Castles

You can't visit Britian without seeing castles. Wales has castles all up and down the coast, to watch for Irish invaders, and castles inland, to watch for the Celts, Pics, Saxons, and who knows what other tribes. So we had a lot of choices for seeing castles. We choose Harlech.

Harlech was on the coast, it had its own train stop, and Kirsten and MBC hadn't seen it yet. (They'd been in the UK for a while before I joined them and they had already seen many castles.) While the walls of Harlech were pretty much in tact, the interior wasn't. You could see where walls and ceilings used to be though. It was raining the day we visited, which added to the atmosphere. I feel like I need to read more medieval murder mysteries because now I get how dark and creepy castles can be. The stairs were particularly clausterphobic.

The stairs were not this light. All this light is from the camera flash.

I like taking pictures from odd angles. So here's some of my more interesting shots.

On Thursday we decided to visit Aberystwyth. It was another coastal city, and we went specifically to see the coast. It was a beautiful, clear day.

While we were exploring the city and window shopping, we found another castle. Or what was left of a castle.
We found it about half an hour before we had to go catch our bus, so we didn't much time to explore it. I had no idea what the momument is to. I didn't get close enough to see. The castle kind of surprised us because they were just these ruins in the middle of the city. Well cared for ruins, but open and public, like a park. You didn't have to pay to see this one. But we really shouldn't have been surprised. Its a city on the coast of Wales, practically every city has a castle. We probably should've expected it.

Walking through Wales

Okay, so this is coming a little later than I had hoped. I got home from Wales on a Saturday, on Monday I had a presentation for work and on Wednesday I had Young Women in Excellence, in which I was in charge of the special musical number. So I couldn't really rest after I got home. After YW in E, my body protested doing anything else and became a gooey puddle of mucus. I've been coughing and sniffling ever since. BUT, this morning I felt hungry. I haven't felt hungry in days, so I think that's a good sign.

Anywho, back to Wales.

We did a lot of walking in Wales. I don't know if it was because we were in a National Park, or if this is just something that appears in Britain, but there were little walking signs all over. An official path would have either a little hiking man pointing the way, or just a yellow arrow. And the paths don't look like the paths in the U.S.'s National Parks either. There were no neatly paved trails or well kept dirt paths. A lot of the time you just had to watch for the trodden down grass. Sometimes we didn't even have that to go by. And the paths went everywhere. Through fields, over streets, across backyards. One said it was a trail but I suspect it was actually a small stream. Our feet certainly got wet enough. If it weren't for the turn by turn directions we got at the resort reception office, we might still be wandering in the hills of Wales. Not that that would be a bad thing.

We did 4 trails. Three in Machynlleth and 1 in Pennal. Machynlleth, or Mach as we quickly learned to call it, was the main town we in and out of to catch buses and trains. Pennal, the little village where our resort was, was about 4 kilometers away from Mach.

Here's the view from the top of hills looking down into Mach:

Very picturesque, no?

Another of our walks took us through Mach's golf course:

Can you see the sheep? I wonder how much of a penalty it is to hit a sheep?

Kirtsen points out the way:

Notice all the ferns. Ferns were everywhere. On this walk we went through a fern forest.

And this is the view from the top of the hills; okay, okay, I'll call them mountains (baby mountains), in Pennal:

The resort is in one of those valleys.

This is a horse we met on the way up the mountain. I think he's used to getting food from people when they walk by, because he was very attentive. I took this picture especially for my nieces D and A, who love horses.

I don't know where he went, but he was gone by the time we came back.

One thing I really liked about Wales was how green it was. These pictures really don't do it justice. Even when you have the contrast of changing leaves.


They say its very green in Ireland as well. I think I'll have go there to compare.

Poetry Workshop

I just got out of a poetry workshop with Naomi Shihab Nye. She had come to the library to do the yearly William Morris lecture for staff, but instead of lecturing us, she had activities and stories for us. Naomi is a poet and author who has been writing since she was 6 years old, and has won numerous awards. She is probably most known for her poems about her heritage because she is part Arab. I first heard her on NPR. She has the most wonderful voice. She has one of those voices that I could listen to for hours, but not drift oft to. I could listen to her and pay attention to. So you can see what I mean, take a listen to this.

Doesn't she have the best poetry voice?

Anyway, back to the workshop. Even though the workshop was geared towards activities for children and outreach to schools, I came away with many ideas for the Poetry Picante program, which is an open mic poetry program that I help run. I've got names of new poets to invite to read and group writing activities to try. Poetry Picante struggles. Or I think it struggles. I don't have many other library open mic programs to compare it to, but we get an average of 6 people attending each month. Some people tell me this is good. But I don't know. I think part of reason why I think it struggles is because I only have one regular. So I get all these people who show up once, and then never come back. We do better when I can say we have a specific poet coming, so if I can get some of these new poets to come, things should pick up.

