Today's little outing

Up before the crack of dawn for a trip to the West Country. Here we go down the motorway. Whee!

Weston Super Mare looks very empty first thing in the morning:




Time for a little refreshment:



I'm having a proper cup of coffee and a slice of cake whereas Xylia is having some sort of confection of fruit juice and crushed ice and a birdseed bar.

After a quick look at the Bristol Channel we went inland towards Wells:



We had a look at Cheddar Gorge:





And made a new friend:

Off to Wells Cathedral:





Everything was very pretty:





Nice little touches sch as medieval doors with digital locks:



There was even a Cathedral cat, Felis Cattus Ecclesiastis. Very playful too.


The most excellent trees in the grounds too. Here's a juglans nigra. A real whopper:


And a tulip tree. There aren't any tulips on it today because it's not the season:



Fantastic bracket fungus on a Holm Oak. I don't know what it is but I'm guessing some sort of polyphore because it's not got any gills.


Being a senior figure in the medieval church really meant something. As well as being able to fire thunderbolts out of your crozier and excommunicate people, you could look forward to being laid to rest in one of these:



Look at the workmanship. There's a drain channel along the bottom and a little hole so the coffin liquor from the putrefying ecclesiastical body could drain away.

Great pics, you put a lot of miles in today.

Next stop Glastonbury:



Round and round we drove looking for a place to park. As the day wore on parking became more and more impossible. Eventually we squeezed in somewhere. Xylia was most keen on the shops:



She loves ornaments and artefacts, as well as items of clothing and furnishing fabrics in bohemian ethnic styles so she was delighted. I'm much more interested in archaeology and architecture, so I looked at the abbey.



Nice bit of Norman zig zag detailing on the arches:


More good trees as well. Here's a fern leaved beech Fagus Sylvatica Asplenifloia:


Fantastic detail on this doorway. must have been a transcendent experience just going through it for people in days gone by who believed in that sort of thing:

Finally, time to go home. We ventured back towards the M5 and it was jammed solid. So instead of waiting in a bank holiday traffic jam we went back to Weston and had another cup of coffee in the hope that the traffic would clear:



After a hour or so we went to look at the motorway again and it was much better, so we had a fairly brisk ride home:



With a stop at Hopton Services because by that point the coffee had percolated through and was trying to get out the far end with increasing urgency.

Beats me Brown, the furthest I've been today is Swadlincote Aldi for a twenty quid chimnea and a bottle of vodka from Asda

I was there on Monday, but all I saw of Weston Super Mare was this.....

http://westonrecoveryservices.co.uk/

Marmaduke said:

Beats me Brown, the furthest I've been today is Swadlincote Aldi for a twenty quid chimnea and a bottle of vodka from Asda

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You've certainly got a good blast of flame from that. Must have used the vodka to light the fire.

wattfield said:

I was there on Monday, but all I saw of Weston Super Mare was this.....

http://westonrecoveryservices.co.uk/

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Ooh dear me. Broke down, did it?

Nice trip, I must be getting old I don't venture far on bank holidays.

raywin said:

Nice trip, I must be getting old I don't venture far on bank holidays.

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Me neither, too many tourists on the roads.

Going to take my Mum and Dad out on my boat tomorrow, I am pretty good at swerving round the out of control hire boats.

And in another week or so, most of them will p!ss orf, leaving the cut to the indigenous wildlife!

Well, we wouldn't have picked a bank holiday for preference, but Xylia hadn't realised there was one this weekend and by the time it became apparent, we'd already started looking forward to going. Even so, judicious choice of travelling times (going early and waiting until the traffic had cleared in the afternoon) meant that we didn't sit in a traffic jam for long. The only thing that slowed us down was around 20 mins driving around looking for a parking space in Glastonbury. But then that's one of the most touristy places in the British Isles, so you're never going to be able to do anything quickly there.

Brown said:

Well, we wouldn't have picked a bank holiday for preference, but Xylia hadn't realised there was one this weekend and by the time it became apparent, we'd already started looking forward to going. Even so, judicious choice of travelling times (going early and waiting until the traffic had cleared in the afternoon) meant that we didn't sit in a traffic jam for long. The only thing that slowed us down was around 20 mins driving around looking for a parking space in Glastonbury. But then that's one of the most touristy places in the British Isles, so you're never going to be able to do anything quickly there.

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Looks like a nice trip anyway. And a good plan to get out of Weston early before the zombies get active!

I have been to Glasto when the festival wasn't on too. You are quite right, the abbey is spectacular, but some of the rest of it made me laugh.

Especially all the crystal shops and Temples of the Goddess up the main street, there really must be a lot of suckers out there!

And I loved the way all the town centre properties have steel bars they can lock over the windows when the festival is on!

The thing about alternative spirituality tat is that is sells. I'd quite like a shop selling old fashioned British Standard Whitworth taps and dies, but I doubt if I'd get many customers. But crystals, 'healing', incense, magik(sic), Tarot cards and the like could make me a livelihood if I wasn't too bothered about ripping people off.

great post and pics

Mick Guilbert said:

Great pics, you put a lot of miles in today.

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raisingveg said:

great post and pics

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Thanks gentlemen. I'm always surprised at the level of interest my trundling around the country generates.

Brown said:

The thing about alternative spirituality tat is that is sells. I'd quite like a shop selling old fashioned British Standard Whitworth taps and dies, but I doubt if I'd get many customers. But crystals, 'healing', incense, magik(sic), Tarot cards and the like could make me a livelihood if I wasn't too bothered about ripping people off.

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Yes. Primitive superstition sells well in the 21st century.

Its like alot of things though, if you believe it works, sometimes it does!!

I'll duck and run for cover now!!!

"I'd quite like a shop selling old fashioned British Standard Whitworth taps and dies, but I doubt if I'd get many customers"
I'd be one, so long as you had BA as well.

RobertP said:

"I'd quite like a shop selling old fashioned British Standard Whitworth taps and dies, but I doubt if I'd get many customers"
I'd be one, so long as you had BA as well.

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Yes, provided you buy a whole set in its own little hardwood case complete with brass fittings.