It's June 10th already? OK, own up... Who keeps stealing this year? It seems like only a couple of days ago we were seeing in the New Year and welcoming everyone to 2009, and now the year is almost half over! *Looks shocked* At this rate it wont be long before we have to start planning for... Sorry, I've gotta say it... Christmas. I know, I know, it's only June! But the way the days are slipping by it will soon be time to start thinking about it. OK, moving swiftly on, since we don't want to start too much talk about the dreaded "C" word this early in the year. Let's give it a couple of months, shall we?
So...
My knee is doing a bit better. The swelling has gone right down, and the pain level has gone down a lot. It's now to the point where I can ignore the pain most of the time. Although, if I've been walking on it for more than a couple of minutes then it starts hurting a fair bit again. Still, that's a great improvement over the last couple of days. Plus, I can now sit at the computer long enough to check blogs without feeling like someone's trying to pull my leg off at the knee, which is definately a good thing. ;)
I'm not sure how Nan's leg is doing, because - to be perfectly honest - I haven't spoken to her. I'll give you an update on her injury when I get one (possibly tomorrow?)
And Toasty? Well, last time I got a text from her she wasn't doing too great. :(
Hope anyone else who's not been well, or who has some kind of injury, or has recently been in hospital, or has any other kind of issue - physical or otherwise - is recovering quickly. *Hugs to all in need of them*
Oh yes, and...
Yesterday was my Mother-In-Law's birthday. So a very happy - though belated - birthday to her.
OK, that will do from me for today.
Enjoy whatever's left of your day! :)
Tori
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Cardiff Castle (LBE)
Cardiff Castle is one of Wales' leading heritage attractions and a site of international significance. During 2000 years of history, the Castle has been a Roman Garrison, a Norman stronghold and in Victorian times was transformed into a gothic fairytale fantasy.
Castle history:
Romans 55 - 400 AD
The history of Cardiff Castle stretches over 2000 years. Excavations inside the boundary walls raise the possibility that the Roman legions arrived in the area as early as the first half of the reign of the Emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68).
The Roman occupation of South Wales began following the defeat of the war-like Silures and the exiling of their great leader Caractacus to Rome. Their first fort, built on this strategically important site where the River Taff nears the Bristol Channel, was a campaign base constructed in still-hostile territory. Their defensive works surrounded a ten-acre site on which were built their timber barracks, stores and workshops.
Around A.D. 75, when the Romans controlled the whole of Wales, they rebuilt their Cardiff fort, somewhat smaller than before. The area now occupied by the southern half of the Castle lay outside new perimeter walls and on it rose the workshops of the craftsmen who gathered around any Roman base.
Yet another new fort was built on the site around the year 250 AD. This had 10 foot thick stone walls backed by an earth bank and served until the Roman Army withdrew from the area in the 5th century AD. Its position gave the fort a new strategic importance as a naval base for the protection of the Empire against the menace of sea-bourne attacks by savage raiders from the west and north.
Little is known of the castle during the centuries that followed the Roman departure. Perhaps for long periods, the raiders from the sea made it untenable. The native princes of Glamorgan based themselves about a mile to the north and the ruined fort waited - for a new army of occupation.
Normans 1091 - 1216
Robert Fitzhamon, the Norman Lord of Gloucester, drawn into the quarrels of the Welsh princes, defeated Iestyn ap Gwrgan, Prince of Glamorgan, in 1091. He saw the strategic value of the site of the old Roman fort and built his Norman castle here.
The Normans concentrated their defensive works into the western half of the site, which became the 'inner' ward. At the northern end of this part, Fitzhamon built a 'motte', or mound, 40 feet high and surrounded it by a moat. This Keep, or strong-point, was surmounted by a timber stockade giving shelter and protection to the wooden buildings which housed the lord, his household and his garrison.
Robert Fitzhamon died of wounds received in battle in 1107, and some years later his daughter and heiress, Mabel, married Robert, the natural son of King Henry I of England. King Henry raised Robert to the Earldom of Gloucester, and made him Lord of Glamorgan, in 1122. The Earl or 'Consul' of Gloucester dominated the political scene in England after the death of his father and during the long and bitter struggle for the throne between Matilda and Stephen. It was 'Robert the Consul', lauded on all sides as a brave soldier, wise statesman and patron of the arts, who is credited with having built the first stone keep of Cardiff Castle. At King Henry's request, in this keep he imprisoned another Robert - the second Duke of Normandy and his father's older brother - from 1126 until Robert of Normandy's death in 1134.
Robert 'The Consul' died in 1147, to be succeeded by his son William. William, as soldier and statesman, was by no means of the calibre of his renowned father. When he died without male heir in 1183, the lordship passed to Prince (later King) John through John's marriage to Isabel, William's daughter. John divorced Isabel but retained the lordship until her second marriage; to the Earl of Essex's death in 1216 the lordship passed to Gilbert de Clare, son of Isabel's sister, Amicia, and the descendant of a noble family which claimed kinship with William the Conqueror.
The Clares 1216 - 1306 AD
The first Gilbert de Clare is principally remembered as one of the barons of the Magna Carta; he died in 1230, leaving his son, Richard, as his heir. Richard, who was only 8 years old at he death of his father, was left in the unenviable position of having to carry on his father's feud with Morgan Gam, a grandson of Ifor Bach, the scourge of Count William. On coming of age in 1243 he tightened his father's hold on the Welsh lords in the uplands and on the fringes of Glamorgan.
An almost unbroken period of military success was enjoyed by the Welsh prince Llewelyn ap Gruffydd ('Llewelyn the Last') from 1256 until 1274. Most of the native Welsh princes were obliged to transfer their allegiances from the king to him, and he mounted raids of unbridled ferocity into South Wales. Only four years after he inherited his father's estate he started to build Caerphilly Castle in order to defend the northern approaches to his lands.
The ever-present threat of attack on the castle at Cardiff, the administrative centre for the whole of the Glamorgan lordship, caused him to reconstruct its defences with a great sense of urgency. He constructed a central embattled wall to link the improved keep (remodelled for the better accommodation of the household) with the south gate and the Black Tower. On the east side of the embattled wall (the outer ward) were now provided permanent lodgings for the knights of Glamorgan and their grooms and men-at-arms, during their periods of garrison duty.
Gilbert died in 1295 and left a son of the same name. When his mother Joan died, Gilbert the younger was still under age but inherited the lordship. What little we know of this new lord reflects well on his dealings with his neighbouring Welsh princes, but he fell in battle at Bannockburn in 1314 at the age of 23. The lordship passed to his sister Elizabeth, who had married Hugh Despenser in 1306. This Hugh Despenser was the first of the family which was to retain the lordship for nearly a hundred years.
The Despensers 1306 - 1411 AD
The new lords wrote a sordid chapter in the history of the castle.
On the death of the young Gilbert de Clare in 1314, Glamorgan and Cardiff passed for a while into royal custody, and during the period when Pain de Tuberville, Lord of Coity, served as 'custos' all Welshmen were removed from office. These included Llewelyn Bren, a great-grandson of Ifor Bach and a good friend of the last young lord.
Edward II's estranged wife Isabella (the 'She-wolf of France') returned from France in 1326 and directed her army against her husband's favourites. Edward and Hugh Despenser fled for refuge to Glamorgan but were captured some 10 miles to the west of the castle. Edward was eventually taken to Berkley Castle in Gloucestershire and they were foully murdered in 1327. Retribution against the Despensers came more swiftly; Hugh was hanged at Hereford in 1326, one of the charges against him was that of the murder of Llewelyn Bren. His father was hanged without even the benefit of trial at Bristol.
Two years after the execution of Hugh Despenser, his widow married again, but on her death in 1337 her son, Hugh Despenser II succeeded to the lordship. This Hugh's death saw his nephew Edward come into possession of Cardiff Castle in 1394.
The Welsh rebellion of Owain Glyndwr broke out in the year 1400, and 4 years later Owain broke through the west gate of Cardiff and set fire to the town. The ferocity of the attack was in some measure due to the hatred still felt by the Welsh against the Despensers for the murder of Llewelyn Bren in 1317. The only place spared was the monastery of the Grey Friars, who had given a Christian burial to Llewelyn's body.
Richard Despenser died in 1414 whilst still a ward of King Henry V (Harry of Monmouth). Richard's sister Isabel had married Richard Beauchamp, Lord Abergavenny, in 1411, whilst still being only eleven years old. On her brother's death her husband succeeded to the Lordship of Cardiff in her right.
The Beauchamps 1411 - 1445 AD
Richard Beauchamp survived only 8 years after succeeding to the lordship; he died in 1422, a year after being created Earl of Worcester. A year later his widow, Isabel, still only 23 years old, married his kinsman of the same name - Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick. Warwick had been a trusted counsellor of King Henry V, who had appointed him, on his deathbed in 1422, to be governor of his infant son, King Henry VI.
The final defeat of Owain Glyndwr, of whom no more had been heard since 1412, and the failure of the Welsh to mount a further offensive, saw the prospect of peace in Glamorgan, and Isabel's second husband now prepared to move from the safety of the Keep, embarking upon the construction of new lodgings against the West Curtain Wall.
In 1428 Richard Beauchamp took formal charge of the infant King Henry's education. He took him to France in 1430, and while at Rouen superintended the trial of Joan of Arc. When the king came of age in 1437 he chose his tutor to be governor of Normandy and it was there that Richard died in 1439. Isabel died the same year, and they left a daughter, Ann, and a son, Henry, who was shown extraordinary marks of favour by King Henry VI, who made him Premier Earl of the Realm and Duke of Warwick in 1444. When the young lord died in 1445, however, the male line of the Warwick Beauchamps became extinct, as did the earldom on the death of his infant daughter Ann (his only child) five years later.
