Stone circles and manmade caves

A little while ago, we took a short break south, down to the lakes, mostly due to the wife having a conference she had to attend. While we were there we went for a little walk near Penrith with the kids to go and see Long Meg and her Daughters. 

The stone circles

The day was spent while the bairns were at the grandparents up the road, so it was just me and the wife, a rare experience. The stone circle was beautify, sitting up on top of the hill, although the fact that it was dissected by a road and also in the middle of a cow field did make it an experience. Dodging cows and cars while trying to take pictures does make tings more interesting! Ok, so the cars were crawling along, but still!

While we were out and about we also took a trip down to Lacy's Caves and walked along the railway line. 

View along the river

View out one of the "door"

The caves were also fun and the history is mental! some bloke decides to dig some caves to entertain friends, oh and just to top it off, why not employ a hermit to live there? For the engineer in me, looking at the tool marks in the walls was fascinating. Now, the rock isn't the hardest to mine, being sandstone, but it must still have taken quite a while to dig it all out by hand. For the added bonus, the walk along the old railway/tram line is well worth it. There are numerous old structures that are good to explore, and plenty of railway paraphernalia dotted around, from old sleepers to sidings and what looked like a coaling station. For the railway enthusiast in me, it made the day even better. 

If your ever in the area, I'd recommend taking a trip to both.

oh and I will leave you with this;

A little bit of graffiti at the caves, Banksy wanna be?

New Car show

A few weeks ago the local new car show took over the local leisure centre. Now, I am a car man and I enjoyed looking around but there were very few things on show that really did anything for me. Below are a few shots of some of the cars and other vehicles that were on show and that the little man insisted I take pictures off.

 

Big truck, not interested

Ford Focus RS, nice cars and I probably would have one, but there still a little to Max Power (if anybody still uses that term) for me

Kids quad, I would have loved one of these when I was younger and would love to get one for the bairns, but do they really need one? no, not at all.

GT86? Now, this is one of the few cars that actually did appeal, but I still wouldn't get one. not practical when you've 2 kids.

More cool toys, the young lady loved the little red car, and what a car it was! Lights, sounds, the full works, and I think it cost it too!

The new Scubby. A much better looking version than the last one that's for sure and going back to the old skool shape. Again, there is just something about the image that puts me off

The little mans favourite vehicle of the day. I have no idea why, its basic, has no radio and doesn't go very fast, although it can go pretty much anywhere. I'm not sure that we have much need for it though.

So all in all, a fun little trip, but nothing I saw even slightly tempted me away from my MG, although there were none of the new ones there. I really must get myself a test drive of some of the new ones soon.

Velux window no.2

So, with the summer fast drawing to a close, it was time to get a few of those little jobs outside done. One of the jobs that needed to be done was to get the Velux window fitted in to the bathroom. After having done the one in the young ladies room, it was a fairly simple affair to get the next one it, as I had learnt a lot of lessons. Firstly, cutting the hole in to roof went quite well, as I got the hole the right size, compared to the first attempt, when the hole was a little squiffy. The second job was getting the tiles off the roof, a job that took a long time for the first window. It didn't take as much time, but it was still a pain. I broke less tiles, and it took less time, however my plans to get the tiles off didn't work at all. I bought a slate ripper to get the tiles off, by ripping out the nails. It didn't quite work that way, but I managed it in the end. 

window in

Once the window was in, it was just a case of reinforcing the roof struts, what was done before plaster boarding, filling and painting.

Now, the pictures look quite dark, but the difference the window makes to the bathroom is massive. Previously, no matter how light it was outside you still need the light on in the bathroom, now you can be in there until quite late until you need it on. The window is frosted but it makes no difference to the amount of light that comes through. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with my second effort at putting in a window. Next up in the window fitting will be the end windows, in our bedroom and the spare room. These should be easier as they are just standard windows.

Mother nature revisited

One of the first posts that I put on this site, over a year ago now, I put on this site was about Mother Nature. Years ago I walked along the the track, from the in-laws in to town, not long after a storm , I cant remember which one, had ripped through the lakes and had devastated much of the area. As a result a number of bridges and a tunnel or two were damaged or destroyed. Well its been a while, well over a year, since it all happened and I was walking back down the track and there have been a few changes, not any real progress but changes none the less.

The scenes as it was (above and below)

The scene as it is now (above and below)

Fences have been rebuilt and paths re-laid, however, the bridges have been removed. No doubt cut up for scrap, which is a real shame, as many of them were the original Victorian bridges and added some real character to the walk. They will probably be replaced with modern, environmentally friendly things, that will be bland and boring, or by some architect envisioned monstrosities. Its nice to see progress, but I wonder when they will get around to replacingy the bridges themselves.