Center for Alternative Technology - Wales

Today we took a long drive down into North Wales, past lake Bala and nearby Machynlleth to visit CAT. This has been on our list of todos for a while and we were just waiting for a nice day (not too many of those this summer unfortunately!).

This is a wonderful facility that started life as a mine many years ago, evolved into somewhat of a hippie commune, then into an educational project, and now it has grown into something larger which also doubles as a public tourist destination for learning about alternative energies and sustainable living.

Here are some pictures from a very enjoyable day and one we won't forget...

Visitors center at the bottom of the hill(this is where you pay)


Gravity / water powered tram to take you to the top


Disused wind turbine with cutaway so you can peek inside at the mechanicals


Dining hall, picnic area, student apartments (larger set being built in the background). Not pictured is an adventure playground behind me that the kids had a lot of fun with.


Composting area shows many different designs for home composting as well as a example of what a community could invest in (like they have) to use a hot composter which is housed in this building.


A tunnel made from reused wine bottles, these guys know how to party


Straw bale construction theatre, very comfortable inside due to the ventilation and thermal mass of the walls.


Also at the site are ponds / gardens showcasing different types of farming, irigation, and fertilizing. There are many interactive hands on exhibits that teach about wind, solar, geothermal, and even fuel cell technologies. Building techniques are covered including a neat display of a basic green roof growing 3 different types of cover. At the end of it all there is an excellent book store and gadget shop. This place is really worth the visit for anyone (especially families) who are into green living, energy independance, and sustainability. Judging from the building plans and diagrams the place will look a lot different in about 5 years time.

Camping expedition - Rhosneigr

We drove back to the island of Anglesey on Saturday and pitched camp at Rhosneigr. A good friend and colleague of mine has a static caravan literally on the edge of an RAF base and a hop / step / jump to the beach. Their kids and ours are nearly the same ages and get on pretty well. Here they are making a mess in the back of the Jeep.


The weather was a bit soggy on Saturday but was perfect on Saturday. We went to the beach to let the kids splash around and dig in the sand. On the way home Sunday we stopped at the Pili Palas, an really nice indoor butterfly garden / aviary / reptile house / and more.

A big parakeet decided to befriend me by swooping past and around and eventually landing on my shoulder. It was very funny, Megan snapped a photo and then I leaned my shoulder next to a rail for it to walk out on, but instead it walked across my neck to my other shoulder. I tried this once or twice more before getting more blatant. I reached my hand near its feat and it started pecking at me...didn't hurt, just a warning I think. But my daughter was getting quite upset by this point. So I gave the shoulder a little shake and it finally flew off to find a better perch.


All in all a great weekend but everyone thouroughly knackered out.

Bristol

The lack of posts recently has a direct but opposite correlation to the amount of post worthy activities that have gone on. My blog is missing 2 months of the busiest time of my life!

Families have come to call, and we've gone to Germany, Nederlands, France, around UK, etc. But that isn't what this post is about.

This weekend we went to an eco-festival in downtown Bristol. It is a terrific city with a harbor and quays, all done up very nicely with museums, parks, housing, resteraunts, pedestrian bridges, mature trees, coblestone streets, all very nice. The festival was mostly focused on healthy / sustainable lifestyles and food. It was not really a vegetarian focus, but more about organic methods, the negative impacts of flying foods around the world to be consumed, consuming them in season, that sort of thing.

There were music acts, variety shows, acrobatic performers, kids activities, all around a very good family friendly event. We took a harbor cruise on the Matthew, a replica wooden sailing ship with modern amenities. A ship like this is what John Cabot discovered Newfoundand with. Another famous replica ship we were able to tour was the Amistad, which has been to Toledo before, in 2003 I think. We met a young lady on board from Toledo, who lived near UT like us. Small world!

We also went to the Create center, which is full of eco-friendly exhibits and educational materials. One of the neatest parts about it is the eco-home which is right next to Create. The natural heating and cooling of the structure is based on convection, similar to Enertia homes. The most amazing thing about these facilities is that they are city government sponsored projects and maintained by volunteers!

We spent a couple of hours at the Bristol City Gallery, what a terrific museum. It blends fine art, living history, and natural history together, all for free admission.

Also in town is Explore@Bristol which is a very nice science museum, we had a quick walk through part of it but not enough time to stay :-(

We traveled via the Virgin speed train, and stayed in the youth hostel. The hostel was decent basic accomodation at a perfect location, breakfast was excellent. I'll post some pictures when I can.

signs of spring

Took a walk down to the Birchfield park today, gave some bread crumbs to the ducklings. How cute!

Most of the English really take pride in their gardens, and there are blooms of ornamental trees everywhere (wreaking havoc on my allergies...but its worth it).

