"Gulasz Angielski"

So this little green can is imported all the way from Poland to Sainsbury in Selly Oak so Polish settlers can enjoy their genuine comfort food "English Goulash" in England and have it remind them of home (Poland) - am I the only one that finds this a bit surreal?

Mispol say "English stew made of top quality pork and beef. The addition of natural spices gives it the flavour of a traditional Polish meat. It best tastes with white and dark bread and toasts. It is a must on a camping holiday, camp fires or country treats."

So this is a Polish made supposed English style stew that has been flavoured to taste like a Polish meat dish - from the ingredients and the little picture on the side of the can (below) - it is a spam-analogue - which is, of course, nothing at all like stew.

A little trip over to Killarney - it was for work - but was as good as a holiday...



More lenticular clouds - view from Malton Hotel




Last time I was at Ladies View it was raining (it was about October 1987) - much better in June 2009 - but my colleagues would not come out - they sat in the hotel drinking Guinness



The Malton Hotel - best in the town - where I stayed and where Erik proposed to my sister on New Year's Eve 1988/9

View from outside the very nice factory in Rathmore - where real, fresh, Kerry milk goes into the chocolate

After the 2009 Harvester - 100 minutes in the dark over Merthyr Common - a detour over to the National Botanic Garden of Wales...




The glasshouse is stunning but the rest is a disapointment - very earnest, very worthy but also a very typical Millenium project. A nice little earner for a whole lot of "consultants" but no real soul or drive or reason (contrast with Eden Project) - and now looking decidedly tatty and underfunded is places. It was a lot to get in - and I won't be going again. When I turned up - 10:00 on a sunner June Sunday - there were 3 other cars in the carpark.



The content of the glasshouse was special - all the "mediterranean" biomes collected in one place - I think this is a South African plant




Its a horse-tail from Kamchatka - the highlight of the rather sparse and dismal Wallace garden



Nice Poppy!




Bromeliad - like a little nest of sparrows



Proper traditional smelly rose - (rosa x damascena) - used for perfume but mostly for flavouring sweets



Inside the glasshouse - probably Australian - probably bird pollinated (flowers are red and shaped like a bottle brush)

New 'Old' Car

Radio Orienteering - Brown Clee = 5 Visits to Tx3

It was a very pretty location - but it was getting a bit tedious

(we think there is a duff cell in the battery pack and the Tx reset overnight)



8:00pm - putting the Tx out as the sun sets - over the wall is a memorial to the airmen who died in flying accidents on the Brown Clee Hills




SAAB 1 : SEAT 0 (Robert V took his sump out - my car just got a bit dirty)





Route to Tx3

TX3 nestling under the beeches

A little trip to Swedish Day at the Haynes Motor Museum





I have put an offer in on this one (SAAB 99 Turbo)



Needs a bit of work - but at least it will fit in the garage...

Back to Nottingham University for the British Elite Sprint Orienteering Champs...



This is M- block - where I lived, studied and suffered for a whole year



A control in the quad at Sherwood Hall - apart from the windows now being double glazed - not much has changed (at least on the exterior) - I guess it is all wired and networked now.



Tessa Hill (Harlequins) - Elite A Final (Starting)



Tessa Hill (Harlequins) - Elite A Final (Finishing)

A visit to "tick off" the Glyderau - above - the South side of the Snowdon Horseshoe (saved for next visit)




Tryfan - looking ominous - never seen it from this angle before - it has been 18 years since I was last here



Above: Glyder Fach - and the Cantilever - still there!

Below: "Another notable feature, west of the summit, is Castell Y Gwynt, (Castle of the Wind), a spiky rocky outcrop" - it was added to the Nuttals - so I had to climb it - 3 attempts - bottled the first two and then followed some proper (German) alpinistes to the 'summit'.

From Elidir Fach - not much of a peak - but what a view (I suppose it is obvious - mountains look more spectacular when you are not on them!)

Garden looking nice again...

A quiet scene from my evening commute home
Not bad for 4 miles from the centre of Birmingham
My commute is 1620 metres - all of it through Bournville
and some of it past woods like this.

ARDF (Radio Orienteering) on Lickey Hills 26th April 2009



Preparation the night before (Bob's Tx are not as ergonomic
as would be ideal - lots of screws to undo!)



It is means to be a running, not a kneeling, sport



Running Repairs



Lots of multipath on 2m

Another trip to the dog racing - this time to Perry Barr

Food was simple but nice and there was lots of it

I did not place any bets - my entertainment was watching everyone else
gambling!

A little trip on the Severn Valley Railway...





Looking out for the animals at the safari park





Gordon as in "of Khartoum" and not Gordon the Big Engine

Strange "Jewel" plants at Coughton Court (National Trust)
Waxy leaves meant that the droplet of water was standing away
from the leaf surface and there was a 'cats-eye' internal reflection effect





Below - A Euphorbia? Above - not a Euphorbia



There was an Easter trail (Cadbury's Eco-Eggs) and a "duck race"

The events manager is the one in the waders
(staff said "the race was his idea so he can be the one to get wet")



Intercepting the stragglers

back again - Mr Moss added another peak in the Carneddau - its not a Nuttall by about 1 metre - it is that tiny little knoll on the ridge in the centre of the photo - called Clogwyn Llech Lefn (SH709627). I find it hard to believe that is was 4 years since I was last here...
Blog entry - May 2005

This time no buzzing from buzzards - displaying (male) and fleeing (pair) red grouse, a peregrine and a pair of (probably) snipe.



View back the other way - can't quite see the car



On the very steep slope down from Bwlch Y Tri Marchog
(Pass of the Three Knights/Horsemen/Riders)
A lovely sheltered spot out if the cold wind -
time for a Chomp and a good look the view - happy days!



It was a bit of a steep descent
- my GPS said >100% for much of the way (I guess that is 1 in 1)

Earlier that morning I climbed Drum -
and in the summit cairn / shelter was a single stalk of broccoli
still shrink wrapped and looking supermarket fresh.
It seems to have been carefully placed
My camera was all fogged up so the picture is unconvincing.
I have a strong feeling that I have seen something exactly like this before -
only I can't remember which other mountain it was on.

Is it some form of perverse vegetable challenge?
A keeping test? A joke? Who knows?
Certainly it must take more calories than a given mass of
broccoli is worth to lug it 750 metres up a mountain.