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<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/199829137@N04/">the_sommervilles</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/199829137@N04/55357410366/" title="Sydney International Motor Show Lotus 15/10/2007"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55357410366_b4b969ce82_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Sydney International Motor Show Lotus 15/10/2007" /></a></p> <p>Type: Lotus 2-Eleven<br /> Date: 15/10/2007<br /> Location: Sydney Convention Centre Darling Harbour Sydney New South Wales<br /> Notes: The 2007 Sydney International Motor Show</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/130542797@N07/">Andrew 2.8i</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/130542797@N07/55355774347/" title="1974 Triumph Stag UPH307M"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355774347_1d6fc18636_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="1974 Triumph Stag UPH307M" /></a></p> <p>Car: Triumph Stag.<br /> Engine: 2,997cc V8.<br /> Fuel: Petrol.<br /> Power: 145 BHP.<br /> Top Speed:118 MPH.<br /> 0-60: 9.7 s.<br /> Weight: 1,267 kg.<br /> Body: 2 door roadster.<br /> Layout: Front engine, rear wheel drive.<br /> Years of production: 1970 to 1977.<br /> <br /> Date taken: 6th June 2026.<br /> Album: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/130542797@N07/albums/72177720334298741">Pembrokeshire Classic Car Club Show June 2026</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/petestuart/">The Rambling Tog</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/petestuart/55356632064/" title="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356632064_e3093e43ab_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel" /></a></p> <p>The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a spectacular 186-mile (299 km) national trail winding through the UK's only coastal National Park in West Wales. Stretching from St Dogmaels in the north to Amroth in the south, it features rugged cliffs, pristine beaches, and abundant wildlife.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/petestuart/">The Rambling Tog</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/petestuart/55356597023/" title="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356597023_035633cff9_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel" /></a></p> <p>The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a spectacular 186-mile (299 km) national trail winding through the UK's only coastal National Park in West Wales. Stretching from St Dogmaels in the north to Amroth in the south, it features rugged cliffs, pristine beaches, and abundant wildlife.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/petestuart/">The Rambling Tog</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/petestuart/55356640844/" title="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356640844_cbdbc04a2f_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel" /></a></p> <p>The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a spectacular 186-mile (299 km) national trail winding through the UK's only coastal National Park in West Wales. Stretching from St Dogmaels in the north to Amroth in the south, it features rugged cliffs, pristine beaches, and abundant wildlife.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/petestuart/">The Rambling Tog</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/petestuart/55356439896/" title="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356439896_bb9b59e5e9_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast path the green Bridge and St Govans Chapel" /></a></p> <p>The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a spectacular 186-mile (299 km) national trail winding through the UK's only coastal National Park in West Wales. Stretching from St Dogmaels in the north to Amroth in the south, it features rugged cliffs, pristine beaches, and abundant wildlife.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/grundyfoot/">Alan E Taylor</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grundyfoot/55356590264/" title="The Chapel Window and Garden, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun)"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356590264_aa0c1b2d84_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" alt="The Chapel Window and Garden, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun)" /></a></p> <p><b>The Chapel Window and Garden, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun), Chirk, Wrexham, Wales. National Trust. Chapel window by Sir Arthur Blomfield, 1894.</b><br /> The great five-light Gothic window of the Chapel blazes with tracery against the ancient ashlar of the south range, while a crimson climbing rose scrambles up to meet the smaller pointed lancet below it - red blooms against pale stone, medieval stonework softened by the abundance of a summer garden. This is one of the most beautiful elevations at Chirk.<br /> <br /> <b>The Chapel Window</b><br /> The east elevation has a fine 5-light window to the chapel south of the central tower, created by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1894 to replace one by E.W. Pugin. The window is a confident piece of Victorian Gothic design - its five cusped lancets rising within a round-headed arch, the intersecting tracery above characteristic of the Decorated Gothic style that Blomfield admired and referenced throughout his career. Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899) was one of the leading ecclesiastical architects of the Victorian age, responsible for restoration work at numerous English cathedrals and churches - his touch here at Chirk is assured and fitting.<br /> <br /> <b>The Chapel's History</b><br /> When Chirk Castle was first built, it is assumed that the Chapel would have been in one of the corner towers of the East Wing, but after the apparent collapse of the southernmost part of the castle, which may have happened around 1305, it was most likely moved to this position. The present site used to be fitted with rich wooden decoration, an altar, a grand organ, a pulpit and pews, but these features largely disappeared in the 18th century, from which time onwards the Chapel was neglected until it saw fresh alterations in the 19th century.<br /> <br /> Lady Howard de Walden, a tenant in the early 20th century and a trained singer of some reputation, changed its use to a music room and gave concerts here in the inter-war years, to which the servants were invited. That red rose climbing the wall below - deep crimson against golden stone - could hardly be a more apt companion to a building that has served as chapel, music room and now a celebrated visitor attraction.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/grundyfoot/">Alan E Taylor</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grundyfoot/55356541343/" title="The Long Gallery Staircase, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun)"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356541343_f3ca59fe6d_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" alt="The Long Gallery Staircase, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun)" /></a></p> <p><b>The Long Gallery Staircase, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun), Chirk, Wrexham, Wales. National Trust. Built 1673-1678.</b><br /> Looking up into the upper reaches of the Long Gallery staircase - the carved oak balustrade sweeping upward, the Gothic arched ribs of the ceiling meeting the close-studded Tudor timber framing of the wall beyond in a collision of two entirely different architectural languages. This is Chirk at its most layered and most beautiful.<br /> <br /> <b>The Long Gallery and Its Staircase</b><br /> The East Range was rebuilt by Thomas Myddelton IV after the destruction of the Civil War. Long galleries were out of fashion by then, but it was a practical and cheap way to fill the first floor space. It is a long low panelled room with a fireplace at either end. The ribbed ceiling is the work of Pugin. The staircase visible here connects the gallery to the rooms below - its turned balusters and carved handrail entirely characteristic of the Restoration woodworking tradition of the 1670s, when skilled craftsmen were at work throughout the castle rebuilding what Parliamentary artillery had destroyed.<br /> <br /> Surviving features of the 17th century include a long gallery which has woodcarving of 1678 by Thomas Dugdale. The quality of carving on the stair string and newel visible here - the basket-weave pattern, the dentil moulding, the crisp arched braces - is entirely consistent with Dugdale's accomplished hand.<br /> <br /> <b>Two Centuries in One View</b><br /> The close-studded timber framing of the wall to the left is Tudor in character - the black and white infill panels that have become synonymous with Welsh border architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries. Above the staircase, the Gothic arched ceiling ribs sweeping in from the right are Pugin's addition from the 1840s, his characteristic pointed arches imposed over the Restoration woodwork below. The result is a variety of interior styles: a neoclassical staircase hall dating from 1777-8 sits amidst Tudor timber-framed walling and a smattering of 19th-century Gothic Revival alterations. In this single view, three centuries of architectural intervention are visible simultaneously.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/grundyfoot/">Alan E Taylor</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grundyfoot/55356371831/" title="Early 17th-Century Plaster Frieze Detail"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356371831_47f743685a_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" alt="Early 17th-Century Plaster Frieze Detail" /></a></p> <p><b>Early 17th-Century Plaster Frieze Detail, Magistrate's Room, West Range, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun), Chirk, Wrexham, Wales. National Trust. c.1600.</b><br /> A delicate plaster relief of a vase of flowers - daisy-like blooms, curling leaves and ribboned handles - caught in the raking light from a leaded casement window. Modest in scale but exquisite in execution, this small decorative panel is one of the earliest surviving decorative plasterwork details at Chirk Castle, and it adorns one of its most intriguingly named rooms.