This Is Wales

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

why is there no 'welsh' whisky?

i mean there's scotch whisky, irish whisky. . .
there's even english whisky - who drinks it no one knows, it does exist

There is but the spelling was epic.... Wisgi

https://penderyn.wales/

[isla]

Isla, thank you for the leopard and the hyena. I'll raise you the pelican and the tower itself.

Attachment 71115

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They are a bit special aren't they? I'm afraid I can't see your images.

[Ralphie Boy]

Thanks for posting all the info about Wales! Looks magical!

Ralphie

[Robbie 2]

Thankyou.

[Paul Pless]

Thankyou.

thank you, so much better than united statesian politics

[Alan H]

I'm in love with the aquaduct!

[Chip-skiff]

South Stack Lighthouse, Holyhead, Anglesey.

Is this the same lighthouse that was just featured in the Landscape Photography contest by The Guardian?

[The Q]

Whisky was made throughout the UK, it wasn't traditionally Scottish. However when Licencing laws were tightened up over a century ago, it was easier to keep producing the golden liquid in the highlands in secret, than in England and Wales with their much higher populations.
The re emergence of English Whisky has been interesting, it tends to be a more expensive than the mass produced Scottish stuff, is on a par with the good Aqua Vitae from Scotland. I have a bottle of English whisky from here https://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/ not 50 miles from my house. I like it, but prefer Highland park...
I've been there for a tour..

Much of the barley used in the production of Whisky is grown here in Norfolk, particularly spring barley produced earlier than up there, so they can keep the vats going all year round..

As for wales, It just needs someone with a lot of money to produce it, and good clear water, I would suggest mid west Wales, away from the industrialised south and the old quarries in the north..

[isla]

Is this the same lighthouse that was just featured in the Landscape Photography contest by The Guardian?

Yes. Here's the photographer's website - more great images there - https://alynwallacephotography.com/s...raphy-workshop

[SOF64]

They are a bit special aren't they? I'm afraid I can't see your images.

I don't know how that happened. I am sometimes in conflict with the forum software. I hope it works now.

IMG_0494a.jpg

IMG_0497a.jpg

[SOF64]

Whisky was made throughout the UK, it wasn't traditionally Scottish. However when Licencing laws were tightened up over a century ago, it was easier to keep producing the golden liquid in the highlands in secret, than in England and Wales with their much higher populations.
The re emergence of English Whisky has been interesting, it tends to be a more expensive than the mass produced Scottish stuff, is on a par with the good Aqua Vitae from Scotland. I have a bottle of English whisky from here https://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/ not 50 miles from my house. I like it, but prefer Highland park...
I've been there for a tour..

Much of the barley used in the production of Whisky is grown here in Norfolk, particularly spring barley produced earlier than up there, so they can keep the vats going all year round..

As for wales, It just needs someone with a lot of money to produce it, and good clear water, I would suggest mid west Wales, away from the industrialised south and the old quarries in the north..

This is more or less what happened in 2000. They founded the Welsh Whisky Company in Penderyn near Hirwaun, between Neath and Merthyr Tydfil. When I first came to Wales in 2005 they had only very young whisky, but now there is a range of different tastes and qualities. It is a matter of personal taste, of course, but I think they are not doing a bad job there.

P1080435.jpg

The picture that I showed a few posts ago shows their premises. The building is rather plain and unassuming, but I have seen that with other distilleries of good whiskies, too.

[isla]

I don't know how that happened. I am sometimes in conflict with the forum software. I hope it works now.

Yes OK now. Great pics, thanks!

[SOF64]

You're welcome. It was my pleasure digging up memories of Wales.

[isla]

You're welcome. It was my pleasure digging up memories of Wales.

Damn, I miss Wales! It's forty years since I lived there, although I have visited a few times. A decent long visit is definitely on my bucket list

[SOF64]

Damn, I miss Wales! It's forty years since I lived there, although I have visited a few times. A decent long visit is definitely on my bucket list

I have only seen the south so far. I was involved in college student exchanges and a twinning arrangement with Neath Port Talbot, so that is where we mostly went. I am looking forward to the days when we can travel freely again. I'd like to do a round trip of Wales by bicycle, starting out where I know people and places and then west and up the west coast. I'd like to see Snowdonia and Anglesey. Ideally, I could then go along the north coast and make my way back through the centre. I have been to the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, but I would like to really visit them, too. Biking is a wonderful way of travelling, with enough speed to cover some ground but slow enough so that you don't miss the important stuff. Staying put during the pandemic does not help with staying fit, though, and I need to do that trip before I am getting too old.

[Spin_Drift]

Great thread. Beautiful pictures and interesting reading.

Thanks for it.

[stuckinthemud]

20201011_144233.jpg
Well, since I live here, thought I'd post the view from the top of the hill above my village. Taken last weekend

[isla]

I have only seen the south so far. I was involved in college student exchanges and a twinning arrangement with Neath Port Talbot, so that is where we mostly went. I am looking forward to the days when we can travel freely again. I'd like to do a round trip of Wales by bicycle, starting out where I know people and places and then west and up the west coast. I'd like to see Snowdonia and Anglesey. Ideally, I could then go along the north coast and make my way back through the centre. I have been to the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, but I would like to really visit them, too. Biking is a wonderful way of travelling, with enough speed to cover some ground but slow enough so that you don't miss the important stuff. Staying put during the pandemic does not help with staying fit, though, and I need to do that trip before I am getting too old.

