A walk in a natural place recharges me mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Here are a couple of photos that were taken on a walk in Rivington earlier this week:
Blog soon,
Antony
On Monday, my good friend Jayne and I visited to Chester Zoo. The weather was glorious, sunshine, temperatures 30+ °C and not a cloud in the sky. It was so warm that Jayne and I were grateful for Chester Zoo’s unlimited refillable drinks cups for sale at around £10 each.
Jayne hadn’t been to Chester Zoo for years. These days Chester Zoo is massive and I’d recommend that you do visit the zoo over two days to see everything.
Here are photos from the day, click on any photo for full size image:
Essential Info
Chester Zoo is a brilliant day out. It was great to see volunteers around the zoo.
However it’s a large zoo with not enough big animals. Jayne and I saw quite a number of empty enclosures for larger animals. They should put better signage up on the Islands Exhibit to direct visitors back to the main part of the zoo.
The zoo is so huge now, that they really should consider transportation methods in the zoo. The monorail is too limited. Perhaps they could look at golf buggies for hire or something similar. This would enable visitors to get around and see the whole zoo in one day.
Write soon,
Antony
This is the fourth part in my Hadrian’s Wall Adventure with my good friend Simon. You can read and see the photos from Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
Yesterday Simon and I set out to do the last leg of our Hadrian’s Wall Adventure. It was my birthday. The day was gorgeous, sunny, around 19°C all day and not a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.
There aren’t many specific Hadrian’s Wall sites near the Newcastle end of where the wall would have been. So we decided to do Castles near Newcastle.
Our first castle was the magnificent impressive Warkworth Castle. Before you see the photos, first let me apologise for any fingerprint marks on them. The lens of my iPhone had fingerprint marks on, but I didn’t realise because of the bright sunshine.
Here is Essential Info and are some photos:
Essential Info:
Our next stop was Tynemouth Priory and Castle. Here is Essential Info and are some photos:
Essential Info:
We had a great time. Next year we are going to visit the fine city of Newcastle including Newcastle’s castle.
Blog soon,
Antony
Edit: 16/05/18 18:30 – Used GIMP to remove some of the finger prints in some of the above photos. If you click on the photos for full size, you will see the updated photos.
Here are the books that Antony has published:
Today marks the first day of Spring and is also the pagan festival of Ostara (pronounced O-star-ah). So what’s Ostara all about?
It’s about new beginnings, rebirth and fertility. Ostara is an equinox (equinox is latin for equal days), the day and night are in balance. After today, the days will get longer and the nights will get shorter. The days will not only get longer, but warmer as well.
At this time Nature renews its self and new life begins: new buds appear on trees, plants like daffodils rise out of the soil, hibernating animals with come out of hibernation and many animals will give birth to offspring.
For pagans it is about new beginnings, such as starting new projects. It’s an opportunity to appreciate the renewal and new life in nature.
Symbols for Ostara include eggs (as practically all life comes from some sort of egg), rabbits (a fertility symbol), lambs and honey.
Colours associated with Ostara include yellow, orange, red and light green.
I intend of celebrating Ostara by planning some new creative projects.
If you liked this blog post, you might like my All Paganism, Witchcraft & Magic Content page.
Blog soon,
Antony
