Nature Time without missing a Meal - by Dale

Today has been a very rich time with a little slower pace for good measure. We we invited to join in the traditional Sunday brunch the Gold's enjoy. That starts at 11 and gave me time to head down to the local land trust nature preserve. I could tell it would be a good time to head there after watching lots of bird activity out our upstairs bedroom window.

Not much information but a good place to be on a Sunday morning

Bonney pointed me in the right direction and told me to cross the playing fields to get there. I nearly had the area to myself when I arrived 10 minutes later except for a few jiggers and dog walkers. This area includes part of the Roding river and was previously a farm. A large area is set aside for sports use and a small footbridge takes you over to the preserve. About the time I got there the sun went behind some clouds and the wind dropped the temperature noticeably. A series of footpaths meander through various small wooded pastures that are maintained by fencing and gates. I headed downstream generally and enjoyed the quiet although I wasn't far from the heart of the city. Jeff takes daily walks here and I can see why. I enjoyed some bird sightings including a few new ones but mainly focused on the lush vegetation and moist conditions in spite of October being only a day away. It seems that the land trust uses traditional, low impact methods mainly to manage the land including grazing by longhorn cattle at times. There isn't much information or guidance beyond trail arrows. I did come across an area that was flagged to stay out due to a sewage leak so there is more to the preserve than I was told. I did note that the preserve is known for spring wildflowers as well as rare butterflies and dragonflies too.

A well thoughtout trail system with many view & rest areas

I caught a glimpse of a bright blue kingfisher in flight and a stealthy northern flicker. Both were new sightings for me. I also saw a number of common species and was sure that more were there to be seen given the time. I needed to head back in time for brunch but enjoyed a fine nature walk right out of my front door. 

Back at the house it was fun to watch Amy, Debbie and Lisa divide up some fudge from our Cambridge trip yesterday. Brunch included eggs, bagels, bacon, lox, coffee, tea and more in great quality and quantity. The real feast however was the family banter which was fast, fun, and filled with sharp wit. This tradition only lacked Julia who was home tracking a big database project rollout she is responsible for. We did get to spend time with her yesterday when she took time off to show us around her stomping grounds including Cambridge. 

A fudge sharing party before brunch

Brunch time!

Soon after we were stuffed, Jeff offered to show us part of Epping Forest. This area has been preserved by London for the enjoyment of all and has been managed for around 800 years. A deciduous forest, we saw the early signs of fall colors as well as a diverse mix of mushrooms and fungi. The ground was damp and everything was lush at a time back home that would be a tinder box. Our stroll was interesting with lots of discussion and partially answered questions about management, history and more. The weather and day of the week had many others out enjoying the day too. There were signs of human activity going back perhaps 2000 years or more. The remaining forest is quite narrow in places on the map but still connected over its 15 mile or so length. We'll have to do more homework to get to the technical questions but the open space, mix of familiar and different species, and time spent with someone who has enjoyed the forest for many years was a real treat.

Epping Forest is very old & managed and a delight to explore

Historic fortifications well over 1000 years old & poorly understood

We got back and had a relaxing time while preparing for another adventure to the Cotswalls tomorrow with a tasty dinner cooking downstairs. Who said travel has to be hard?

Initial Thoughts on London - by Dale

We arrived in London several days ago by train from Shrewsbury. It was an easy trip here including a transfer with a short time before our next train. We are getting better at this sort of thing but it's also because the train system is so good here. Once we arrived in London we needed to quickly master the underground tube during the start of rush hour and quickly travel across the city to get to Bonney and Jeff's in time for dinner. This turned out to be simple enough because this transport system is set up so well. We have now been using the tube for all but walking around the city and find it amazing. We are using Oyster cards which allow for easy passage and can be topped off as needed. The tube has clear mapping, understandable voice directions and enough redundancy built into it to be one of the best systems in the world.

Jeff and Bonney, our hosts reflecting on time we spent together while heading home on the tube 
 

Bonney and Jeff and their three daughters, Amy, Debbie and Julia have made us feel so welcome and helped us navigate and taken us to see parts of the city that this is the most relaxed we have felt on the entire trip. Most of our time has been spent around museums and parks as well as at Bonney and Jeff's home. We have also taken an evening walking tour with Amy that covered much of a canal trail connecting to the Thames. The pub dinner we had with Amy and meeting her roommate Paulina were high points yesterday. The time we spent in the Natural History Museum earlier in the day was enough to convince us this is one of the very best museums of the type globally. We will be going back for closer looks too.

