Cloud in the West

Heading off down the M4 to wales last week we noticed this cloud formation appearing before us. Lucky my phone was at hand

Duck in the Church

The Drought

In the UK we have had very little rain for most of the summer from June to August this has resulted in a hosepipe ban in parts of the UK. So far this has not affected us where we live and over the last few days we have had a bit of rain. So I was interested to see how the Elan Reservoir was holding up being as it supplied Birmingham. I had seen a few photos but wanted to see myself and over the weekend I went there while we were in Wales. Before you look at the photos I suggest you look at my Blog on the Elan Valley for some background on it or just go through the photos. and it will show you the places I visited in this blog

This is the Caban Coch Dam

The outflow you can see below

This is what forms the River Elan that eventually flows into the River Wye

Below it is the old turbine buildings and visitor centre

Next along is when you would think is a bridge but below it is a dam, you can see it in a photon in the blog I linked. The water is low

Showing the banks of the reservoir

Makes me wonder how much lower it can go

The Foel tower the pick up point for the water going to Birmingham

The next Dam is reached by going over a bridge first, looking over I was surprised at what I saw below

Looking towards the dam you could see how the water had cut through the rock over the years

Thousands of years of the water running has done this and its not something you see often here

Look up and you can see the dam in the distance

The water behind it was very low

The whole bank was on show

Looking towards  Point Elan

Looking down from the dam you see the where the river has cut through the rock

Looking further along you see an island has begun to get bigger, the first time I saw this it looked like a clump of trees in the middle of a mass of water now it looks like you could almost walk to it from one side. I went away felling quite shocked at what I had seen and often  wonder what this place would have looked like before the flooded the valleys

Taking Part in Our World Turesday

St Mary Chieveley

This weeks Church Explorer blog comes from St Mary Chievely 

A pleasant looking church which unfortunately for me was closed,  hopefully I will get inside another time 

Please visit the blog to see more of the church

Sunray Sky

Last week I was watering the plants as the sun was going down and happened to look up and noticed the sky, I just had to get my camera and took a few photos of this amazing sky

I was not the only one who spotted it as the next day I saw peoples phostos on the BBC site 

 

Happy Skywatch 

Bugs on a stone

Newbridge-on-Wye

A few months ago I visited a church in this town but took a few moments to get some photos of the village and one particular building I had noticed.

  By the church a reminder of the sacrifice the village made during both world wars

  From there you look down the road through the village with the Welsh hills beyond

 Over the road is the village school 

 But it is this old hotel I found of interest

And the Art Deco canopy over the door with Temperance & Commercial on the ends. Fist time I have come across this, Obviously did not want drunken travellers staying here. Sham it closed it would have been interesting to see inside.

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

St Barabus Peasemore

This weeks church fetured in my Church Exploer Blog is St Barabus Peasemore  situated in a pleasent Berkshire village not far from Newbury

Agapanthus

So we planted these lastyear or so but they never came to anything till I noticed this flower growing in the flowerbed looking like  a seeded onion, it then flowered and turned into this Agapanthus, boy was I chuffed seeing it come up at last

Hopefully Next year I will have some more

Freshly Made