As part of the workshop she had us do some writing. Just some short little pieces that came from some writing prompts she gave us. Here are mine:

You may not be who I think you are.
How can I tell, if you never come back
from Korea?

The kitten Max loves to chase gnats across
the carpet. Which is cute. He also love to
climb the drapes; which is not.

What's a cassette? asked the 5 year old boy,
who had never paid much attention to the old
machines at grandma's house.

She gave us some tips for responding to poems too. She says to ask questions like "How does it make you feel?" or "Does this bring anything to mind?" and to never ask "What does it mean?" There can be multiple meanings for any one thing. Asking what it means restricts it to one interpretation.

I also have many more books to add to my reading list. Its so easy to get enthusiastic about reading something when someone who adores the books give them to you. So onto my list go:

Today's Special Dish by Nina Lindsay
You Hear Me? poems and writings by teenage boys edited by Betsy Franco
Braided Creek: a conversation in poetry by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser
Is This Forever, or What? poems and paintings from Texas selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Going, Going by Naomi Shihab Nye

I'd like to pass on a recommendation for Going, Going to anyone who likes to discover independent restaurants and businesses. B-town crew, this means you.

Introducing Max

Hi, my name is Maxamillus the Bold, or Max, for short. I am 3 months old and I like to climb things. I am the best climber in the world. I can climb up to my mommy's shoulder in 2 seconds. Sometimes she screams when I do this and sometimes she doesn't. I don't understand why. I also like to pounce on my big brother, Ghost. I wait for him to walk around the couch and then I jump on his back. Then he chases me around the living room. But he lets me chase him too. He's the greatest. He knows all the best places to sleep and hide.

Ooo, a jingle ball. Bye!

woosh

Lost

I have lost my ring.

I have, or had, a pretty, silver CTR ring. I hardly ever took it off. The only times I did were at the gym and in the shower. Guess where I was yesterday? Yep, at the gym. When I'm on a treadmill I take my watch and ring off and put them on the treadmill. The treadmill's have little ledges and holes for you to put your stuff in, my glasses will sometimes go in their too, depending on how much I'm sweating.

Last night I was talking with my roommate and realized I was not wearing my ring. I've retraced all my steps and the gym is the only place I was where I would have taken it off. I have called them, but of course it's not in their lost and found.

I only hope that someone will find it and return it and not keep it.

Did I miss something?

Remember the guy from poetry night that I went out to dinner with a few months ago? Well, he's back. Sort of. He emailed me saying that he had question about my religion and asked if I could meet with him sometime. Well, with this training schedule and new Young Women's calling, I haven't had much extra time. I sent him a link to Mormon.org and told him if had any questions to email them to me, because I didn't have time at the moment, but would be happy to answer his questions. He never emailed me backed.



The next poetry night he shows up (had hadn't come since our date) and we talk for a little bit. I ask if he saw the website and he said yes, but still wants to go out with me to talk. I say okay, but I need to check my schedule. After a few days (can you tell he's not very high on my priorities list) I let him know when I'm available. Thinking that we'll be going to lunch somewhere, I tell him it doesn't matter where we go and to let me know where and when. He emails me back to say he's booking a room in a hotel.

A hotel???

He says he misunderstood me and feels ashamed for it. Part of me wants to ask him what exactly lead him to think that I would be comfortable with him in a hotel room. That part of me also thinks he might be sincere in wanting to know more about the LDS Church. But then I'm also thinking that he never actually asked me any questions, and he's had ample opportunity to. Another thing, after our date, he stopped sending me poems to spell check and critique. It may be that he's just using the poetry and religion to try to get closer to me. Or it may be that I'm reading way too much into this and am acting like an idiot.

What do you think?

Stuck at 4 miles

I thought the half-marathon training was going well. I've been doing the speed training and short runs during the week faithfully and actually waking up at 5:15 on Saturdays for the 6:00 am group runs. I didn't think I'd be able to do that, but I haven't missed a week yet.

What hasn't been going well is the actual group run. My group has been running 4 miles for the past 2 weeks, but I haven't been able to run the full 4 miles. We keep running up Stadium Dr, which starts out as a gradual slope then it curves around to a pretty steep hill. For those familiar with Roy, UT streets, you could say it starts out like 5600 and ends up like 4800, right before the tracks. It kills me. Although there has been some progress. Instead of taking just over an hour to complete the 4 miles, last Saturday it took me just under an hour.

This coming Saturday we get to run 5 miles. I hope they change the course.