<br /> <br /> <b>The Magistrate's Room</b><br /> The narrow room in the corridor in the curtain wall is called the Magistrate's Room. The original function is unclear, and the name comes from the figure of a blind and barefoot magistrate holding a set of scales and sword of justice on the early 17th-century plaster frieze. This floral panel, with its charm and informality, is part of that same decorative scheme - small panels of naturalistic ornament typical of early Jacobean plasterwork, applied to the walls of the West Range shortly after Sir Thomas Myddelton purchased the castle in 1595 and began transforming it from a military fortress into a family home.<br /> <br /> <b>The West Range - The Medieval Heart</b><br /> The room sits within the West Range - the only part of the 13th-century castle to survive relatively unaltered, offering an insight into how a medieval fortress would have functioned. The addition of decorative plasterwork like this in the early 1600s represents the first tentative layer of domestication laid over the raw medieval fabric - a generation of Myddeltons trying to make habitable walls that had been built purely for war.<br /> <br /> <b>Conservation of the Plasterwork</b><br /> Major grants have repaired medieval towers and conserved delicate plasterwork throughout Chirk - a reminder of how fragile these early decorative schemes are, and how much effort goes into keeping them intact for future generations.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/grundyfoot/">Alan E Taylor</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grundyfoot/55356801060/" title="Cut Crystal Decanter and Glasses on Lacquered Tray"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356801060_5f06751fc5_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" alt="Cut Crystal Decanter and Glasses on Lacquered Tray" /></a></p> <p><b>Cut Crystal Decanter and Glasses on Lacquered Tray, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun), Chirk, Wrexham, Wales. National Trust. c.1920s-1930s.</b><br /> A cut crystal decanter sits in its companion tumbler, flanked by two engraved liqueur glasses on a gilded lacquered tray, on a marble-topped table in the shadowy interior of the castle. The lamp glowing softly in the background, the dark panelling beyond - everything about this arrangement speaks of a certain kind of English country house life between the wars, when the right decanter on the right tray was as much a social signal as anything hanging on the walls.<br /> <br /> <b>The Howard de Walden Era</b><br /> This arrangement almost certainly belongs to the period when Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, a prominent patron of the arts and champion of Welsh culture, occupied Chirk from before World War I until after World War II. This was a very social time for Chirk, with the visitor's book featuring many big society names, including the likes of George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling and Augustus John, and King George V and Queen Mary visited in the 1930s. A decanter like this, set out on a lacquered tray on a marble side table, was the standard pre-dinner arrangement in every great house of the period - sherry, Madeira or port ready for guests before they went in to dine.<br /> <br /> <b>The Objects Themselves</b><br /> The decanter is a fine piece of hobnail-cut crystal - the dense diamond-cut pattern across the globe catching the light with characteristic brilliance. The stummel or tumbler base in which it sits is an unusual arrangement seen particularly in bedroom or dressing room decanters of the Edwardian and interwar periods, designed to prevent the decanter tipping on an uneven surface. The two liqueur glasses, with their engraved floral decoration and cranberry-tinted bowls, are a matched pair of considerable elegance. The lacquered tray beneath, with its gilt foliate border and painted floral panels on a black ground, is a fine piece of Japanesque lacquerwork - very much in the taste of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods that furnished most of the contents of Chirk's interwar rooms.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/grundyfoot/">Alan E Taylor</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grundyfoot/55356367531/" title="Medieval Dining Table - Detail, Adam Tower, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun)"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356367531_89c9b3c30a_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Medieval Dining Table - Detail, Adam Tower, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun)" /></a></p> <p><b>Medieval Dining Table - Detail, Adam Tower, Chirk Castle (Castell y Waun), Chirk, Wrexham, Wales. National Trust. c.1295-1310.</b><br /> A closer look at the medieval table setting in the Adam Tower - a wedge of hard yellow cheese commanding the foreground, a wicker basket of pastries, clay jugs and cups, wooden bowls of bread and fruit, all bathed in the soft light filtering through the diamond-paned leaded window beyond. It is an arrangement so naturally composed it could have been painted by a Dutch Old Master.