At 72, going on 73, I think my cycling days are over. Age and the fact that I am down to about two thirds lung capacity after surgery. So if I get back there it will be driving or public transport, Covid permitting.
You will love the north, that's for sure.

[isla]

20201011_144233.jpg
Well, since I live here, thought I'd post the view from the top of the hill above my village. Taken last weekend

Beautiful view, thanks for posting.

[stuckinthemud]

A straight line across the Rhymney Valley hill tops, across Gelligaer common, 20 miles to the Brecon Beacons. The weather was unusually clear but I love living here. Views like that in every direction. Just too landlocked, I'm nearly an hour from the coast.

[Chip-skiff]

Yes. Here's the photographer's website - more great images there - https://alynwallacephotography.com/s...raphy-workshop

Thanks– spectacular work. Here's another photo of a Welsh lighthouse—

[TomF]

C'mon. Somebody had to do this.

[oznabrag]

Or this:

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

[SOF64]

At 72, going on 73, I think my cycling days are over. Age and the fact that I am down to about two thirds lung capacity after surgery. So if I get back there it will be driving or public transport, Covid permitting.
You will love the north, that's for sure.

I am going on 56 and hope to do a few more good tours by bike. However, travelling by train or by car in a beautiful country is also rewarding. Sometimes you can meet the most interesting people on a train, and by car every destination is well within reach. I could also persuade my wife to come along by car while she won't do any long bike tours with me any more.

[SOF64]

20201011_144233.jpg
Well, since I live here, thought I'd post the view from the top of the hill above my village. Taken last weekend

Thank you for posting this photo, too.

[oznabrag]

Wales looks lovely, thanks Isla.

[Alan H]

Yes. Here's the photographer's website - more great images there - https://alynwallacephotography.com/s...raphy-workshop

I just shared that on another forum that I participate in and folks are sort of going wild over the photographs.

[SOF64]

That's a really poor whale in Wales.

We went to Aberavon Beach to relax from our visiting programme. It is a nice place to be, but the background with the steel works makes it quite unique. I guess if you saw a picture with this combination of beach and industrial estate you would always know where to locate it.

Do you know what happened to the whale in the end? When we were there nothing closely as spectacular was going on. Our students drew huge signs and words in the sand, and we had to delete some indecent ones.

[willmarsh3]

I visited Wales about 1 year ago. I stayed in Bangor and did something different each day. One day I saw the Sea Stack lighthouse pictured above. That was quite a hike down the 400+ steps to it. We were the last tourists that day since a storm was approaching. The folks who gave the tours followed us back up the steps, locking it as they went. I saw the light shine and the fog signal sounded. Today what passes for a fog horn are acoustic "emitters" that give off a high pitched sound.

Then I did a nice hike to Aber Falls. We also visited the ancient copper mines at the Great Orme in LLandudno.

Later, I paddled in the Menai straits also pictured above. I went with a guide. We spent about 1 hour planning the trip before putting in. The tides were 6 meters and the currents ran 2 to 4 knots. The trip went off quite successfully. The little house on the island in the middle of the strait was hotly contested back in the day since those who lived there only had to hang a net out and sit back to catch their fish.
I'm also told that if one could sail a ship through the Menai Straits then one could sail anywhere.

I did not realize it at the time but the village where "The Prisoner" was filmed at is nearby.

I definitely want to go back to Wales.

[isla]

I visited Wales about 1 year ago. I stayed in Bangor and did something different each day. One day I saw the Sea Stack lighthouse pictured above. That was quite a hike down the 400+ steps to it. We were the last tourists that day since a storm was approaching. The folks who gave the tours followed us back up the steps, locking it as they went. I saw the light shine and the fog signal sounded. Today what passes for a fog horn are acoustic "emitters" that give off a high pitched sound.

Then I did a nice hike to Aber Falls. We also visited the ancient copper mines at the Great Orme in LLandudno.

Later, I paddled in the Menai straits also pictured above. I went with a guide. We spent about 1 hour planning the trip before putting in. The tides were 6 meters and the currents ran 2 to 4 knots. The trip went off quite successfully. The little house on the island in the middle of the strait was hotly contested back in the day since those who lived there only had to hang a net out and sit back to catch their fish.
I'm also told that if one could sail a ship through the Menai Straits then one could sail anywhere.

I did not realize it at the time but the village where "The Prisoner" was filmed at is nearby.

I definitely want to go back to Wales.

Great stuff.
I had two very Welsh great aunts, spinsters, who lived together in Llandudno. They always wore traditional Welsh costume and spoke mainly Welsh. My maternal grandmother was the younger sister and she moved to Liverpool after she married my grandfather, who was also Welsh. She and my mother took me to Llandudno every year to visit the old ladies, and we always had a walk up the 'Little Orme'. I only did a complete circumnavigation of the Great Orme years later when I took my wife there.

My great aunts looked like this, but much older..

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

....
Do you know what happened to the whale in the end? When we were there nothing closely as spectacular was going on. Our students drew huge signs and words in the sand, and we had to delete some indecent ones.

Autopsy to see why it had died - then it was towed out to sea to feed the fishes.

The biodiversity found inside the steel works is really surprising - I've seen orchids, Buzzards, Kites and a pair of Peregrines.

[stuckinthemud]

Red Kites are doing really well, gone from a few dozen pairs in Mid Wales a few years ago, now they've crossed the Beacons and there are pairs nesting nearly as far as Cardiff

[Peerie Maa]

[David W Pratt]

I remember rain from Wales, and pubs.