Despite being built around the time of William the Conqueror almost a thousand years ago, Cardiff Castle, with its 150-foot-tall clock tower, remains an iconic feature of the Welsh capital.
Cardiff is a city and the capital of Wales. It is the United Kingdom’s eleventh-largest city. As Wales’ chief commercial centre, Cardiff is the base for the Senedd, most national cultural institutions and Welsh media.
THE GUARDIAN (David Gange, Aug 23, 2020): The journey can be done by several means, in trips of 10 days, two weeks or more. Experienced sea kayakers can tackle the whole route by water and sleep each night beside their boat, embracing in full Adam and Dunnett’s desire “to test the zest of physical living that town life denies us”. Non-kayakers can cycle between notable sites and stay in holiday accommodation along the route.
A first day’s journey moves from the mouth of the Clyde to the Isle of Bute. I’d plan to buy provisions at Helmi’s in the village of Rothesay: a glorious bakery founded by the island’s community of Syrian refugees. The next day doesn’t take the obvious route south round Arran, but turns north to “Britain’s most beautiful shortcut”.
The Crinan Canal bisects the Kintyre peninsula and ends among beautiful, wildlife-rich woodland at the picturesque village of Crinan. (If you’re travelling by road but would like to experience a little boating, this is the place to cover the gentlest nine miles of Adam and Dunnett’s journey.) From Crinan, a third day moves through the atmospheric Slate Islands. Timing tides well should mean there’s little need to paddle, as great salt rivers flush a kayak through remains of important industries that blend perfectly into dramatic seascapes.
See how since buying the house with his wife, managing director of creative agency Winkreative, Ariel Childs, 20 years ago, Paul de Zwart has transformed a 17th-century cottage into a refined take on the English country house idiom, with interiors that bear the mark of the couple’s desire for contemporary country living, where wellies are as at home as a cocktail shaker.
London-based entrepreneur Paul de Zwart crystallized the concept for his fledgling furniture company, Another Country, while searching for some simple bedside tables and stools for his country house. “I realized there was a dearth of well-made, well-priced design with a modern craft heritage,” he says. His solution? An affordable line of pared-down pieces that are handmade in England from sustainable woods. “We’re going for timeless over trendy.”
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe or Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world’s largest arts festival, which in 2018 spanned 25 days and featured more than 55,000 performances of 3,548 different shows in 317 venues.
Edinburgh is Scotland’s compact, hilly capital. It has a medieval Old Town and elegant Georgian New Town with gardens and neoclassical buildings. Looming over the city is Edinburgh Castle, home to Scotland’s crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish rulers. Arthur’s Seat is an imposing peak in Holyrood Park with sweeping views, and Calton Hill is topped with monuments and memorials.
For the ancient Greeks the tree of witchcraft and death, for the Celts the tree of immortality and transcendence of time, for Nordic people the world tree Yggdrasil: – immense, evergreen, connecting their 9 worlds of existence. God Odin hung himself from a Yew tree for 9 nights in search of wisdom. During this time he traveled through the 9 worlds to learn the secrets of life and death… Interestingly, the Yew emits a vapour which can potentially cause hallucinations if inhaled for a long time. Needles, seeds, bark and wood are highly poisonous, the red flesh of its fruits is the only non-toxic part of the tree, it is edible, nutritious and sweet.
Yggdrasil is an immense mythical tree that plays a central role in Norse cosmology, where it connects the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson.
The UK is one of the most enchanting regions in the world. From the magical Isle of Skye to the white cliffs of the Jurassic Coast, the United Kingdom has so much to offer. I’ve traveled to the UK more than any other destination and I want to show you my favorite places!
An apprentice writer has an entirely unexpected encounter with literary genius Jorge Luis Borges that will profoundly alter his life and work. A poignant and comic literary coming-of-age memoir. “This is a jewel of a book.” –Ian McEwan
In 1971 Jay Parini was an aspiring poet and graduate student of literature at University of St Andrews in Scotland; he was also in flight from being drafted into service in the Vietnam War. One day his friend and mentor, Alastair Reid, asked Jay if he could play host for a “visiting Latin American writer” while he attended to business in London. He agreed–and that “writer” turned out to be the blind and aged and eccentric master of literary compression and metaphysics, Jorge Luis Borges. About whom Jay Parini knew precisely nothing. What ensued was a seriocomic romp across the Scottish landscape that Borges insisted he must “see,” all the while declaiming and reciting from the literary encyclopedia that was his head, and Jay Parini’s eventual reckoning with his vocation and personal fate.
Ken Follett, international best-selling author and one of the world’s best-loved novelists, joined Reverend Hilary De Lyon (RSM Vice-President) for a lively discussion about his work, including the variety of different kinds of novels he has written, from the longevity and international success of his first novel Eye of the Needle and the later The Pillars of the Earth, to his latest book A Column of Fire; and what inspires him in the creative process of developing exciting plots in many different historical settings. The RSM’s In Conversation Live series offers the opportunity to get first-hand insights into the lives and thoughts of high profile individuals through an intimate, relaxed and entertaining setting, direct to your living room.
Kenneth Martin Follett, CBE, FRSL is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works. Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists.
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