<br /> <br /> <b>Cheese - The Soldier's Staple</b><br /> The prominent wedge of hard cheese in the foreground is the most telling detail on this table. Hard cheese was one of the most important foods in a medieval garrison's provisions - it kept well, travelled well, provided protein and fat, and required no cooking. English castle garrisons of the Edwardian period were routinely provisioned with quantities of hard cheese alongside salted meat, dried fish, oats and ale. A castle like Chirk, guarding a strategically vital valley on the Welsh Marches, would have maintained stores sufficient to withstand a siege - and cheese was a cornerstone of those stores.<br /> <br /> <b>Bread and Pastry</b><br /> The raised pastries in the wicker basket, the flat loaves in the wooden bowls - bread in various forms was the foundation of the medieval diet at every social level. A garrison soldier at Chirk in 1300 would have received a daily bread allowance as a fundamental part of his wages. The darker, coarser bread visible here reflects the reality of medieval baking - white bread was a luxury of the wealthy, while garrison troops ate maslin bread made from mixed grains. The raised pies and pastries served a practical double purpose as both food and edible container, their thick crusts acting as a form of cooking vessel.<br /> <br /> <b>Ale, Not Water</b><br /> The clay jugs and cups on this table would have contained ale rather than water - clean water was unreliable in medieval times, and ale of varying strengths was the universal drink of the garrison, from the constable to the lowest foot soldier. The Chirk garrison would have had its own brewhouse as a matter of necessity.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/mifl68/">mifl68</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mifl68/55355154012/" title="Surfing at Caswell Bay"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355154012_2eabae3462_m.jpg" width="240" height="156" alt="Surfing at Caswell Bay" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/mifl68/">mifl68</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mifl68/55356097601/" title="2026-06-18-021-DSC07375-CAM36-Langlands Bay.jpg"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55356097601_e762497f9a_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="2026-06-18-021-DSC07375-CAM36-Langlands Bay.jpg" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/mifl68/">mifl68</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mifl68/55355154217/" title="Beach Huts at Langlands Bay"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355154217_a1212fee62_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Beach Huts at Langlands Bay" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/peak4/">peak4</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peak4/55354510062/" title="Llandudno Pier"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55354510062_5a6813299e_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Llandudno Pier" /></a></p> <p>Jane and I went off on another Andrews Coaches day outing; this time to Llandudno.<br /> Scorching hot and very hazy, so didn't venture much beyond The Great Orme and the pier.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/peak4/">peak4</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peak4/55355611878/" title="Looking from Pier to Hally Valley"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355611878_96c913eb41_m.jpg" width="240" height="150" alt="Looking from Pier to Hally Valley" /></a></p> <p>Jane and I went off on another Andrews Coaches day outing; this time to Llandudno.<br /> Scorching hot and very hazy, so didn't venture much beyond The Great Orme and the pier.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/peak4/">peak4</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peak4/55355871720/" title="Looking from Pier to Hally Valley"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355871720_40a95d453c_m.jpg" width="240" height="192" alt="Looking from Pier to Hally Valley" /></a></p> <p>Jane and I went off on another Andrews Coaches day outing; this time to Llandudno.<br /> Scorching hot and very hazy, so didn't venture much beyond The Great Orme and the pier.</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/mifl68/">mifl68</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mifl68/55355858390/" title="Oxwich Bay by William Grant Murray"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355858390_a8dbbfb5e9_m.jpg" width="240" height="156" alt="Oxwich Bay by William Grant Murray" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/mifl68/">mifl68</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mifl68/55355856060/" title="Last Supper Sculpture by Peter Barnes in Swansea Minster"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55355856060_beea7ea2e6_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="Last Supper Sculpture by Peter Barnes in Swansea Minster" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/203605705@N08/">illia.Burianov</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/203605705@N08/55354662378/" title="Rhyl Harbour"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55354662378_c4f788e89d_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Rhyl Harbour" /></a></p> <p>Shot using Sony a7 mii / Sony a7ii and Canon Ef 17-40 f/4L usm lens in Rhyl Harbour at the evening</p>

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