The morning after landing back in Canada I bicycled to ruckel park with awesome people.
An earlier crew had left us a message.
We met up with even more rad friends at the ferry and proceeded into Ganges for supplies.
After settling into or campsite we were greeted by orca fish, minke wales, a sea otter fight, seals, eagles, and a sea lion. Those are all neato, but I remain a real sucker for sunrise over the water.
Spending time in southern England gave some great opportunities to adventure with family. Elizabeth had her first ride on a swing.
Elizabeth met her magnificent (great, great) aunty Jill.
I stood under a bridge.
And saw the place Shakespeare did his do. I also gazed into his hollow eyes.
The Rosetta Stone at the royal museum was rad.
So was a 2000 year old dead dude who are an oat cake for his last meal.
We met up with Dan and Courtney and this happened.
Elizabeth tried beer for the first time. She liked it.
I returned from Cardiff to London and met up with Theo, Jenna, and Elizabeth in Hyde Park.
I saw this bird for Miki after it flew very near me.
The museum of natural history drew is in, naturally.
It contained a stunning number of scientific “firsts”. This is the first neanderthal skull ever cataloged.
A first edition of On the origin of the species
A statue of Richard Owen. He disagreed with Darwin, arguing the model was too simple. Much of his criticism proved reasonable and has since been incorporated into the broader model of evolutionary developmental biology. My reason for the photo though, he invented the word dinosaur. booyeah.
We made our way to the British museum to explore their Viking exhibit. I played with an 1100 year old coin.
This broach is gorgeous and enormous. And made around the year 700. It is engraved on the back “Malbrigda owns this broach”.
.
I jumped on a train out of London and zipped west over to south Wales for the night.
I had about 14 hours to spend with Rozzy. Many of the waking moments were spent chatting over a beer in the wonderful Welsh rain.
Cardiff castle was noted by us. While impressive in its own right, it was rebuilt in 1800’s and doesn’t quite have the same ancient feel as a result.
Rozzy is still loving the spoon Tess carved her.
A morning walk through the misty park was a highlight of my journey back to the train station for the return to London.
Of course no ancient Welsh city is without its stone circle.
[Clearly my phone is working again. I twisted and knocked the cracked screen until the pressure was sufficiently relieved from the touch sensors. We’ll see how long it lasts! ]
Last night was spent in the outskirts of London at the home of my cousin , his lovely wife Claire, and their tortoise Sid.
We took the train into London and i
observed London things.
Saw scotland yard.
Had a beer with theo to toast dad – his birthday today.
I bought book to read, published
1908
rsX
Likely muvy last blog pos
t
CrackeDD dcl
Slipw c
CrAZck ed screen neaar unuseable
TGBo
Thisd post took 55 Minutes.
L:-
We took the ferry to Dublin. On the boat across there was a TV program on. There was no sound so I was left to infer the subject matter.
We did some wandering, a tour of the Guinness brewery, and saw stuff.
This “millennium pole” is in the middle of an intersection.
A favourite part of Ireland for me was visiting with Tyler.
Elizabeth enjoyed playing with her new friend.
An old harp was discovered in the closet. Apparently my uncle Llewelyn used to play it. I was most impressed by the H chord.
I tried to tune it using a key from an old clock and an iPad. Major technology mismatch. This blurry photo exaggerates my success.
For Theo’s birthday we had an excursion out to the former home of our grandma near World’s End.
The walk in was lovely.
We met up with my great aunt Liz who still lives nearby (grandma’s sister). Welly and Melanie did a good job of helping Theo and I piece together fragmented memories.
This was her home. I lived there on a few occasions too. Ask me about how I befriended her antisocial cat, if you want a story sometime.
Elizabeth got in her great-great aunt Elizabeth’s sports car to check out the view. I think the little one was heard gurgling “Why doesn’t grandma Arwen have one of these? ”
I do thoroughly enjoy North Wales. I feel very at peace here. I am extremely pleased to be spending time here with my family, especially Theo and Elizabeth.
These are photos from the exploration of Conway castle or, in Welsh, Castell Conwy.
It was built by Edward I in 1238 to help keep the Welsh under control. It cost £15,000 at the time, equivalent to about £45,000,000 today (or $80,000,000 CAD).
Eat Logical Sentences 