Ailsa’s Meeting Places is a real treat – now we can find places to meet in reality – and virtually – all over the world!
Me meeting all the H.P. fans at the ”Elephant House”
Go there and remember…
Travel theme: Meeting Places
Wonders and peculiarities
The Falkirk Wheel and The Kelpies – Masterpieces
The Falkirk Wheel
Let us start with my last day in Scotland for this time. Our flight home was moved to the afternoon, so, we went west from Edinburgh to visit The Falkirk Wheel, which is the world’s first rotating boatlift. The lift links the Forth & Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, connecting Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Detta hjul är den första roterande båtliften i världen och ingår i Skottlands ambitiösa kanalprogram. Union and the Forth och Clyde är nu en oavbruten länk mellan Glasgow och Edinburgh. Hjulet svingar båtarna mellan de två vattenvägarna!
If you want to try the wheel you can take a trip on these boats. Unfortunately they were not available when we visited. Vanillarock shows great shots of the wheel at work here!
Om du ville pröva hjulet fanns möjligheten med dessa turistbåtar. De hade ännu inte öppnat när vi var där. Vanillarock visar den i arbete här!
The Kelpies
More fantastic engineering – or rather spectacular, beautiful art – are The Kelpies by sculptor Andy Scott. ”The original concept of mythical water horses was a valid starting point for the artistic development of the structures.“”I took that concept and moved with it towards a more equine and contemporary response, shifting from any mythological references towards a socio-historical monument intended to celebrate the horse’s role in industry and agriculture as well as the obvious association with the canals as tow horses.”
Som en tribut till de hästar som troget arbetat för människan, bland annat vid kanalerna, står dessa 30 meter höga jättar vid varsin sida av the Forth & Clyde Canal och bildar en portal till dess ingång.
The Kelpies stand 30 metres tall in the 350 hectares Helix recreational space in Falkirk. They are the world’s largest equine sculptures and towering over the Forth & Clyde Canal they form a gateway to the canal entrance. These sculptures are meant to pay tribute to central Scotland’s working horse heritage on the canals from years gone by.
Hästarna är konstruerade av skulptören Andy Scott. Skulpturerna påbörjades i juni 2013 och stod klara i oktober samma år. Invigningen var dock i april 2014. De är världens största hästskulpturer.
Built of structural steel with a stainless steel cladding, The Kelpies weigh 300 tonnes each.
Vi uppskattade stålplåtens tjocklek till ca en halv centimeter – och hästarna väger imponerande 300 ton vardera.
Construction began in June 2013, and was complete by October 2013. The Kelpies are positioned either side of a specially constructed lock and basin, part of the redeveloped Kelpies Hub.
Please click the photos to enlarge!
Läs mer om arbetshästarnas historia här. Read more of the working horses history here.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Containers
Containers… sometimes containers don’t contain what we expect them to…
För more surprises, click here!
Wedding!
At my age, I’m more often attending funerals than weddings… Luckily our children’s friends are coming of age…and on rare occations… we are invited to this great feast of joy – a wedding.
A mix of cultures makes these occations even more interesting. Enjoy a mix of pictures where the bride and groom entertain their hundreds of guests – playing and singing in a band. A lovely wedding for young and old, for musicians and everyone invited! Thank you!
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Crooked and Squiggly Lines
Cee’s imagination is neverending! Crooked and squiggly lines – here they come! Why don’t you join in too?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Extra Extra
Well, here’s my extra, extra story… On this wall you are supposed to write something special behind the little wooden doors…
Of course we did, and read about strange and wonderful things behind a lot of other doors as well…
We moved on, and on our way back again there was this gang of guys with black hats and clothes, speaking Italian. We asked politely what they were doing with the wall…
…and found out that this guy was getting married. So, his friends were doing a little something…special and extra for him…
…by opening and closing the little doors to display his name all over the wall!
Weekly Travel theme: Unexpected
This picture was entered once before, but it still is one of my greatest surprises…totally unexpected. I was shooting the tree and the long cloud, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the plane turned up. Almost touching the snow, and without a sound to reveal it was coming. Quite suitable for Ailsa’a travel theme as well!
An Award – to all of you!
Sometimes I’m offered an award. I’m not playing along very often, but I’m always grateful that somebody thinks I’m worthy of it! And then, sometimes I feel I just Have to play along. (My heart is of course swelling…) Given the time too, and with no difficult answers to be given… Here we go!
A big Thank You goes to Across the Bored http://acrossthebored.com/ who has sent along a Most Influential Blogger award! A lovely opening about herself is:” Old enough to rant, too old to rave yet sufficiently young to forge a path into the future.“ Influencing people sounds great – as long as it is in a positive way – so accepting this feels great as well. I would like to point out that EVERY blogger in our community is influential in his or her own way. So, thank you All of you out there for inspiring!
Conditions For Accepting The Award
To accept this award, the awardee must do the following:
- Display the Award on your Blog.
- Announce your win with a blog post and thank the Blogger who awarded you. Do not lump this award with any other award in a “basket”, “bouquet” or “collection” etc, I would rather you didn’t accept the award.
- Present 10 deserving Bloggers with the Award.
- Link your awardees in the post and let them know of their being awarded with a comment (or a pingback).
- Include an embedded video of your current favourite song (YouTube has virtually everything, just copy and paste the link into your WordPress editor). If a video is not possible you can embed a SoundCloud track.
And the Award goes to the hosts/hostesses of these:
http://breathofgreenair.com/ Greenmackenzie
http://vastlycurious.com/ Vastlycurious
silkannthreades.wordpress.com/ Gallivanta
Bente Haarstad Photography Bente Harstad
margaretrosestringer.com M.R. I know, I know…you don’t want this…
http://mygulitypleasures.wordpress.com/ Viveka
http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/ Amy
http://lignumdraco.wordpress.com/ Etcetera Etcetera Etcetera
http://scottseyephotos.wordpress.com/ Scottseyephotos
http://munchow.wordpress.com/ In Flow
http://lynneayersbeyondthebrush.wordpress.com/ Beyond the Brush
Please, check them all out – each one is influential in their own right, and offers us another unique perspective on our world!
My video is for all you positive inspirers! The song is stuck in my mind since I first heard it, and the clip is happy and warm hearted. Have a great weekend!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Split-Second Story
Split-second stories, two of them, both chosen from trips done in May this year.
In the first picture we were travelling by bus, the students and teachers of the science program. On this narrow bridge we caught up with a young boy who took to biking as fast as he could to get to the other side. I understand his hurry…
Another trip was by car on a ferry to a small island. I think I captured the story in double frames?
Weekly Travel theme: Metal
Ailsa’s theme this week is about metal. New Zealand again – Metal things found in the sea, metal for a playground in Auckland, for the Zoo, and works of art for the harbour in Auckland. Mostly impressed I was by the most beautiful dustbins I have ever seen – and for the water in the street …have you ever seen such a marvellous detail?
Train from the sea
Found where?
Playground in Auckland harbour
Auckland Zoo
Somewhere and everywhere in NZ
Lovely…just the idea of it…
Leya 
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