Here are three new iPics from my gallery.
The first proper rain of the summer has brought a verdant rush to the trees and other vegetation in the area.
As usual, you can click on ‘em for a bigger view.
Grasses flattened by last night’s rain:
“Where am I watching what game?”
This mystery tree has been puzzling Stoatie and I for a while now. It looks like a common or garden Ash from a distance, but you can tell the leaves are far too small.
Fortunately Mark the Compost Elf was on hand on Saturday to tell us that it’s some Asian variant of Ash. Sure enough, the Roger Phillips book confirms that it’s the Manna or Flowering Ash, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor. Apparently the stems leak a mildly laxative sap (manna).
I look forward to producing better images of the leaves, bark and flowers when the time’s right.
Well done Mark, you clever little elf! 
This was my first attempt at photographing wild birds, and I realise I need bigger, faster glass to improve things.
Can you identify the birds in the first four images for me? I think the second two are a garden warbler.
I’ve wanted to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth for years and we grabbed the opportunity last Saturday. It was a glorious sunny morning and I’d spotted that there was an open day where we could get in free of charge (usual price £8.50 for adults). It’s quite a drive from Caernarfon where we were staying, about an hour and a half, so this has contributed to the reluctance to visit in the past.
The Centre’s setting is breathtaking, smack bang in the middle of rolling, green hills and mountains. I’m sure the weather was helping but I could’ve stayed in the area for good, it was that beautiful. We turned off on a really mad hairpin left junction that left me glad I hadn’t gone any faster and soon drove through the entrance. We were greeted by a pretty, youhg girl who checked that we were there for the open day. She directed us to the far end of the car park and told us we would be met by a bloke who’d show us where to park. Reaching the back of the already quite full area I realised that the annoying athletic chap on the bicycle who kept weaving in front of me was actually the parking attendant and he was trying to show me where to drop anchor.
We told one of the nice ladies in the reception booth that we were there for the open day and she gave us a programme of the day’s events before directing us to the funicular. I was instantly interested in this water-powered device. A pair of carriages work on the twin track up the steep hillside, the ascending one being lifted by its partner as it made its way down after having its base filled with water at the top. It’s quite an impressive climb to the entrance proper and the view from the platform over the countryside is amazing.
A chap greeted us as we walked into the courtyard and asked us if we were visiting for any particular reason. Once again I mentioned that we’d driven down for the open day. He pointed out that one of the talks was part way through, and seemed a trifle irritated that we hadn’t arrived earlier in the morning. It looked like it had upset his schedule or something. I was struggling to understand where he was going with his conversation so I had a chat with the funicular operator about the ins and outs of how the machine worked for a while.
After popping to the loo we came back out into the courtyard and noticed that guide man had a few people around him. I wandered over to see what was going on. He sort of politely asked if I was anything to do with the group, giving the impression that I wasn’t all that welcome. In the awkward silence I thought we might as well wander round by ourselves so off we went.
I’d heard so many wonderful things about the Centre, mainly second- or third-hand accounts of all the groovy displays and hands-on exhibits that would show the modern world how to progress in harmony with nature and create a sustainable future for industry and housing. Perhaps my anticipation of what I was going to find has weighted my subsequent disappointment but I’ve got to say I wasn’t impressed at all, really.
The displays are all mainly in little huts spaced around the complex. They house different concepts such as types of insulation and energy-efficient windows and solar-powered water heating. There were panels with practical displays of how different materials and colours affect heating properties. There were exposed installations of solar heating systems. There were some free-standing machines that allowed one to move levers and pulleys to show how energy can be generated by hand and then stored in batteries. Wave and wind power was explained through wall charts and diagrams.
All cool and groovy stuff, but there was nothing here that I hadn’t seen thoroughly explained before in secondary school science lessons nearly thirty years ago. Talking of time, the general feel of the place was dated overall, despite the beautiful weather. There was a kind of dusty, faded atmosphere to the place and several of the hands-on machines had handles missing that made them diffcult to operate, or they were just broken.
It was around now that I noticed a popular theme among the visitors. By far the vast majority were stick-thin, curly-haired, bearded, serious-faced people wearing hemp jumpers and sandals. You could tell that they were all wishing they’d brought a clipboard with them and they had a propensity to squint and nod quickly. Present company excepted, I wondered where the rest of the relaxed, happy people were.
The gardens and polytunnel provided a temporary rest from the mundane but again, all the technology in use can be seen on any allotment plot in the nation.
Time for a brew. We found the cafe and the rest of the happy, relaxed people in the same place. There was a children’s playground nearby with things made of wood. On my way past this my attention was caught by a display promoting growing your own mushrooms. There were woodpiles and straw bales and information boards on how to go about raising a tasty bouty of fungi, but sadly, not a mushroom to be seen.
Something else I found tiring was the number of display booths that weren’t. Several of the small huts had signs on the outside saying things like ‘Breath-powered nuclear fusion lab’ (I made that one up) but on closer inspection they were locked up with a smaller sign smugly refusing entry to all but the research staff.
I had really hoped to spend the entire day there and bring back a gushing report for you. Really though, if you were paying attention at school or have seen any kind of science programme on TV in the last twenty years then you’re not going to be overawed by anything you can see here.
I’d really like to see something like the CAT migrated to urban Manchester, Birmingham or Edinburgh where kids growing up have never seen anything like it before. I feel that it might really be geared to the kinds of family that have never thought about how they get their electricity or how it’s produced. They’d benefit greatly from understanding what’s involved in creating the energy that all the modern devices rely on. It’d be nice to think that they’d have a clue about how to carry on if the lights went out. I don’t intend to sound at all snobbish, but this group aren’t really likely to drive all the way out to a remote spot in Wales and pony up nearly a tenner each to get in. Bring it to the cities, people!
Overall, I’m glad we went on an open day.
Spotted these back-lit Wych elm leaves during a stroll round the local area this morning.
(click ‘em for a bigger image)
Wych Elm
Wych Elm