The Nevilles 1445 - 1483 AD
Richard Beauchamp's vast inheritance now passed to his sister Ann. Ann had married Richard Neville, eldest son of the Earl of Salisbury, who had been betrothed to her at the age of seven. The new Lord of Cardiff was created Earl of Warwick in 1450, when he became of age, and entered politics two years later, declaring his support for Richard of York against Henry VI (who had greatly honoured his wife's family) in 1455.
'Warwick the King-maker', as he was later to be known, was ambitious to rule the country under a weak king, and he was, in part, successful. He played one king (Henry VI, the Lancastrian) against the other (Edward IV, the Yorkist) with some effect, but eventually he was killed in battle in 1471. His puppet, Henry VI, died, murdered, the same year.
Richard Neville had two daughters. The elder, Isabel, married George, Duke of Clarence (and younger brother of King Edward IV) in 1469, and he seems to have come into the Lordship of Cardiff by right of his wife when his father-in-law was killed. Isabel died in 1476, and the same year Edward IV imprisoned his brother Clarence on suspicion of having plotted to seize the crown. Sentenced to death, Clarence was killed secretly in the Tower of London in 1478, it being popularly supposed that he was done away with by being drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.
Richard Neville's younger daughter, Ann had been married in 1472 to Richard, Duke of Gloucester (afterwards King Richard III) who succeeded to the Lordship of Cardiff on the death of his brother Clarence. Richard of Gloucester usurped the throne in 1483 and soon afterwards the rightful heirs, the young children of his brother Edward IV, were murdered in the Tower of London.
The Tudors 1485 - 1550 AD
In 1485 Henry Tudor, the head of the house of Lancaster, landed at Milford Haven. He marched to Bosworth Field, and there defeated and killed Richard III. Richard's queen, Ann Neville, had died five months previously.
It was not expected that the vast Neville estates, by now merged in those of the Crown, should be allowed to revert to the Neville family, and Henry Tudor (now King Henry VII) gave the Lordship of Cardiff to Jasper Tudor in 1486. Jasper was Henry's cousin who protected the future king during the first eleven years of Henry's life, and had fled with him to seek sanctuary in Brittany during the rampaging hey-day of the Yorkists.
Ann Beauchamp, widow of Warwick the Kingmaker, had been deprived of any claim to the Beauchamp estates by an act of Edward IV after her husband's death in 1471, and had seen them through the hands of her sons-in-law Clarence and Richard III. She now made the last Beauchamp bid for the lordship of Cardiff. In this she was successful, but her triumph was short-lived, for we hear of her abrogation of all claims in favour of the king 1487, and a year later Jasper was once more granted possession by his nephew. With this, the name of Beauchamp disappeared from the castle's history.
On Jasper's death in 1495 the lordship reverted to the crown and the castle remained in royal hands through the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. In 1550 Edward VI granted possession to William Herbert.
The Herberts 1550 - 1766 AD
William Herbert, the first of that name to be Lord of Cardiff, was a man of great national importance. His father, 'Black' Sir Richard Herbert, was the illegitimate son of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke of the first creation, who had been executed after the battle of Hedgecote in 1469.
William Herbert of Cardiff Castle was described in his youth as a 'mad fighting fellow'. He entered the service of the influential Charles Somerset, a staunch supporter of Henry Tudor, who married William's cousin, Elizabeth Herbert. Through his patron's influence William gained preferment at the court of Henry VIII, and his position was enhanced when Henry married his sister-in-law Catherine Parr, the king's sixth wife and the only one to survive him.
Through the good offices of the king, William acquired much property in South Wales, and was given the rare privilege of keeping his own armed retainers. When Henry VIII died in 1547, William, one of the king's executors, became one of the young King Edward VI's governors, and held other very high offices under the crown. He was created Baron Herbert of Cardiff and Earl of Pembroke in 1551.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 saw Cardiff Castle in the hands of an earl whose sympathies lay with the 'rebels', whilst the allegiance of most of the gentry of Glamorgan was for the king. The then king, Charles, sent the Marquis of Hertford to take the castle, and it remained under the occupation of a royalist garrison for the greater part of the war.
Two years after Philip Herbert, the fourth earl, died in 1650, to be succeeded by his son of the same name, work started on the repairs to the castle made necessary by the damage suffered during the Civil War.
Philip, on his death in 1669 was succeeded in the lordship by three sons in succession; William, the 6th earl, who died in 1674, Philip the 7th earl, a homicidal dipsomaniac who died in 1683 and during whose tenure Saint John Lloyd and Saint Philip Evans were imprisoned in the Black Tower and then hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason as Catholic recusants in 1679, and Thomas, the 8th earl, who died in 1733.
What was left of the Herbert estates in Glamorgan had passed to Thomas, 1st Viscount Windsor on his marriage to Charlotte Herbert, daughter and heiress of Philip, the 7th earl, in 1703.
The Glamorgan lands, and Cardiff Castle, were conveyed in 1766 through the 1st viscount's granddaughter, Charlotte Jane to her husband, John Stuart. He was the heir of George III's prime minister, the Earl of Bute, and he was created Baron Cardiff of Cardiff Castle in 1776.
The Butes 1766 - 1947 AD
The lordship was to be held by the Bute family, until 1947, when the Castle was given to the City of Cardiff. The Bute family brought power and prosperity to Cardiff, which they turned from a sleepy backwater into one of the greatest coal exporting ports in the world. They transformed the Castle into the gothic fantasy we see today, as well as exploiting the Castle's Roman past
In the 1770's, 'Capability' Brown and his son-in-law, Henry Holland embarked upon an ambitious plan to landscape the grounds and modernise the lodgings. Brown cleared away the Lodgings of the Norman Knights and the Shire Hall, from the green. Brown stripped the Keep of its ivy and cut down all the trees growing on the ancient mound. He also filled in the moat.
Holland remodelled 16th century Herbert additions and rebuilt to the north and south of the hall, the greater and lesser wings. The Great Hall was partitioned off into a new Entrance Hall, a Library and a Dining Room. Above the Hall, the bedrooms were modernised and given such names as the Red Room, the Velvet Room etc...
In 1814, John Stuart 1st Marquess of Bute died. The Lordship passed to his grandson, John Stuart 2nd Marquess of Bute, 'The Founder of Modern Cardiff,' and during the 1820's the Castle underwent further restoration
In March 1848, the Marquess was found dead. His son and heir, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute - destined to become one of the greatest private patrons of architecture this country has seen - was only six months old.
In 1865 Lord Bute invited architect William Burges to present a report on the state of the Castle; it was the beginning of a momentous partnership that was to last for sixteen years, and Cardiff Castle was to be transformed into a Neo Gothic dream palace.
Burges brought together a group of young men who were to work with him throughout the restoration of Cardiff Castle. Lord Bute called in distinguished local historians and he assisted with tracing the history of the Castle. He ordered the setting up of the Bute Workshops and employed the finest Welsh craftsmen.
Work started after Bute's workmen pulled down the houses built against the South Curtain Wall. Burges restored the stonework, and he added a covered parapet walk with embrasures and arrow slits. The Clock Tower was built on the site of a Roman bastion and completed in 1875.
In 1872 Lord Bute married the Hon.Gwendolen Fitzalan Howard, one of the beauties of the time. Burges decorated her rooms with silk hangings, which Lord Bute chose for his bride.
Work continued with the building of the Bute Tower, Herbert Tower, Guest Tower and Tank Tower. The 15th century Octagon Tower was restored with the addition of a timber fleche or spire above the battlements. Burges built the new Library and the Banqueting Hall on the site of the old medieval hall.
When Burges died in 1881, his work was continued by his former assistant William Frame. Frame built the Animal Wall and was responsible for restoring the North Gate, which it is said he based upon a variety of ancient sources, including Trajan's Column in Rome.
The 3rd Marquess died in 1900. His son, the 4th Marquess, continued to restore the Castle Walls and in the period 1922-5 oversaw the reconstruction of the Roman Wall to Duke Street, as well as the building of the Barbican Tower. A new entrance hall to the castle was added in 1927.
Cardiff Castle largely escaped enemy action during the 2nd World War, although two adjacent lodges were destroyed.
In 1947 the Castle was given to the people of Cardiff by the 5th Marquess of Bute.
***~***
The text was taken from: Cardiff Castle's official site, but the photo was taken by Karen (AKA my Mam) during our trip to Cardiff on Tuesday June 2nd 2009. We didn't actually go in to the castle, but we passed it, so Mam snapped a photo for me to post.
Tori
Castle history:
Romans 55 - 400 AD
The history of Cardiff Castle stretches over 2000 years. Excavations inside the boundary walls raise the possibility that the Roman legions arrived in the area as early as the first half of the reign of the Emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68).
The Roman occupation of South Wales began following the defeat of the war-like Silures and the exiling of their great leader Caractacus to Rome. Their first fort, built on this strategically important site where the River Taff nears the Bristol Channel, was a campaign base constructed in still-hostile territory. Their defensive works surrounded a ten-acre site on which were built their timber barracks, stores and workshops.
Around A.D. 75, when the Romans controlled the whole of Wales, they rebuilt their Cardiff fort, somewhat smaller than before. The area now occupied by the southern half of the Castle lay outside new perimeter walls and on it rose the workshops of the craftsmen who gathered around any Roman base.
Yet another new fort was built on the site around the year 250 AD. This had 10 foot thick stone walls backed by an earth bank and served until the Roman Army withdrew from the area in the 5th century AD. Its position gave the fort a new strategic importance as a naval base for the protection of the Empire against the menace of sea-bourne attacks by savage raiders from the west and north.
Little is known of the castle during the centuries that followed the Roman departure. Perhaps for long periods, the raiders from the sea made it untenable. The native princes of Glamorgan based themselves about a mile to the north and the ruined fort waited - for a new army of occupation.
Normans 1091 - 1216
Robert Fitzhamon, the Norman Lord of Gloucester, drawn into the quarrels of the Welsh princes, defeated Iestyn ap Gwrgan, Prince of Glamorgan, in 1091. He saw the strategic value of the site of the old Roman fort and built his Norman castle here.
