Let us be who we are and be that well, in order to bring honour to the master craftsman whose handiwork we are.
St. Francis de Sales
10 Comments CherryPie on Feb 19th 2017
It is a lovely place to visit not only do you get a guided tour that explains the history and how the mill works. There is also opportunity to walk around the mill pools and through the surrounding woodlands which allow views of the mill from different perspectives.
There is also the opportunity to walk under the viaduct (part of the severn valley railway) and view it from both sides along with trains travelling along the viaduct. The walk also allows you to see the track and the steam trains at eye level. The train drivers often blow the trains whistle and wave to visitors as the train passes by. The flour that the mill produces can be purchased raw or in the form of scones in the tea shop.
12 Comments CherryPie on Feb 17th 2017
Highley railway station is a station on the Severn Valley Railway heritage line in Shropshire, near the west bank of the River Severn and just under a mile south-east of the village of Highley. Highley is the only staffed single-platform station on the line. Other stops with one platform are unstaffed halts.
Highley station opened to the public on 1 February 1862 and closed on 9 September 1963, before the Beeching axe closures.
Highley station was important as the transport hub of a colliery district, with four nearby coal mines linked to the Severn Valley line by standard and narrow gauge lines, cable inclines and aerial ropeways . There were extensive sidings along the line, and wagon repair works at Kinlet, half-a-mile south.
The station was inconveniently far from Highley so the arrival of a bus service seriously affected use of the station.
The signal box opposite the platform remained in use until 1969 when Alveley colliery closed and freight traffic ceased. The station site was disused until preservation.
14 Comments CherryPie on Feb 16th 2017
Clun castle was built in the late 11th century to proclaim Norman dominance over this part of the Welsh Marches. It later became home to the Fitzalans, and important ruling family.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the border between Wales and England remained an usettled area. William the Conqueror granted lands here to his followers to defend the border. These men became the powerful marcher lords, ruling their lands independently of royal control.
One of them, Picot de Say, is thought to have built the castle, high on a natural spru guarding the Clun valley. In 1155, the castle passed by marriage of Isabella de Say to William Fitzalan, and was owned by the powerful Fitzalan family for the next 400 years.
Clun was at the centre of a vast lordship know as the honour of Clu, over which the Fitzalans excercised unlimited authority, administering a mixture of Welsh and English law.*
*From a signboard by the castle remains
21 Comments CherryPie on Feb 15th 2017
Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together,
and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings
of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress
grow not in each other’s shadow.
On Marriage, from The Prophet.
Kahlil Gibran
16 Comments CherryPie on Feb 14th 2017
Words can travel across thousands of miles. May my words create mutual understanding and love. May they be beautiful gems, as lovely as flowers.
Thich Nhat Hahn
10 Comments CherryPie on Feb 12th 2017