Wales camping expedition

This weekend we packed our thermals set off for the beaches of Anglesey for 2 nights of cold weather camping.

I'm surprised but the kids didn't complain about the cold one time. They were a little unsure about the wind considering it uprooted the tent stakes and blew the tent upside down with our stuff inside it...but slept like rocks after hiking around beaches and dunes all day. Some friends of ours have a static caravan nearby where we went to hang out and play games for a while. We introduced them to some of our favorites like Apples to Apples, hiss, and slamwhich.

Here is a picture of the "old bridge" at Aberffraw... its over 300 years old.


On Saturday night there was not a cloud in the sky which made the moon and stars very beautiful, but also made the temperature drop. It was just 4 celcius (39 or so F) and don't know what that made it with the wind.


On Sunday we made our way to Carnerferon Castle, this is where prince Charles was ... installed? There is a nice museum there and they keep the place in nice shape. The view from the towers is pretty impressive.

Gardener's Seed Swap

Toledo GROWs, an outreach program of TBG, will once again host the increasingly popular Seed Swap at the Crosby Conference Center. The Swap is simply the sharing of seeds for the upcoming garden season. While exchanging seeds and bulbs green thumbs can also share knowledge, ideas and tips. The event is free and open to the public.

Friday, February 23 at 6:30pm events and presentation topics include...
Seed Tasting
Seed Starting/Saving
Preserving Local Culture Through Seed Saving

Saturday, February 24 at 12:00pm events include...
Seed Exchange
Live Music featuring the Root Cellar String Band
Games and Storytelling for Children

Click here for more info.

Another Place

Today we drove to Crosby, a coastal town where an artist named Anthony Gormley put a bunch of human statues in the sand walking out into the sea. Its titled "Another Place". Rumor has it the whole installation is moving to NYC sometime soon.

Weekend log...

Friday night, Dominos pizza party at the Myers household

Saturday we visited the Catalyst science museum here in Widnes. It started off great, with some great interactive exhibits for the kids. Made it through the first floor, onto the glass elevator all the way to the top. This gave a nice view of Widnes, Runcorn, the Mersey River, etc. There are no tall buildings in Widnes, so this 5 story view is about good as it gets. To our dismay, we found that this science museum only had 1 more floor to explore, and the place isn't exactly sprawling like COSI.

So by 1pm we were finished there and looking for more to do. Decided to head down to Wales and take Megan and the kids to a place I had already been... Conwy. We didn't go inside the castle there, but we spent some time walking the town. You can't go very far without being harshly reminded that this is a medieval town from the 13th century! I didn't really know where I was going, but headed back towards the bay. We slowly drove past 4 people riding these huge beautiful horses. The road started narrowing, and sloping, and winding. We rounded a corner that went steeply down to an old wall section of the city. The road lines followed right on through an opening in the wall, but it looked only to be 6 feet wide and 5 feet deep. No way I'm getting my van through there. So here I am in my 6 speed Zafira (that I'm in love with), burning up the clutch in reverse trying to find an area to turn around. More people are coming down this road (albeit in tiny cars). I managed to turn around and take a different tunnel back into the town (easy, we had at least a foot of space on either side of the van). The streets of town are very tight, winding, and confusing. Down one street I met a huge bus face to face. The driver just stopped, and motioned that I must turn around. Once again, I find myself backing this thing up and turning around. We found that there was a small blue arrow indicating that section of road as one-way, but very easy to miss. Normally here you would see "No Entry" written on the street where you are not supposed to turn in. I decided to give up driving and found a parking spot. We walked the town center, bought some pastries, saw a creepy old church, browsed some shops, had some ice cream (ask the boy about the dungeon), and then were on the road again.

Next we stopped in Llandudno, a great seaside town right next to the Great Orme Head. This town would be a great place to stay at a bed and breakfast for a relaxing time. There is a long pier that you can walk out on the bay with some midway style amusements. There is a cafe, bar, and arcade at the end. It is very scenic.

At the end of the day, near sunset, we drove around the one-way marine drive (in the proper direction). It was so beautiful. Some mountain goats were trotting up the road, when they saw our car, they hopped onto the stone wall out of site. We assume they knew what they were doing (not committing suicide?).



On Sunday we went on a smoothie making adventure in Lymm. My friend Bob has lived in Lymm Hall for the last 6 years. He made this great little map and 30 point plan for my son to follow. It included things totally unrelated to smoothie making but the kids didn't take notice. In the end we finally arrived at a field with wild black berries, a plum tree, and an apple tree. The formerly majestic estate of Lymm Hall is in "gentile decay" as Bob puts it.