felt even warmer than that!
It was amazing.
There were even bees out in some of these beautiful flowers:
Has Spring arrived early?
Probably not, but it sure felt like it today!
The air felt mild and smelled of springtime, and there were little flowers growing all around!
One block in particular had an overwhelming smell of flowers; it was wonderful!
More evening walks
Green Lake is a great place for many reasons, but the sunsets given over the water are frequently just amazing!
Christmas Day Hike
We traditionally go on a Christmas day hike by ourselves, but for the first time, we had *our* dog along with us (in the past, we have had a dog who was kicked out of the house for Christmas walk with us for the day)
Unbridled Optimism Dog:
It was a really gorgeous day for hiking, no snow, but beautiful!
And cold:
Frozen Lake fun!
We’ve had really unusually cold weather lately, and much of Green Lake was frozen (there’s a warm and a cold side of it, and the cold side was frozen enough for us to tempt fate by walking on it, but the warm side was completely unfrozen)
There is a bird sanctuary island in the lake and an eagle was resting in one of the trees there, but the beauty of the ice & the sunset (and the fact that the eagle was rather small and far away) make for a more impressive picture.
Harlech Castle
Harlech castle for us was the “been there done that” castle: we had seen enough of Master Builder St. James’ work that Harlech never really stood out–it was a little too well done and not enough character.. That said, it certainly gets *imposing* done very well, and it was too nice an example of a castle for us to pass it up!
imposing!
imposing!
imposing!
imposing!
not at all imposing! Awfully cute and very sweet! Castle cats are so much fun!
For all that imposingness, look at how tiny some of it’s stairways are!
The towers without stairs were again, really neat!
The sea used to come all the way up to the edge of the castle–now there’s a few miles between the castle & the sea
Beaumaris Castle
Our next castle visit was on the isle of Anglesey. Beaumaris castle was never finished because it was started very late in the King Edward I’s war to subjugate Wales, but was really imposing none-the-less!
This should have had another story on top of it!
it had an impressive moat all the way around:
It had impressive gate houses
and impressive towers, even when the stairs are gone
And the views to outside the towers are fun:
Conway Castle
Our first ever visit to an Iron Ring castle was Conway, oh so many years ago, so it was really great to be back here and run through it’s many towers again. We didn’t have as much time to look through the walled town, but there were many fun photo opportunities.
It is an awfully imposing structure!
But somewhat less so from the town’s wall.
Some of the many towers
Looking down from one of the towers
A startled dove in front of a startled photographer!
Mount Snowdon Hike, part 4
There were so many amazing views and objects on the Snowdon hike that I couldn’t whittle my choices in photographs down, so this is part two of the photos I chose. I hope you enjoy!
Another view of the road home..
Mount Snowdon Hike, part 3
There were so many amazing views and objects on the Snowdon hike that I couldn’t whittle my choices in photographs down, so this is part three of the photos I chose. I hope you enjoy!
This was a neat bridge to walk over!
Ooh, stairs up!
Talk about the road going ever on and on; it was amazing.