The Normans concentrated their defensive works into the western half of the site, which became the 'inner' ward. At the northern end of this part, Fitzhamon built a 'motte', or mound, 40 feet high and surrounded it by a moat. This Keep, or strong-point, was surmounted by a timber stockade giving shelter and protection to the wooden buildings which housed the lord, his household and his garrison.
Robert Fitzhamon died of wounds received in battle in 1107, and some years later his daughter and heiress, Mabel, married Robert, the natural son of King Henry I of England. King Henry raised Robert to the Earldom of Gloucester, and made him Lord of Glamorgan, in 1122. The Earl or 'Consul' of Gloucester dominated the political scene in England after the death of his father and during the long and bitter struggle for the throne between Matilda and Stephen. It was 'Robert the Consul', lauded on all sides as a brave soldier, wise statesman and patron of the arts, who is credited with having built the first stone keep of Cardiff Castle. At King Henry's request, in this keep he imprisoned another Robert - the second Duke of Normandy and his father's older brother - from 1126 until Robert of Normandy's death in 1134.
Robert 'The Consul' died in 1147, to be succeeded by his son William. William, as soldier and statesman, was by no means of the calibre of his renowned father. When he died without male heir in 1183, the lordship passed to Prince (later King) John through John's marriage to Isabel, William's daughter. John divorced Isabel but retained the lordship until her second marriage; to the Earl of Essex's death in 1216 the lordship passed to Gilbert de Clare, son of Isabel's sister, Amicia, and the descendant of a noble family which claimed kinship with William the Conqueror.
The Clares 1216 - 1306 AD
The first Gilbert de Clare is principally remembered as one of the barons of the Magna Carta; he died in 1230, leaving his son, Richard, as his heir. Richard, who was only 8 years old at he death of his father, was left in the unenviable position of having to carry on his father's feud with Morgan Gam, a grandson of Ifor Bach, the scourge of Count William. On coming of age in 1243 he tightened his father's hold on the Welsh lords in the uplands and on the fringes of Glamorgan.
An almost unbroken period of military success was enjoyed by the Welsh prince Llewelyn ap Gruffydd ('Llewelyn the Last') from 1256 until 1274. Most of the native Welsh princes were obliged to transfer their allegiances from the king to him, and he mounted raids of unbridled ferocity into South Wales. Only four years after he inherited his father's estate he started to build Caerphilly Castle in order to defend the northern approaches to his lands.
The ever-present threat of attack on the castle at Cardiff, the administrative centre for the whole of the Glamorgan lordship, caused him to reconstruct its defences with a great sense of urgency. He constructed a central embattled wall to link the improved keep (remodelled for the better accommodation of the household) with the south gate and the Black Tower. On the east side of the embattled wall (the outer ward) were now provided permanent lodgings for the knights of Glamorgan and their grooms and men-at-arms, during their periods of garrison duty.
Gilbert died in 1295 and left a son of the same name. When his mother Joan died, Gilbert the younger was still under age but inherited the lordship. What little we know of this new lord reflects well on his dealings with his neighbouring Welsh princes, but he fell in battle at Bannockburn in 1314 at the age of 23. The lordship passed to his sister Elizabeth, who had married Hugh Despenser in 1306. This Hugh Despenser was the first of the family which was to retain the lordship for nearly a hundred years.
The Despensers 1306 - 1411 AD
The new lords wrote a sordid chapter in the history of the castle.
On the death of the young Gilbert de Clare in 1314, Glamorgan and Cardiff passed for a while into royal custody, and during the period when Pain de Tuberville, Lord of Coity, served as 'custos' all Welshmen were removed from office. These included Llewelyn Bren, a great-grandson of Ifor Bach and a good friend of the last young lord.
Edward II's estranged wife Isabella (the 'She-wolf of France') returned from France in 1326 and directed her army against her husband's favourites. Edward and Hugh Despenser fled for refuge to Glamorgan but were captured some 10 miles to the west of the castle. Edward was eventually taken to Berkley Castle in Gloucestershire and they were foully murdered in 1327. Retribution against the Despensers came more swiftly; Hugh was hanged at Hereford in 1326, one of the charges against him was that of the murder of Llewelyn Bren. His father was hanged without even the benefit of trial at Bristol.
Two years after the execution of Hugh Despenser, his widow married again, but on her death in 1337 her son, Hugh Despenser II succeeded to the lordship. This Hugh's death saw his nephew Edward come into possession of Cardiff Castle in 1394.
The Welsh rebellion of Owain Glyndwr broke out in the year 1400, and 4 years later Owain broke through the west gate of Cardiff and set fire to the town. The ferocity of the attack was in some measure due to the hatred still felt by the Welsh against the Despensers for the murder of Llewelyn Bren in 1317. The only place spared was the monastery of the Grey Friars, who had given a Christian burial to Llewelyn's body.
Richard Despenser died in 1414 whilst still a ward of King Henry V (Harry of Monmouth). Richard's sister Isabel had married Richard Beauchamp, Lord Abergavenny, in 1411, whilst still being only eleven years old. On her brother's death her husband succeeded to the Lordship of Cardiff in her right.
The Beauchamps 1411 - 1445 AD
Richard Beauchamp survived only 8 years after succeeding to the lordship; he died in 1422, a year after being created Earl of Worcester. A year later his widow, Isabel, still only 23 years old, married his kinsman of the same name - Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick. Warwick had been a trusted counsellor of King Henry V, who had appointed him, on his deathbed in 1422, to be governor of his infant son, King Henry VI.
The final defeat of Owain Glyndwr, of whom no more had been heard since 1412, and the failure of the Welsh to mount a further offensive, saw the prospect of peace in Glamorgan, and Isabel's second husband now prepared to move from the safety of the Keep, embarking upon the construction of new lodgings against the West Curtain Wall.
In 1428 Richard Beauchamp took formal charge of the infant King Henry's education. He took him to France in 1430, and while at Rouen superintended the trial of Joan of Arc. When the king came of age in 1437 he chose his tutor to be governor of Normandy and it was there that Richard died in 1439. Isabel died the same year, and they left a daughter, Ann, and a son, Henry, who was shown extraordinary marks of favour by King Henry VI, who made him Premier Earl of the Realm and Duke of Warwick in 1444. When the young lord died in 1445, however, the male line of the Warwick Beauchamps became extinct, as did the earldom on the death of his infant daughter Ann (his only child) five years later.
The Nevilles 1445 - 1483 AD
Richard Beauchamp's vast inheritance now passed to his sister Ann. Ann had married Richard Neville, eldest son of the Earl of Salisbury, who had been betrothed to her at the age of seven. The new Lord of Cardiff was created Earl of Warwick in 1450, when he became of age, and entered politics two years later, declaring his support for Richard of York against Henry VI (who had greatly honoured his wife's family) in 1455.
'Warwick the King-maker', as he was later to be known, was ambitious to rule the country under a weak king, and he was, in part, successful. He played one king (Henry VI, the Lancastrian) against the other (Edward IV, the Yorkist) with some effect, but eventually he was killed in battle in 1471. His puppet, Henry VI, died, murdered, the same year.
Richard Neville had two daughters. The elder, Isabel, married George, Duke of Clarence (and younger brother of King Edward IV) in 1469, and he seems to have come into the Lordship of Cardiff by right of his wife when his father-in-law was killed. Isabel died in 1476, and the same year Edward IV imprisoned his brother Clarence on suspicion of having plotted to seize the crown. Sentenced to death, Clarence was killed secretly in the Tower of London in 1478, it being popularly supposed that he was done away with by being drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.
Richard Neville's younger daughter, Ann had been married in 1472 to Richard, Duke of Gloucester (afterwards King Richard III) who succeeded to the Lordship of Cardiff on the death of his brother Clarence. Richard of Gloucester usurped the throne in 1483 and soon afterwards the rightful heirs, the young children of his brother Edward IV, were murdered in the Tower of London.
The Tudors 1485 - 1550 AD
In 1485 Henry Tudor, the head of the house of Lancaster, landed at Milford Haven. He marched to Bosworth Field, and there defeated and killed Richard III. Richard's queen, Ann Neville, had died five months previously.
It was not expected that the vast Neville estates, by now merged in those of the Crown, should be allowed to revert to the Neville family, and Henry Tudor (now King Henry VII) gave the Lordship of Cardiff to Jasper Tudor in 1486. Jasper was Henry's cousin who protected the future king during the first eleven years of Henry's life, and had fled with him to seek sanctuary in Brittany during the rampaging hey-day of the Yorkists.
Ann Beauchamp, widow of Warwick the Kingmaker, had been deprived of any claim to the Beauchamp estates by an act of Edward IV after her husband's death in 1471, and had seen them through the hands of her sons-in-law Clarence and Richard III. She now made the last Beauchamp bid for the lordship of Cardiff. In this she was successful, but her triumph was short-lived, for we hear of her abrogation of all claims in favour of the king 1487, and a year later Jasper was once more granted possession by his nephew. With this, the name of Beauchamp disappeared from the castle's history.
On Jasper's death in 1495 the lordship reverted to the crown and the castle remained in royal hands through the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. In 1550 Edward VI granted possession to William Herbert.
The Herberts 1550 - 1766 AD
William Herbert, the first of that name to be Lord of Cardiff, was a man of great national importance. His father, 'Black' Sir Richard Herbert, was the illegitimate son of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke of the first creation, who had been executed after the battle of Hedgecote in 1469.
William Herbert of Cardiff Castle was described in his youth as a 'mad fighting fellow'. He entered the service of the influential Charles Somerset, a staunch supporter of Henry Tudor, who married William's cousin, Elizabeth Herbert. Through his patron's influence William gained preferment at the court of Henry VIII, and his position was enhanced when Henry married his sister-in-law Catherine Parr, the king's sixth wife and the only one to survive him.
