Slow evening, so here's some non person pics.

[Áedán]

Yeah, I'm having a slow sunday evening. My GF has gone back to Uni for the next few days, and I'm left alone once again.

Anyhow, I thought I'd put up a few pictures just for the fun of it. (That, and I'm in a picture mood)

Please respect the copyright on these images. They may not be reproduced without permission from myself.

Áedán

[Áedán]

Sunset on Grand Cayman. Looking west from Seven Mile Beach, from just outside the Condo.

[Áedán]

View towards Carisbrook Castle on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. This picture is about a year old now. The castle is on the left hand side, wreathed in mist. The walls of the castle are most obvious, whereas the keep is up on the hill and is not so obvious.

[Áedán]

This next one just ticked my fancy. It was taken in a chinese supermarket in London's Chinatown. Yes, it's really tinned pickled Lettuce.

[Áedán]

Another panoramic shot! I'd love to be able to put these in here in Quicktime VR format, but I can't!

This one (and the next one) are shots of the area around the English side of the Severn Bridge. It's actually a 360Degree coverage, so it really is panoramic. This was taken on the way back from doing some work in Cardiff. The original is about 11,000 by 1280 pixels, and takes over a metre of paper to print!

[Áedán]

The complementary half.

[Daniel ~]

Thanks I need that! Gave me a chance to wake up to something pleasant.

[Áedán]

Cardiff Castle keep - a real bit of stonework. There's not a lot of it left, bar the outside walls. However, they're still standing strong. The area around the keep is actually quite interesting, but I was not allowed to take any pictures. If you get a chance to take a look, it's certainly interesting!

[Áedán]

Talking about architecture, here's one from Scotland's Capital, Edinburgh. I was working up in Edinburgh and staying in a hotel. It had been a wet evening when I'd gone to sleep - however, I was woken by a huge crack of thunder. Looking out of the room window, I had this wonderful view of the hotel that was on the next street over. Unfortunatly, I forget the name of the hotel! You can see the lights shining upwards into the rain, as it comes pelting down.

[Áedán]

This is a picture looking into the street below. As you can see, it's just pissing it down.

[Daniel ~]

Originally posted by Áedán
Cardiff Castle keep - a real bit of stonework. There's not a lot of it left, bar the outside walls. However, they're still standing strong. The area around the keep is actually quite interesting, but I was not allowed to take any pictures. If you get a chance to take a look, it's certainly interesting!

When does the castle date from Áedán?

[Áedán]

Cardiff Castle is actually two peices together. The keep itself (the picture shown) was originally a 10 acre fort built by the Romans. That would probably have been around the middle of the first century AD. However, this was superceeded by a Norman castle, which was built in about 1091 by the then Lord of Gloucester. It was little more than a mound and bailey. (Earth and timber fortification)

Later, during the 12th century, Robert the Consul (Son of King Henry I) ordered the construction of the shell keep. Then, in the 1270's, the castle was strengthend again, against an expected assult by the Welsh rebellion, but this assult never happened. This is pretty much the structure you can see in the picture.

The other part of the castle - the original castle walls, were rebuilt and vastly modified by the 3rd Marquess of Bute and his architect. Inside, you can find much of the Victorian grandeur, that is pretty difficult to describe. Alas, I was not allowed to take pictures!

Áedán

[Daniel ~]

Thanks for sharing your country's time-line, very interesting seeing the advance of castle vs. siege

[ByteWipe]

Always an amusing thing to ask some people which country they think Cardiff is in

[Daniel ~]

It's the one with the big rocks, everyone knows that!

[mrpcman]

I want to live in a castle! lol i like the pictures.

[Áedán]

Originally posted by Daniel ~
Thanks for sharing your country's time-line, very interesting seeing the advance of castle vs. siege

Whoa! Hold on here. Wales isn't my country at all!

Carisbrook castle has an interesting history as well. They upgraded the castle walls as the attacking power went upwards. Originally, it wouldn't have to withstand much damage. Eventually the walls were upgraded to handle cannon fire.

Edinburgh castle is built on top of a volcanic outflow, so there's only one way to it, quite literally. (Unless you fancy rock climbing your army up) Makes it pretty easy to defend.

Áedán

[Daniel ~]

Where as my sense of geography is impossible to defend! ":O}

[dod]

NIce shots Aedan. Is that one of the Sony Digicams you're using?

[Áedán]

Originally posted by dod
NIce shots Aedan. Is that one of the Sony Digicams you're using?

Not a chance! They were all taken by an Olympus C3030Z camera, which is now over 2 years old! The camera still works well, as you can see from the pictures above. I wanted a camera that could work in both automatic and manual mode.

Áedán