Wet Slopes and Dry Slopes

Harriet and I recently spent a rare weekend in London. Harriet met up with friends in restaurants whilst I took Canon to see the sights. We were lucky enough to be based in 'The Barbican' in the City, with easy access to famous London landmarks like St.Paul's Cathedral, the Millenium Bridge and a little further afield to the London Eye.

Whilst Harriet was catching up on all the latest gossip within the Automotive Engineering Industry, I was experimenting with long exposure photos. I attempted to blur the cloud with movement and soften the mucky River Thames by turning it into milk.

Although these shots are far from being original in the field of photography, Canon and I had loads of fun trying it for ourselves. However, my goodness, how many tourists visit London during the summer? I was totally surprised. Thankfully no-one tripped over Canon and tripod.


It was a completely different type of weekend to what we normally have, ie being in the great outdoors, but great fun all the same.

Last weekend was back to our normal treat of being out and about, where we visited the Welsh Mountains. Did our luck hold out with the weather yet again?


Nope, not this time, we had three full days of persistent precipitation. However, part of the reason for being in Snowdonia was to catch up with our friends Tim, Lisa and their daughter Eva; ski instructors during the winters in Morzine and Les Gets. Harriet and I were keen to walk up Snowdon, the highest of the Welsh mountains. We had to turn back on our first day because of 50+ mph winds, not to mention the rain.


But at our next attempt on day two we succeeded. It was still rainy and windy; we couldn't see a thing on the top half of the mountain. This is me (on the right) reaching the peak in the cloud looking more like a puppet, instead of a finely tuned athlete !?! Oh well, at least we walked up, ignoring the more traditional method of jumping on the mountain train.


On our third day, we all went for a more gentle walk around Llynnau Mymbyr - that's a lake to you and me - at the foot of Snowdon (the summit of the latter still covered in cloud and being ravaged by wind).


We shared loads of experiences from last winter, with plenty of smiles and laughter. Then suddenly we walked past the Plas Y Brenin National Mountain Centre and saw these lads having a skiing lesson on the dry slope. They were having heaps of fun, and our smiles grew as we watched and then continued along our way. What a great weekend in the (wet) mountains, being with friends talking about skiing.


I hope you are all having fantastic summer holidays wherever you are.

Martin

P.S. Would I go back to Wales again to the mountains?


Oh yes, but I would keep my fingers crossed hoping the weather will be kinder.