Through the good offices of the king, William acquired much property in South Wales, and was given the rare privilege of keeping his own armed retainers. When Henry VIII died in 1547, William, one of the king's executors, became one of the young King Edward VI's governors, and held other very high offices under the crown. He was created Baron Herbert of Cardiff and Earl of Pembroke in 1551.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 saw Cardiff Castle in the hands of an earl whose sympathies lay with the 'rebels', whilst the allegiance of most of the gentry of Glamorgan was for the king. The then king, Charles, sent the Marquis of Hertford to take the castle, and it remained under the occupation of a royalist garrison for the greater part of the war.
Two years after Philip Herbert, the fourth earl, died in 1650, to be succeeded by his son of the same name, work started on the repairs to the castle made necessary by the damage suffered during the Civil War.
Philip, on his death in 1669 was succeeded in the lordship by three sons in succession; William, the 6th earl, who died in 1674, Philip the 7th earl, a homicidal dipsomaniac who died in 1683 and during whose tenure Saint John Lloyd and Saint Philip Evans were imprisoned in the Black Tower and then hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason as Catholic recusants in 1679, and Thomas, the 8th earl, who died in 1733.
What was left of the Herbert estates in Glamorgan had passed to Thomas, 1st Viscount Windsor on his marriage to Charlotte Herbert, daughter and heiress of Philip, the 7th earl, in 1703.
The Glamorgan lands, and Cardiff Castle, were conveyed in 1766 through the 1st viscount's granddaughter, Charlotte Jane to her husband, John Stuart. He was the heir of George III's prime minister, the Earl of Bute, and he was created Baron Cardiff of Cardiff Castle in 1776.
The Butes 1766 - 1947 AD
The lordship was to be held by the Bute family, until 1947, when the Castle was given to the City of Cardiff. The Bute family brought power and prosperity to Cardiff, which they turned from a sleepy backwater into one of the greatest coal exporting ports in the world. They transformed the Castle into the gothic fantasy we see today, as well as exploiting the Castle's Roman past
In the 1770's, 'Capability' Brown and his son-in-law, Henry Holland embarked upon an ambitious plan to landscape the grounds and modernise the lodgings. Brown cleared away the Lodgings of the Norman Knights and the Shire Hall, from the green. Brown stripped the Keep of its ivy and cut down all the trees growing on the ancient mound. He also filled in the moat.
Holland remodelled 16th century Herbert additions and rebuilt to the north and south of the hall, the greater and lesser wings. The Great Hall was partitioned off into a new Entrance Hall, a Library and a Dining Room. Above the Hall, the bedrooms were modernised and given such names as the Red Room, the Velvet Room etc...
In 1814, John Stuart 1st Marquess of Bute died. The Lordship passed to his grandson, John Stuart 2nd Marquess of Bute, 'The Founder of Modern Cardiff,' and during the 1820's the Castle underwent further restoration
In March 1848, the Marquess was found dead. His son and heir, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute - destined to become one of the greatest private patrons of architecture this country has seen - was only six months old.
In 1865 Lord Bute invited architect William Burges to present a report on the state of the Castle; it was the beginning of a momentous partnership that was to last for sixteen years, and Cardiff Castle was to be transformed into a Neo Gothic dream palace.
Burges brought together a group of young men who were to work with him throughout the restoration of Cardiff Castle. Lord Bute called in distinguished local historians and he assisted with tracing the history of the Castle. He ordered the setting up of the Bute Workshops and employed the finest Welsh craftsmen.
Work started after Bute's workmen pulled down the houses built against the South Curtain Wall. Burges restored the stonework, and he added a covered parapet walk with embrasures and arrow slits. The Clock Tower was built on the site of a Roman bastion and completed in 1875.
In 1872 Lord Bute married the Hon.Gwendolen Fitzalan Howard, one of the beauties of the time. Burges decorated her rooms with silk hangings, which Lord Bute chose for his bride.
Work continued with the building of the Bute Tower, Herbert Tower, Guest Tower and Tank Tower. The 15th century Octagon Tower was restored with the addition of a timber fleche or spire above the battlements. Burges built the new Library and the Banqueting Hall on the site of the old medieval hall.
When Burges died in 1881, his work was continued by his former assistant William Frame. Frame built the Animal Wall and was responsible for restoring the North Gate, which it is said he based upon a variety of ancient sources, including Trajan's Column in Rome.
The 3rd Marquess died in 1900. His son, the 4th Marquess, continued to restore the Castle Walls and in the period 1922-5 oversaw the reconstruction of the Roman Wall to Duke Street, as well as the building of the Barbican Tower. A new entrance hall to the castle was added in 1927.
Cardiff Castle largely escaped enemy action during the 2nd World War, although two adjacent lodges were destroyed.
In 1947 the Castle was given to the people of Cardiff by the 5th Marquess of Bute.
***~***
The text was taken from: Cardiff Castle's official site, but the photo was taken by Karen (AKA my Mam) during our trip to Cardiff on Tuesday June 2nd 2009. We didn't actually go in to the castle, but we passed it, so Mam snapped a photo for me to post.
Tori
Monday, June 08, 2009
Boyzone concert
As most - if not all - of you know, last Tuesday (June 2nd 2009) Mam and I went to Cardiff to see Boyzone in concert. Boyzone are a band I followed from when they first formed (which, I think, was in 1993). They seporated for a while, but got back together near the end of last year. I've always wanted to see them, so Kelly brought tickets for me and Mam to go see them as an anniversary present to me. The tickets are pictured above.
Pictured above is the t-shirt Mam brought. Below is Mam modeling the one I brought. I had the camera, and I couldn't be bothered to get up, so I took the photos, Mam posed.
Anyway, we spent the day in Cardiff, then went to the concert. We had fantastic seats, since they moved us so I didn't have to do the steps, and we ended up riding in a lift and sitting up on the balcony beside the camera men that were filming the concert (I'm assuming they were filming it for a video to be released of the concert). And here are the photos Mam took.
And, last but not least...
Yes, we enjoyed. We were exhausted by the time we got home though, because we'd been in Cardiff all day, and only got home about 1:00 am Wednesday morning. But it was a fantastic day, and an awesome concert... Well worth the 16 year wait to see it. ;)
Tori
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Knees and a birthday
Today is my Grandma's birthday. So a very happy birthday to her. :)
***~***
I don't know if there's something in the air, but I can name three people with knee injuries at the moment. One of them many of you will know about, because many of you read her blog. I'm talking, of course, about MarmiteToasty who is currently in hospital having yet another knee operation. I've been keeping in touch with her, and she's not doing too great, so I'm sure she would appreciate any positive thoughts, prayers, etc, that you can send her way for a speedy recovery.
The second person is my Nan. No, not my Grandma, my Nan (Grandma is Mam's mother, Nan is Dad's mother). Anyway, Nan tripped about a week and a half ago, and landed on her knee. It was all swollen and painful, but she was reluctant to get it checked. By the time she did - which wasn't until this past Thursday - it had somehow gotten infected. So Nan is now on anti-biotics to clear up the infection.
And the third person? That would be me. :(
I've fallen and landed on my knee a few times over the past months, so when I slipped and my knee tried to bend the wrong way Monday night, I didn't think too much about it. Yeah, it hurt like hell, but... *Shrugs*... I'm not exactly a stranger to pain. So, I went ahead and walked around Cardiff all day Tuesday, and by the time I got home it was even worse. I figured though that if I rested it for a day or two it would be fine. Nope! Friday rolled around and it was still killing me, so I figured I better get it checked. To cut a long story short, they thought I might have either broken it or ended up with a blood clot in my leg (because of where the pain was at it's worst). Turns out I tore the tendons in my knee. Well, it could have been worse... It could have been one of the first two options. Anyway, I'm on pain killers, and under strict instructions to rest the knee and keep it up as much as possible, but to try and use it as normally as possible when I need to walk about. That's why I wasn't on the blogs at all yesterday, and why I wont be on them much for a few days.
The swelling's gone down a lot, but it's still quite painful. :(
Hope the rest of you are in better shape.
Tori
***~***
I don't know if there's something in the air, but I can name three people with knee injuries at the moment. One of them many of you will know about, because many of you read her blog. I'm talking, of course, about MarmiteToasty who is currently in hospital having yet another knee operation. I've been keeping in touch with her, and she's not doing too great, so I'm sure she would appreciate any positive thoughts, prayers, etc, that you can send her way for a speedy recovery.
The second person is my Nan. No, not my Grandma, my Nan (Grandma is Mam's mother, Nan is Dad's mother). Anyway, Nan tripped about a week and a half ago, and landed on her knee. It was all swollen and painful, but she was reluctant to get it checked. By the time she did - which wasn't until this past Thursday - it had somehow gotten infected. So Nan is now on anti-biotics to clear up the infection.
And the third person? That would be me. :(
I've fallen and landed on my knee a few times over the past months, so when I slipped and my knee tried to bend the wrong way Monday night, I didn't think too much about it. Yeah, it hurt like hell, but... *Shrugs*... I'm not exactly a stranger to pain. So, I went ahead and walked around Cardiff all day Tuesday, and by the time I got home it was even worse. I figured though that if I rested it for a day or two it would be fine. Nope! Friday rolled around and it was still killing me, so I figured I better get it checked. To cut a long story short, they thought I might have either broken it or ended up with a blood clot in my leg (because of where the pain was at it's worst). Turns out I tore the tendons in my knee. Well, it could have been worse... It could have been one of the first two options. Anyway, I'm on pain killers, and under strict instructions to rest the knee and keep it up as much as possible, but to try and use it as normally as possible when I need to walk about. That's why I wasn't on the blogs at all yesterday, and why I wont be on them much for a few days.
The swelling's gone down a lot, but it's still quite painful. :(
Hope the rest of you are in better shape.
