Category Archives: Wales

Wales, Canada, Greece – Looking back, looking forward.

Posted on April 22, 2023 by BarryH

A few weeks ago, we had snow at home. First time in 2 years. They had snow on Symi since we had any!! I woke up with 2 inches on the ground and still snowing heavily. I checked the forecast … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Greece, Grey Britain, Hiking, History, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Wales, Weather, Wildlife, Winter | Tagged Banff, Bow Falls, Bow River, canadian rockies, Hoodoos, Mandraki, Nikia, Nisyros, Pontypool Folly Tower, ravens, snow, Spray River, Sundance Canyon, Symi, Vermillion Lakes, Volcano | 2 Comments

The Year of the Parsnip

Posted on April 25, 2021 by BarryH

This is the Year of the Ox, to be precise, the Year of the Metal Ox. It began on 12 February and replaced the Year of the Rat. At least for the Chinese. For me, 1 March marked the end … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Health and humour, Nature, Photography, Reflections, Spring, Wales, Weather | Tagged cancelled flights, Covid-19, flowers, gardening, Greece, parsnips, psychology, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, spring, vegetables | Leave a comment

Rambling through the grey and rising above it …… occasionally

Posted on February 8, 2021 by BarryH

I’ve written before on the psychology of time, about which I read initially in Thomas Mann’s book ‘The Magic Mountain’ when I was in the 6th form and more recently in Claudia Hammond’s ‘Time Warped’, published 2012, exactly 100 years … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Weather, Wildlife, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, Covid Pandemic, Gwent, Holiday Paradox, Jackdaws, Magic Mountain, mist, Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, philosophy of time, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, snow, Thomas Mann | 2 Comments

Rising above the grey

Posted on December 5, 2020 by BarryH

Rather than ushering in the Mediterranean to the UK, climate change is bringing increasing greyness interspersed with ‘extreme weather events’. Gradual descent into winter in November used to be marked by a week of hard frosts, sometimes with temperatures lower … Continue reading →

Posted in Grey Britain, Health and humour, Hiking, Landscape, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Weather, Winter | Tagged brecon beacons national park, frost, Gwent, mist, Pontypool, Pontypool Folly Tower, Sunshine, Wales | 2 Comments

Locked-down in Wales

Posted on November 4, 2020 by BarryH

Since I arrived home from Greece in early September there have been various shades of lockdown. It would be more pleasant and safer to have stayed on Symi but unfortunately not to be. I would have been tempted to stay … Continue reading →

Posted in Autumn, Grey Britain, Grumpy Old Men, Health and humour, Hiking, Landscape, Monmouthshire, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Wales, Weather | Tagged acers, autumn, books, Brugmantsia, Covid-19, fruit and veg, gardens, Wales | 3 Comments

Spring in the Brecon Beacons: The long and the short view of The Covid Lockdown

Posted on June 6, 2020 by BarryH

September 1961. I started in the Sixth Form and my GCE ‘A’ level course. Perhaps more importantly, I now had access to the Sixth Form Library which hitherto I didn’t even know existed. It was like Aladdin’s Cave. The only … Continue reading →

Posted in Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Reflections, Spring, Wales, Weather | Tagged bluebells, brecon beacons national park, Covid Lockdown, Covid-19, Flora, Holiday Paradox, Mynydd Garn Wen, paragliding, Philosophy, philosophy of time, Pontypool Folly, Sunshine, The Blorenge, The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann, Thursday Clap, white bluebells | 3 Comments

10 years. Still waiting for the sunshine

Posted on October 28, 2019 by BarryH

Check the route

Posted in Autumn, Grey Britain, Mountains, Reflections, Wales, Weather | Tagged remembering | 1 Comment

Say it with flowers

Posted on May 19, 2019 by BarryH

Sadly, I have been revisited by the misfiring which struck at Easter 2016 (see). It has now been sorted and I’m firing on all cylinders again. But it prevented my return to Greece for Easter this year ….. and then … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Spring, Wales, Weather, Wildlife, Winter | Tagged aquilegia, autumn leaves, collar dove, crocus, Flora, fruit, gooseberries, Pontypool, prickly pear cactus, snow, spring flowers, tulips, Wales, wild garlic | 1 Comment

All change

Posted on December 15, 2018 by BarryH

Back from Greece. Very soon off to the Canadian Rockies. But before I go, a sample of the brilliant autumn in the UK this year. As a planner by temperament as well as former profession, about 15 years ago I … Continue reading →

Posted in Autumn, extreme gardening, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Wales | Tagged acers, autumn, autumn colour, gardening, maples, Pontypool, Wales | 2 Comments

From Symi to my back garden

Posted on August 21, 2018 by BarryH

I’ve been experimenting with the technology to record some of the treks I’ve been doing on Symi, using a combination of apps to record routes and then create a 3D ‘fly-over’ incorporating photos taken along the way. It’s not entirely … Continue reading →

Posted in Greece, Grey Britain, Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Pontypool, Uncategorized, Wales, Weather, Wildlife | Tagged cabbage white butterflies, caterpillars, drought, Eyed Hawk-moth, gardening, goldfinch, Greece, Kokkimedes, monasteries, mountains, Nimborios, photography, Pontypool, rainbow, Stavros Polemou, Symi, Symi walks, trekking, Wales, wildlife, yucca | 7 Comments