Saturday was trip day for the Jumps, and we went to Chirk Castle, which is in Wales. It’s National Trust which means we get in for free, and we don’t pay for parking. It also means you can buy tea-towels with maps on them, walking sticks and flat caps.

Chirk Castle is the last Edward I castle still lived in today (as you will know if you followed the link above).

[Historians look away now!] Edward I was the King who built loads of castles in North Wales - he spent £80,000 on castles in the 1280’s that’s a lot of money. The Main aim of the castles was to keep the Welsh quiet. They didn’t really think England was all tat great thanks, and much preferred the hilliness of snowdonia and the wild coast that was to become scouse-wales. Edward I (who was the fourth King to be called Edward) was recently voted 94th Greatest Briton - maybe because he conquered Wales, or maybe because he did quite a lot of law reforming.

None of that really tells you about Chirk Castle, except why it was built. As it is the only castle of that time still lived in, it doesn’t really resemble a 700 year old Castle it’s more of a stately home squeezed into a castle. It’s still very interesting and warm. unlike those ruined 700 year old castles. the Café is nice, and there where chickens in the car park.

New Camera

Really for us it was an opportunity for me to try out my new camera. The weather wasn’t great, but still we got some good shots. The zoom is cool; We have some fab shots of animals, the type you think you are going to take with your camera, only to discover you have a dot in the middle of a field of grass; well on my camera you get a full picture of the animal.

The Colours are really good to. It’s not until you get a decent camera do you realise just how over saturated some cameras can make photographs - of course this means I will have to start taking pictures of everything again. for one it’s 8 mega pixel which means good shots can be blown up real big and stuck on the wall.

Just in case it’s a nice day.on the way to work

I’ve been quite skeptical about all this culture malarkey, but even I am getting excited by the goings on outside St Georges Hall, the Big Screens either side of the hall are huge, and I have never really seen so many people and so much equipment being put into one location.

And tonight I got to see them practicing the spinning people around on cranes which looked quite cool too. I think I am going to go to the opening event, after all it’s not every year that the city you live in is the European Capital of Culture

We seem to be doing a bit of a park tour recently, today it was Woolton Woods and Camp Hill. Ruth’s been saying she doesn’t get enough woods in her life, so I’ve made it my mini mission to seek out all woodland in the area.

The Woods at Woolton are really nice, and the walled garden is extremely pleasant Daisy thought the tadpoles where particularly funny. The view from the top of the hill over to Wales is somewhat spectacular. Today isn’t crisp clear but still, I took some photos and as is my want I’ve stuck them together in an arty farty way.

Just how cute is she? I may have taken a lot of photographs over the weekend, around 150 i think, but i got at least one stunner.

This is daisy playing in the long grass of sefton park. She thought it was fantastic. She’s now at the stage where she is sure enough on her feet that walking on the spongy undergrowth was no problem for her; but you have to be careful, when she gets on to the path, she just takes off.

Greenbank Park Panorama
Originally uploaded by Fraser Brodie.

Not my piccie this one, but it’s of my favorite park, infact it looks like it was taken from the bench we always sit at.

Ruth will be holding me back from running down there to take some of my own.

Just to give you a flavor of todays weather…

We drove into this Today; As we weaved around the edge of wales and Cheshire the clouds just sat on the horizon, looking dark and nasty, Until we got to this point. Then all the water just fell out of them. Not a day for a convertible car, I would much rather have our trusty skoda in a rain cloud like this. The bloke we saw on the motorbike looked very wet.