Tori
Friday, June 05, 2009
Kero's Korner: Why do they keep going?
Hello humans, Kero here.
It's been really hot lately, so I haven't done much. I'm really glad I recently had my fur cut.
I've spent a lot of time sunbathing, laying in the shade, and watching for my humans out of the living room window, because they keep going places they say I'm not allowed to go to.
Why do the humans keep going places without me? It's not fair! I like to go on outings too!
Mami went for a very long outing a few days ago. She left at breakfast time, and she didn't come home until bed time. I was SO relieved when she came home safely. I was starting to think she might not be coming back, or that she'd had to go to that place called "hospital" where she kept going last year again. But she didn't smell of that place, and she brought a teddy home with her, so it couldn't have been that place. She told me it was a place called "Cardiff" and that she was seeing someone called "Boyzone" there. I'm not sure where that is or who Boyzone is though. All I know is that she had a good time, and she says she'll sort out a post about it once Mamgu has had a chance to sort out the photos for her. She's hoping to do the post this weekend.
Speaking of photos, thank you Iggy human for helping me to sort out the photo for this post.
Licks and sniffs,
Kero
It's been really hot lately, so I haven't done much. I'm really glad I recently had my fur cut.
I've spent a lot of time sunbathing, laying in the shade, and watching for my humans out of the living room window, because they keep going places they say I'm not allowed to go to.
Why do the humans keep going places without me? It's not fair! I like to go on outings too!
Mami went for a very long outing a few days ago. She left at breakfast time, and she didn't come home until bed time. I was SO relieved when she came home safely. I was starting to think she might not be coming back, or that she'd had to go to that place called "hospital" where she kept going last year again. But she didn't smell of that place, and she brought a teddy home with her, so it couldn't have been that place. She told me it was a place called "Cardiff" and that she was seeing someone called "Boyzone" there. I'm not sure where that is or who Boyzone is though. All I know is that she had a good time, and she says she'll sort out a post about it once Mamgu has had a chance to sort out the photos for her. She's hoping to do the post this weekend.
Speaking of photos, thank you Iggy human for helping me to sort out the photo for this post.
Licks and sniffs,
Kero
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Nintendo Wii part 2
I followed the link Iggy posted in the comments section of my Nintendo Wii post and sent the following message to Nintendo:
"I would firstly like to congratulate you on how close you have come to producing a games console that can be used by those with visual impairments. I myself am blind, having lost what sight I previously had due to Congenital Glaucoma, and am missing the game play I used to enjoy before my sight loss.
Due to how close you have come to making a games console that's accessable to people like myself - and due to the fact I've always been a fan of the Nintendo games consoles - I thought I would share with you my idea on the one thing you need to do in order to make the games accessable to those of us with vision problems. Something that, I'm sure, you are more than capable of achieving.
The solution is simple. Using the software that allows certain games to speak text as it appears on the screen, you need to make the menu accessable. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the way a screen reader on a PC works, but it reads out the item on the menu that is currently selected. If you combine this idea with the interaction provided with the Wii, I feel confident that you could - in the not too distant future - produce a games console that people like myself can play."
A day or so later, I got the following reply:
"Hello,
We appreciate hearing about the types of products that you would like to see from us in the future. While there hasn't been an announcement concerning a product like you describe , you never know what the future holds! As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, and because of our history of pushing the limits of gameplay and design, you can always count on Nintendo offering the most imaginative products.
In the meantime, keep checking our website's "What’s New" section (http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew) for the latest information and announcements.
Sincerely,
Nintendo of America Inc."
Hey, at least they didn't just reject my idea and tell me I'm an idiot. ;)
Tori
"I would firstly like to congratulate you on how close you have come to producing a games console that can be used by those with visual impairments. I myself am blind, having lost what sight I previously had due to Congenital Glaucoma, and am missing the game play I used to enjoy before my sight loss.
Due to how close you have come to making a games console that's accessable to people like myself - and due to the fact I've always been a fan of the Nintendo games consoles - I thought I would share with you my idea on the one thing you need to do in order to make the games accessable to those of us with vision problems. Something that, I'm sure, you are more than capable of achieving.
The solution is simple. Using the software that allows certain games to speak text as it appears on the screen, you need to make the menu accessable. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the way a screen reader on a PC works, but it reads out the item on the menu that is currently selected. If you combine this idea with the interaction provided with the Wii, I feel confident that you could - in the not too distant future - produce a games console that people like myself can play."
A day or so later, I got the following reply:
"Hello,
We appreciate hearing about the types of products that you would like to see from us in the future. While there hasn't been an announcement concerning a product like you describe , you never know what the future holds! As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, and because of our history of pushing the limits of gameplay and design, you can always count on Nintendo offering the most imaginative products.
In the meantime, keep checking our website's "What’s New" section (http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew) for the latest information and announcements.
Sincerely,
Nintendo of America Inc."
Hey, at least they didn't just reject my idea and tell me I'm an idiot. ;)
Tori
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The stuff I'm growing (technically FD)
Thought I would get Kelly to take new photos of my plants while he had the camera out to take a photo of the blanket when I finished it over the weekend. Firstly, my beans. They seem to be doing "OK" but we're pretty sure something is trying to eat the plants. They're hanging in there though.
And here's a couple of the other stuff... Sunflowers, Lavender, carrots and little tomato plant seedlings. The carrots and tomatoes will soon be getting moved in to bigger pots.Tori
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Blanket is done! :)
I've finished the blanket... Finally! :)
It took longer than I'd hoped, but I did enjoy doing it. I've already started my next project. I'm making the little dinosaur teddy Jackie asked me to make for her Grandson, Lucas.
I wont be doing my craft updates weekly any more. I'll be doing them monthly instead. I'll be doing the posts around the end of the month. I figure doing it that way I shouldn't have so many, "just to let you know I'm still knitting," type posts. ;)
Enjoy your day! :)
I'm sure I'll enjoy mine... The Boyzone concert is tonight! *Grins*
Tori
Monday, June 01, 2009
Kero's Korner: Kero turns 5 (FD)
Hello humans.
Sorry my post is late, but I've been waiting for the humans to sort out my birthday photos to post in it. I mean, I couldn't tell you about my birthday and not show you the photos of me that Dadi took on the day, could I? Especially when I know how much you all love to see photos of me. So, Mami said I could come and write a post today instead. Mind you, I'd have probably done it anyway, but it's easier when the humans suggest it, because then I don't have to be so sneaky. Plus, they then think they've done a good and clever thing. My humans like being made to feel that way. Anyway, on to my birthday...
For those who don't know, it was my birthday on May 23rd, and I was five years old. That's a big number... A full set of doggy paws and a tail... I really am growing up now. *Smiles proudly*
Anyway... I had two birthday cards (not pictured). And a few presents. My presents were:
A new brush (not pictured, but very much needed, since my old one was from when I was a puppy)
A teddy bear with a hoody on
A toy that's a ccross between a teddy and a rope tuggy
A rawhide shoe (also not pictured)
I also got to have some of the chicken Dadi had delivered to the door for their anniversary dinner. OK, so I had that a day early, but they gave me more than I usually get as a special birthday treat. Since they were doing that I didn't think I should mention my birthday wasn't until the following day. I mean, what if they took back some of the chicken? That would have been awful! I couldn't risk that happening, could I?
OK, so, here are the photos Dadi took of me with my new toys.
All in all, it was a pretty good birthday!
Mami says to tell you all that she's sorry if she looks a mess in any photos she's in. She hadn't been awake long when they were taken, and hadn't even had time to brush her hair etc. I'm not sure why humans care so much about their appearances, but I promised I'd pass on her message. So, there, I did it.
Licks and sniffs,
Kero
Sorry my post is late, but I've been waiting for the humans to sort out my birthday photos to post in it. I mean, I couldn't tell you about my birthday and not show you the photos of me that Dadi took on the day, could I? Especially when I know how much you all love to see photos of me. So, Mami said I could come and write a post today instead. Mind you, I'd have probably done it anyway, but it's easier when the humans suggest it, because then I don't have to be so sneaky. Plus, they then think they've done a good and clever thing. My humans like being made to feel that way. Anyway, on to my birthday...
For those who don't know, it was my birthday on May 23rd, and I was five years old. That's a big number... A full set of doggy paws and a tail... I really am growing up now. *Smiles proudly*
Anyway... I had two birthday cards (not pictured). And a few presents. My presents were:
A new brush (not pictured, but very much needed, since my old one was from when I was a puppy)
A teddy bear with a hoody on
A toy that's a ccross between a teddy and a rope tuggy
A rawhide shoe (also not pictured)
I also got to have some of the chicken Dadi had delivered to the door for their anniversary dinner. OK, so I had that a day early, but they gave me more than I usually get as a special birthday treat. Since they were doing that I didn't think I should mention my birthday wasn't until the following day. I mean, what if they took back some of the chicken? That would have been awful! I couldn't risk that happening, could I?
OK, so, here are the photos Dadi took of me with my new toys.
All in all, it was a pretty good birthday!
Mami says to tell you all that she's sorry if she looks a mess in any photos she's in. She hadn't been awake long when they were taken, and hadn't even had time to brush her hair etc. I'm not sure why humans care so much about their appearances, but I promised I'd pass on her message. So, there, I did it.
Licks and sniffs,
Kero
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday Share: Black hole blazer
Clara MoskowitzStaff WriterSPACE.com
– Tue Apr 14, 12:45 pm ET
A jet of gas spewing from a huge black hole has mysteriously brightened, flaring to 90 times its normal glow.
For seven years the Hubble Space Telescope has been watching the jet, which pours out of the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy. It has photographed the strange phenomenon fading and then brightening, with a peak that even outshines M87's brilliant core.
Scientists have dubbed the enigmatic bright blob HST-1, and are so far at a loss to explain its weird behavior.
"I did not expect the jet in M87 or any other jet powered by accretion onto a black hole to increase in brightness in the way that this jet does," said astronomer Juan Madrid of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who conducted the Hubble study. "It grew 90 times brighter than normal. But the question is, does this happen to every single jet or active nucleus, or are we seeing some odd behavior from M87?"
Many supermassive black holes have jets of material that spray out perpendicularly from the donut-shaped ring of matter falling onto the black hole. These beams of hot gas are thought to result from magnetic field lines that are twisted by the black hole's mass, and propel charged particles outward.
But most rays do not appear to blaze up with such extreme intensity as HST-1. Scientists aren't sure if it is an exceptional case, or if it represents a normal event for black hole jets, which are still not very well understood. In this case, the bright knot of HST-1 is about 214 light-years from the M87 galaxy's core
To learn more about this bizarre light show, Madrid analyzed the seven years' worth of Hubble images of the jet in ultraviolet light to capture changes in HST-1's behavior over time. He also compared the Hubble data to photos of the jet taken in X-rays by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and in radio by other telescopes.
Madrid found that between 1999 and 2005, the blob continually brightened. By May 2005, HST-1 was 90 times brighter than it was in 1999. After that, it seemed to fade, and then intensified again in November 2006.
"By watching the outburst over several years, I was able to follow the brightness and see the evolution of the flare over time," Madrid says. "We are lucky to have telescopes like Hubble and Chandra, because without them we would see the increase in brightness in the core of M87, but we would not know where it was coming from."
More data will be needed to solve the mystery of why HST-1 acts the way it does.
"We hope the observations will yield some theories that will give us some good explanations as to the mechanism that is causing the flaring," Madrid says. "Astronomers would like to know if this is an intrinsic instability of the jet when it plows its way out of the galaxy, or if it is something else."
This strange case could provide a unique opportunity to learn more about black hole jets in distant galaxies, which are difficult to study because they are so far away. M87 is located 54 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster.
Madrid's study is detailed in the April 2009 issue of the Astronomical Journal.
VIDEO: Black Hole Blazar Jets
VIDEO: Black Holes - Warpers of Time and Space
All About Black Holes
Original Story: Black Hole Creates Spectacular Light Show
– Tue Apr 14, 12:45 pm ET
A jet of gas spewing from a huge black hole has mysteriously brightened, flaring to 90 times its normal glow.
For seven years the Hubble Space Telescope has been watching the jet, which pours out of the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy. It has photographed the strange phenomenon fading and then brightening, with a peak that even outshines M87's brilliant core.
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Scientists have dubbed the enigmatic bright blob HST-1, and are so far at a loss to explain its weird behavior.
"I did not expect the jet in M87 or any other jet powered by accretion onto a black hole to increase in brightness in the way that this jet does," said astronomer Juan Madrid of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who conducted the Hubble study. "It grew 90 times brighter than normal. But the question is, does this happen to every single jet or active nucleus, or are we seeing some odd behavior from M87?"
Many supermassive black holes have jets of material that spray out perpendicularly from the donut-shaped ring of matter falling onto the black hole. These beams of hot gas are thought to result from magnetic field lines that are twisted by the black hole's mass, and propel charged particles outward.
But most rays do not appear to blaze up with such extreme intensity as HST-1. Scientists aren't sure if it is an exceptional case, or if it represents a normal event for black hole jets, which are still not very well understood. In this case, the bright knot of HST-1 is about 214 light-years from the M87 galaxy's core
To learn more about this bizarre light show, Madrid analyzed the seven years' worth of Hubble images of the jet in ultraviolet light to capture changes in HST-1's behavior over time. He also compared the Hubble data to photos of the jet taken in X-rays by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and in radio by other telescopes.
Madrid found that between 1999 and 2005, the blob continually brightened. By May 2005, HST-1 was 90 times brighter than it was in 1999. After that, it seemed to fade, and then intensified again in November 2006.
"By watching the outburst over several years, I was able to follow the brightness and see the evolution of the flare over time," Madrid says. "We are lucky to have telescopes like Hubble and Chandra, because without them we would see the increase in brightness in the core of M87, but we would not know where it was coming from."
More data will be needed to solve the mystery of why HST-1 acts the way it does.
"We hope the observations will yield some theories that will give us some good explanations as to the mechanism that is causing the flaring," Madrid says. "Astronomers would like to know if this is an intrinsic instability of the jet when it plows its way out of the galaxy, or if it is something else."
This strange case could provide a unique opportunity to learn more about black hole jets in distant galaxies, which are difficult to study because they are so far away. M87 is located 54 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster.
Madrid's study is detailed in the April 2009 issue of the Astronomical Journal.
VIDEO: Black Hole Blazar Jets
VIDEO: Black Holes - Warpers of Time and Space
All About Black Holes
Original Story: Black Hole Creates Spectacular Light Show
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Article: Giant UK telescope
Giant UK telescope gets upgrade
By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor
The giant Lovell Telescope is at Merlin's hubWork has started to use optical fibres to link up the giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank with five others that are scattered across England.
The telescopes comprise an array called Merlin that combines the data from each so they perform as a larger telescope.
The telescopes are currently linked by microwaves but replacing them with optical fibres will be a revolution.
The new project, e-Merlin, will be a massive leap in Jodrell's ability to look out into space, astronomers say.
Seeing the light
Connecting the array of radio telescopes with optical fibres will transform what is already a world-class facility.
"Merlin is the first to be making this leap forward with optical fibres," says its director Professor Phil Diamond.
The interconnected array of radio telescopes - Merlin stands for Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interfometer Network - centred on the Cheshire observatory has been a remarkable scientific success.
Since 1980, it has provided detailed images of objects ranging from the closest stars to the most distant objects in the Universe.
Merlin's scattered telescopes.It is the only instrument observing radio waves that is able to routinely provide images comparable in detail to those obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.
But Jodrell Bank astronomers were aware that Merlin's full capabilities had not been reached so they devised e-Merlin.
Currently, each telescope in the Merlin array sends back its data to Jodrell Bank using microwaves which are able to carry just 0.5% of the signals collected by each telescope.
"With optical fibres, it will be possible to use 100% of the data from each telescope, and that will give us a much deeper view of the Universe," says Dr Simon Garrington, e-Merlin's project manager.
When fully operational, each telescope will be producing as much data as the entire UK public internet.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark e-Merlin's launch, Jodrell Bank's director, Professor Andrew Lyne, said that the expected increase in sensitivity of the array by a factor of 30 would open a new door on the Universe.
Via Peterborough and Birmingham
The communications company Global Crossing Europe are providing the backbone of the optical connections based on its extensive network running alongside railway lines and roads.
About 90km of new fibre will be laid to link the radio telescopes to the existing optical trunking.
The Merlin telescope at Cambridge will have an optical fibre that will follow the road network to Peterborough, Nottingham and then to Birmingham.
A Merlin view of an active galaxy some 10 million light-years awayThe two Merlin telescopes at Defford and Knockin in the south of England will also send their data to Birmingham where they will be combined with the Cambridge data to be piped up to Jodrell Bank.
The system will become operational in 2007 when Jodrell Bank will find itself at the centre of an unprecedented barrage of astronomical data.
So much data, in fact, that today's computers could not cope. Jodrell's astronomers are designing the network for the faster computers that will be developed in years to come.
When it is complete, Merlin will be a transformed instrument.
"It is going to revolutionise the science we are going to be able to do," says Jodrell Bank astronomer Dr Tom Muxlow.
"With the new array we will be able to do in just one day's observations what would have taken us three years."
______
Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3749919.stm
By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor
The giant Lovell Telescope is at Merlin's hubWork has started to use optical fibres to link up the giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank with five others that are scattered across England.
The telescopes comprise an array called Merlin that combines the data from each so they perform as a larger telescope.
The telescopes are currently linked by microwaves but replacing them with optical fibres will be a revolution.
The new project, e-Merlin, will be a massive leap in Jodrell's ability to look out into space, astronomers say.
Seeing the light
Connecting the array of radio telescopes with optical fibres will transform what is already a world-class facility.
"Merlin is the first to be making this leap forward with optical fibres," says its director Professor Phil Diamond.
The interconnected array of radio telescopes - Merlin stands for Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interfometer Network - centred on the Cheshire observatory has been a remarkable scientific success.
Since 1980, it has provided detailed images of objects ranging from the closest stars to the most distant objects in the Universe.
Merlin's scattered telescopes.It is the only instrument observing radio waves that is able to routinely provide images comparable in detail to those obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.
But Jodrell Bank astronomers were aware that Merlin's full capabilities had not been reached so they devised e-Merlin.
Currently, each telescope in the Merlin array sends back its data to Jodrell Bank using microwaves which are able to carry just 0.5% of the signals collected by each telescope.
"With optical fibres, it will be possible to use 100% of the data from each telescope, and that will give us a much deeper view of the Universe," says Dr Simon Garrington, e-Merlin's project manager.
When fully operational, each telescope will be producing as much data as the entire UK public internet.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark e-Merlin's launch, Jodrell Bank's director, Professor Andrew Lyne, said that the expected increase in sensitivity of the array by a factor of 30 would open a new door on the Universe.
Via Peterborough and Birmingham
The communications company Global Crossing Europe are providing the backbone of the optical connections based on its extensive network running alongside railway lines and roads.
About 90km of new fibre will be laid to link the radio telescopes to the existing optical trunking.
The Merlin telescope at Cambridge will have an optical fibre that will follow the road network to Peterborough, Nottingham and then to Birmingham.
A Merlin view of an active galaxy some 10 million light-years awayThe two Merlin telescopes at Defford and Knockin in the south of England will also send their data to Birmingham where they will be combined with the Cambridge data to be piped up to Jodrell Bank.
The system will become operational in 2007 when Jodrell Bank will find itself at the centre of an unprecedented barrage of astronomical data.
So much data, in fact, that today's computers could not cope. Jodrell's astronomers are designing the network for the faster computers that will be developed in years to come.
When it is complete, Merlin will be a transformed instrument.
"It is going to revolutionise the science we are going to be able to do," says Jodrell Bank astronomer Dr Tom Muxlow.
"With the new array we will be able to do in just one day's observations what would have taken us three years."
______
Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3749919.stm
Friday, May 29, 2009
Recipe sites (FD)
As most of you know, I post recipes I find and like on my recipe page. But, there are often recipes that I don't like, so don't add. Or ones that I substitute ingredients in before posting them. So, I have decided to post a list of links to some of the recipe sites I have found... Just in case there were recipes on there that I didn't want to add to my page, but you might like to try. You may not find all the recipes that are on my page on these sites, because some come from family and friends rather than from websites. Anyway...
Some of these sites are general sites with all kinds of recipes on them, others are specifically for certain types of recipes (e.g. vegetarian recipes, or kid friendly recipes). There are also some recipe sites spacifically for the holidays. Yeah, I know the holidays are a long way off, but since I'm posting recipe sites... *Shrugs*... Well, I figured I might as well throw the Christmasy ones in there too. So... Enjoy!
***~***
All Recipes
The Food Network
MyRecipes.Com
VegCooking.Com
Great Vegetarian Recipes
KidsHealth.Org - Recipes
Recipes on Parenting.Com
Discovery Health's Kid Friendly Recipes
Christmas Recipes
Taste.Com.Au (An Australian Recipe Site)
Merry-Christmas Recipes
Puddings And Christmas Recipes
BBC - Food - Recipes
UK TV - Food
Cheap Cooking
***~***
Don't forget that you can experiment with recipes of your own too. Simply substituting an ingredient or two in a recipe can often create something unique and delicious. So, don't be afraid to experiment when you're cooking. You never know, you may invent something fantastically delicious! :)
Tori
P.S. Sorry to those who were expecting a post from Kero today, but you're seeing this post instead because I set it up to publish today in case we didn't get a chance to sort the photos required for Kero's post. Kero's post will be posted as soon as possible.
Some of these sites are general sites with all kinds of recipes on them, others are specifically for certain types of recipes (e.g. vegetarian recipes, or kid friendly recipes). There are also some recipe sites spacifically for the holidays. Yeah, I know the holidays are a long way off, but since I'm posting recipe sites... *Shrugs*... Well, I figured I might as well throw the Christmasy ones in there too. So... Enjoy!
***~***
All Recipes
The Food Network
MyRecipes.Com
VegCooking.Com
Great Vegetarian Recipes
KidsHealth.Org - Recipes
Recipes on Parenting.Com
Discovery Health's Kid Friendly Recipes
Christmas Recipes
Taste.Com.Au (An Australian Recipe Site)
Merry-Christmas Recipes
Puddings And Christmas Recipes
BBC - Food - Recipes
UK TV - Food
Cheap Cooking
***~***
Don't forget that you can experiment with recipes of your own too. Simply substituting an ingredient or two in a recipe can often create something unique and delicious. So, don't be afraid to experiment when you're cooking. You never know, you may invent something fantastically delicious! :)
Tori
P.S. Sorry to those who were expecting a post from Kero today, but you're seeing this post instead because I set it up to publish today in case we didn't get a chance to sort the photos required for Kero's post. Kero's post will be posted as soon as possible.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Article: Pet airlines
'Bone voyage' as pets get airline
Friday, 17 April 2009
Dan Wiesel and Alysa Binder got the idea while travelling with their dog Zoe
A new airline scheduled to take off in the US fully expects its passengers to behave like animals.
On Pet Airways, of Delray Beach, Florida, all pets travel in the main cabin and owners are not allowed on board - not even in the cargo hold.
The airline claims to be the first designed specifically for the safe and comfortable transportation of pets.
Company founders Dan Wiesel and Alysa Binder say they got the idea while planning holidays with their pet dog.
'Handled as baggage'
"Currently, most pets travelling by air are transported in the cargo hold and are handled as baggage," said Mr Wiesel.
"The experience is frightening to the pets, and can cause severe emotional and physical harm, even death. This is not what most pet owners want to subject their pets to, but they have had no other choice, until now."
Seats are removed to make way for pet carriers
The airline has scheduled its first flight for cats and dogs for 14 July and will serve five US cities - New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.
Pets - or pawsengers, as the airline calls them - can be booked in online and are checked in to a Pet Lounge at the airport.
Pet attendants give the animals a "potty break" shortly before take-off and then monitor the animals during the flight.
Owners - or Pet Parents - can follow their travel progress using an online "pet tracker".
On its website, the airline promises never to leave a pet alone adding: "A pet attendant will always be within a cat's meow."
The flights will be made in 19-seat turbo-prop planes operated by Suburban Air Freight, which have their seats removed to make space for the pet carriers.
Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8004122.stm
(I think there are photos in the article, so you might want to go to the link and check them out).
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I will... Honest!
I will catch up on all your blog posts, honest! It's just that I haven't really even had the computer on much over the past few days (the posts for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were set up last week). Anyway, because of this I haven't visited anyone's blog. Sorry.
I've almost finished the blanket, so I want to do that before I do too much on the computer. I should be done in the next couple of days. When I'm done Kelly will take a photo and I'll post it for you. I'll also be sorting a post with photos of Kero we took on his birthday. Will post them and catch up on your blogs soon... Honest!
Enjoy whatever's left of your day! :)
Tori
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Nintendo Wii
I was recently thinking about how close Nintendo have come to making computer games accessable to those of us who currently find it difficult to find accessable games that keep our interest. Meaning - of course - those of us with vision problems. What prompted my musings on this subject was the Nintendo Wii (hence the title of this blog post).
I'm not sure how things technically work, but the Wii mimics your actions when you hold the special controler, allowing you to interact with the game. There's a certain amount of button pushing involved, but most of this is for menu navigation. And that's where the accessability for the blind becomes an issue. Not because of the buttons, but because of the menus. It's easy to remember which button is which - it has to be done for keyboards and TV remotes - and if you can't remember then there's always the option of bumpons or some sort of braille label. But the menus are the issue. Obviously, to navigate the menus and know what you have highlighted you need to be able to read the text.
But I know what they need to do to stop this being an issue... They need to develope some sort of in-game screen reader. Sort of like a game console version of my Jaws programme (though, cheaper would be preferable). Nothing fancy. Just something that reads out what you've highlighted on the menu. Sort of like how some racing games will speak the "3, 2, 1, Go!" thing when it comes up on the screen.
So, now all we need to do is find out how you go about getting in touch with Nintendo (or even some other computer manufacturer) so we can tell them what it is they need to do for their next games console. Like I said, Nintendo are half way there with the Wii.
Tori
I'm not sure how things technically work, but the Wii mimics your actions when you hold the special controler, allowing you to interact with the game. There's a certain amount of button pushing involved, but most of this is for menu navigation. And that's where the accessability for the blind becomes an issue. Not because of the buttons, but because of the menus. It's easy to remember which button is which - it has to be done for keyboards and TV remotes - and if you can't remember then there's always the option of bumpons or some sort of braille label. But the menus are the issue. Obviously, to navigate the menus and know what you have highlighted you need to be able to read the text.
But I know what they need to do to stop this being an issue... They need to develope some sort of in-game screen reader. Sort of like a game console version of my Jaws programme (though, cheaper would be preferable). Nothing fancy. Just something that reads out what you've highlighted on the menu. Sort of like how some racing games will speak the "3, 2, 1, Go!" thing when it comes up on the screen.
So, now all we need to do is find out how you go about getting in touch with Nintendo (or even some other computer manufacturer) so we can tell them what it is they need to do for their next games console. Like I said, Nintendo are half way there with the Wii.
Tori
Monday, May 25, 2009
May celebrations
I'm behind on May birthday and anniversary shout outs, so I just thought I would do a blog post to say, "happy birthday," and "happy anniversary," to people (and animals) who had something to celebrate this month. So, here are the special dates for May:
1st May - Emma's birthday (Emma is a family friend)
2nd May - Kelly's birthday
9th May - Elizabeth's birthday (Elizabeth is my honorarily adopted sister)
12th May - Pam's birthday (Pam is a friend of mine)
15th May - Mam and Dad's anniversary
16th May - Felix AKA Baby Cat's birthday (Baby is Mam's cat)
16th May - Rachel's birthday (Rachel is my Sister-In-Law)
17th May - Eleri's birthday (that's Eleri from upstairs)
18th May - Lainie's birthday (Lainie is a Blogger friend that many of you know too)
20th May - Deanna's birthday (Deanna/Punkn is another bloggy friend many of you know)
21st May - Keith's birthday (Keith is Kelly's uncle)
22nd May - Mine and Kelly's anniversary
23rd May - Kero's birthday
25th May - Sir Ian Mckellen's birthday (you know who he is, right?)
30th May - Bev's birthday (she's my aunt)
30th May - Phillip's birthday (he's my uncle)
Also, Melissa had a birthday some time around mid May... I think it was around the 16th? So, happy birthday to her too. And, either May 16th or May 17th (I don't remember which) was Jewelz's son Austin's birthday, so happy birthday to him too. :)
And, a very happy birthday to any other May babies I missed out. :)
Tori
1st May - Emma's birthday (Emma is a family friend)
2nd May - Kelly's birthday
9th May - Elizabeth's birthday (Elizabeth is my honorarily adopted sister)
12th May - Pam's birthday (Pam is a friend of mine)
15th May - Mam and Dad's anniversary
16th May - Felix AKA Baby Cat's birthday (Baby is Mam's cat)
16th May - Rachel's birthday (Rachel is my Sister-In-Law)
17th May - Eleri's birthday (that's Eleri from upstairs)
18th May - Lainie's birthday (Lainie is a Blogger friend that many of you know too)
20th May - Deanna's birthday (Deanna/Punkn is another bloggy friend many of you know)
21st May - Keith's birthday (Keith is Kelly's uncle)
22nd May - Mine and Kelly's anniversary
23rd May - Kero's birthday
25th May - Sir Ian Mckellen's birthday (you know who he is, right?)
30th May - Bev's birthday (she's my aunt)
30th May - Phillip's birthday (he's my uncle)
Also, Melissa had a birthday some time around mid May... I think it was around the 16th? So, happy birthday to her too. And, either May 16th or May 17th (I don't remember which) was Jewelz's son Austin's birthday, so happy birthday to him too. :)
And, a very happy birthday to any other May babies I missed out. :)
Tori
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday share: Dandelion and burdock
Type Carbonated dandelion and burdock flavour drink
Manufacturer Various
Country of origin United Kingdom
Introduced c.1265
Color Caramel
Related products Root beer, sarsaparilla
Dandelion and burdock is a traditional British soft drink, drunk in the British Isles since about 1265. Traditionally it is made from fermented dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and burdock (Arctium lappa) roots, and is naturally fizzy.
History
There have been a small number of stories concerning its origin, most now widely considered to be apocryphal. One notable example has it that St. Thomas Aquinas, after praying for inspiration for a full night, walked from his place of prayer straight into the countryside and, "trusting in God to provide", concocted the drink from the first plants he encountered. It was this drink that aided his concentration when seeking to formulate his theological arguments that ultimately culminated in the Summa Theologica.
Dandelion and burdock shares a historical origin with a number of drinks originally made from lightly fermented root extracts, such as root beer and sarsaparilla. They were included for a supposed health benefit. The dominant flavour in these other drinks is usually sassafras or wintergreen, both now derived artificially rather than from the plant itself, in part because during the 1960s safrole, the major component of the volatile oil of sassafras, was found to be carcinogenic. All of these drinks, while tasting similar, do have their own distinct flavour. Dandelion and burdock is most similar in flavour to sarsaparilla. The drink has recently seen an increase in popularity after previously poor sales.
Ingredients
Nutrient Amount in 330ml
Energy 2 kcal
Fat Less than 0.1g
Sodium Less than 0.1g
Carbohydrates Less than 0.1g
Sugar Less than 0.1g
Protein Less than 0.1g
A dandelion and burdock drink is likely to contain several ingredients common to similar drinks including carbonated water, sugar, (provided by high fructose corn syrup in America), manloid colourings, possibly phosphoric acid, citric acid and Dandelion and Burdock extract natural flavouring.
Imitations and variants
The "dandelion and burdock" drink for sale in many retail outlets usually contains neither plant. The retail drink is often carbonated and contains artificial sweeteners.
An alcoholic version, the DB&G, is made by mixing dandelion and burdock with gin.
___
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandelion_and_burdock"
Manufacturer Various
Country of origin United Kingdom
Introduced c.1265
Color Caramel
Related products Root beer, sarsaparilla
Dandelion and burdock is a traditional British soft drink, drunk in the British Isles since about 1265. Traditionally it is made from fermented dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and burdock (Arctium lappa) roots, and is naturally fizzy.
History
There have been a small number of stories concerning its origin, most now widely considered to be apocryphal. One notable example has it that St. Thomas Aquinas, after praying for inspiration for a full night, walked from his place of prayer straight into the countryside and, "trusting in God to provide", concocted the drink from the first plants he encountered. It was this drink that aided his concentration when seeking to formulate his theological arguments that ultimately culminated in the Summa Theologica.
Dandelion and burdock shares a historical origin with a number of drinks originally made from lightly fermented root extracts, such as root beer and sarsaparilla. They were included for a supposed health benefit. The dominant flavour in these other drinks is usually sassafras or wintergreen, both now derived artificially rather than from the plant itself, in part because during the 1960s safrole, the major component of the volatile oil of sassafras, was found to be carcinogenic. All of these drinks, while tasting similar, do have their own distinct flavour. Dandelion and burdock is most similar in flavour to sarsaparilla. The drink has recently seen an increase in popularity after previously poor sales.
Ingredients
Nutrient Amount in 330ml
Energy 2 kcal
Fat Less than 0.1g
Sodium Less than 0.1g
Carbohydrates Less than 0.1g
Sugar Less than 0.1g
Protein Less than 0.1g
A dandelion and burdock drink is likely to contain several ingredients common to similar drinks including carbonated water, sugar, (provided by high fructose corn syrup in America), manloid colourings, possibly phosphoric acid, citric acid and Dandelion and Burdock extract natural flavouring.
Imitations and variants
The "dandelion and burdock" drink for sale in many retail outlets usually contains neither plant. The retail drink is often carbonated and contains artificial sweeteners.
An alcoholic version, the DB&G, is made by mixing dandelion and burdock with gin.
___
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandelion_and_burdock"
Saturday, May 23, 2009
I just don't know (R/WP)
Feeling kinda fed up lately. I don't know what's up. I think it's just everything catching up with me now that all the hospital trips are basically over with. I don't know.
Almost gave up on blogging. Decided not to though. Not sure what it was that made me think I'd had enough, nor what it was that made me decide not to scrap the blog. I think it was a combination of things that made me decide not to stop blogging, actually:
1. I'd miss my bloggy friends.
2. Kelly recently brought me a new laptop, and I wouldn't want it to go to waste.
3. I spent too much on Jaws to let that sit around doing nothing.
Don't get me wrong, I do like writing my blog posts. And I do enjoy sharing things with you all - be it an interesting site or article I've found, or something from my life - but... *Shrugs*... I don't know. I just feel so fed up with it all. Not with the blog as such, but with things in general.
Please don't ask me what I mean by all this, because I'm not really sure. And that's the problem. Well, I think that's the problem. So much has changed for me in the last couple of years. While it was going on I didn't have time to think. But now I do, and I wish I didn't. Well, I sort of wish I didn't anyway.
Is any of this making any sense? I don't suppose it matters. I don't really know what the point of this is, nor what sort of answers/comments I'm expecting to get to it. I just sat here to write a post, and this is what I ended up with. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know. I don't even know if I'm right to publish this post. Well, I'm hitting publish now, so it's too late to worry about that...
Tori
Almost gave up on blogging. Decided not to though. Not sure what it was that made me think I'd had enough, nor what it was that made me decide not to scrap the blog. I think it was a combination of things that made me decide not to stop blogging, actually:
1. I'd miss my bloggy friends.
2. Kelly recently brought me a new laptop, and I wouldn't want it to go to waste.
3. I spent too much on Jaws to let that sit around doing nothing.
Don't get me wrong, I do like writing my blog posts. And I do enjoy sharing things with you all - be it an interesting site or article I've found, or something from my life - but... *Shrugs*... I don't know. I just feel so fed up with it all. Not with the blog as such, but with things in general.
Please don't ask me what I mean by all this, because I'm not really sure. And that's the problem. Well, I think that's the problem. So much has changed for me in the last couple of years. While it was going on I didn't have time to think. But now I do, and I wish I didn't. Well, I sort of wish I didn't anyway.
Is any of this making any sense? I don't suppose it matters. I don't really know what the point of this is, nor what sort of answers/comments I'm expecting to get to it. I just sat here to write a post, and this is what I ended up with. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know. I don't even know if I'm right to publish this post. Well, I'm hitting publish now, so it's too late to worry about that...
Tori
Friday, May 22, 2009
Kero's Korner: Quiet week
Hello humans, it's Kero again.
I've had a pretty quiet week this week. Mamgu and Dadci have had a couple of short visits, and the food truck came to visit, but not much else happened. And, it rained loads, so Mami and me haven't been able to have decent walks. Rain also makes my garden inspections difficult.
We've got reasons to celebrate this weekend. Today is Mami and Dadi's anniversary. I'm not sure what one of those is, but they seem to think it's a good thing. And tomorrow is a very important day. In fact, tomorrow is the most important day of the whole year. Tomorrow is my birthday. And there's nothing more important than celebrating my birthday.
I'll let you know next week what the humans get for me, and will probably have some photos to share. Right now though I hear something outside and need to go and see what it is... It might be the postman, he often comes about this time of the day. He's meant to come earlier, but he's always late... I don't mind, it gives me a chance for a lay in.
Licks and sniffs,
Kero
I've had a pretty quiet week this week. Mamgu and Dadci have had a couple of short visits, and the food truck came to visit, but not much else happened. And, it rained loads, so Mami and me haven't been able to have decent walks. Rain also makes my garden inspections difficult.
We've got reasons to celebrate this weekend. Today is Mami and Dadi's anniversary. I'm not sure what one of those is, but they seem to think it's a good thing. And tomorrow is a very important day. In fact, tomorrow is the most important day of the whole year. Tomorrow is my birthday. And there's nothing more important than celebrating my birthday.
I'll let you know next week what the humans get for me, and will probably have some photos to share. Right now though I hear something outside and need to go and see what it is... It might be the postman, he often comes about this time of the day. He's meant to come earlier, but he's always late... I don't mind, it gives me a chance for a lay in.
Licks and sniffs,
Kero
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Weekly craft update: knitting update
I've not quite finished the blanket yet, but it's almost there. I'm hoping to have it done by this time next week. No guarantees, but it is possible I might manage that, since I only need to knit a few more inches to get it as long as I'd like it to be.
Tori
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Day off
I'm not really here. No, really. I popped in to sort comments on yesterday's post, but that's it. So, like I said, I'm not really here. Why? Because I'm having a day off from the blogs.
I don't normally say when I'm having a day off, but I have sod all to post about, and I hate not having a post for the day. So, since I had nothing to post about... *Shrugs*
Anyway, hope you're having a great day. :)
Tori
I don't normally say when I'm having a day off, but I have sod all to post about, and I hate not having a post for the day. So, since I had nothing to post about... *Shrugs*
Anyway, hope you're having a great day. :)
Tori
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