A little "Art Work" used to Dress up a Shopping Center for the Olympics Recently
 

London has a comfortable and yet adventurous feel to it. We can get to many places and are beginning to realize how many places there are for us to consider seeing but of course we will only scratch the surface here too. 

Nothing Beats a Good Home Cooked Meal When You are Traveling
 

C.A.T. - by Laurie

NOTE: Since I often leave a post in draft form for several days (like this one), it can come in below the latest post and thereby be overlooked. You may want to occasionally scroll down and see what you've missed.

My top priority for Wales was to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology (C.A.T.). The purpose of the center is to demonstrate and teach sustainable techniques but I didn't know much more about it than that. I was visualizing someplace like Real Goods in Hopland, which showed a major lack of imagination on my part. CAT was so impressive that the visit there alone made our entire trip worthwhile.

The first job was to get there, which proved to be a bit of a challenge. CAT is located in Machynlleth (pronounced ma-HUN-khleth)--trains went there every two hours plus an hourly bus to the Centre, which is 3 miles away. We wisely chose not to go on Sunday when there are only four buses per day. Even so, the connections aren't synchronized so it was 1.5 hours by train and about an hour's wait for the bus to get there, then almost a two hour wait for the train on the way back. But besides the fact that this small effort was totally worth it, we got 50% off the cost of admission for traveling by public transportation.

To get to the Centre you start by going up on the carbon neutral Water-balanced Cliff Railroad, which uses updated 150-year-old technology to drive a special tram almost vertically uphill. Every last bit of energy is wrung out of the water that does the work. The system is more complex than I could follow (so follow the link above for more info), but the friendly man who worked the train assured me that there were several levels of braking built in to make the railway fail safe.

There is no way that I could capture the thrill of this water-balance railway, the steepest in the world. It was almost vertical.

The 7 acres of grounds are absolutely beautiful--plants and flowers everywhere, as well as fascinating structures and other features: energy-efficient buildings, a restaurant, playground, greenhouse and vegetable gardens, pond, biomass facility, solar and wind power, hydroelectric and water purifying facilities, even a giant mole tunnel. This was all developed in the 35 years that the Centre has been at this abandoned slate quarry; old photographs show a barren landscape where this paradise is now.

Dale in the mole tunnel, a fun illustration of the importance of the small things under the ground.

We didn't have much time to explore because of the long journey back so I took photos of everything, especially the signage that involved the public in the discussion of sustainable solutions. I'll study them in more depth later. We also joined CAT, which made us feel good plus gives us access to their expertise. I came away highly inspired and motivated to spread the word about what CAT is doing and to step up my own local efforts to find solutions to the climate crises.

A few more points. The creativity shown here by a small group of people could certainly be replicated all over the world to find local-based solutions to our sustainability challenges. One of CAT's most important projects is "Zero Carbon Britain 2030" which uses the practical information collected from the Centre to demonstrate that Britain can achieve a zero-carbon society in a relatively short time. Closer to home, 350 Sacramento is currently developing plans for a Town Hall meeting in March 2014 to explore how Sacramento can become carbon neutral. If you would like to help us with the town meeting please contact 350 Sacramento.

Beautiful beyond description.

"There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience." --Archibald MacLeish

 

Tracking Darwin - by Dale

Charles Darwin has been the stuff of legends for nearly as long as I can remember and that is getting longer all the time. We were in Brazil some years back and were lucky to be able to see a traveling exhibit celebrating his life and discoveries. He did quite a bit of work along the Brazilian coast and inland while sailing on the Beagle. The exhibit was mostly in Portuguese and one of the things that really impressed me was the large crowds that came out for it. People stood and read complex display material describing these early studies by Darwin as well as his family history and much more. It was clear that Brazilians were interested and proud of this piece of history their country played an important role in.

Darwin outside the city library
 

Not long afterwards, we were able to see the English version of this exhibit in the Chicago Field Museum. We spent the better part of a day in the museum and didn't tire of studying all the materials. This chance opportunity added to the power of Darwin's discoveries and the times he lived for me. 

For the last few days we've been in Shrewsbury where Darwin was born in 1809 and lived the first 27 years of his life. His 200th birthday was well celebrated there a few years back and there are many signs of his celebrity even in this old city that has so much history over its long existence. The library has a large statue of Darwin sitting with a large stack of books in his later years. There are many other places tied to Darwin's time in Shrewsbury including a few strange ones like a shopping center. None the less it was a powerful feeling to be so close to such an important time in history and evolutionary discovery. We enjoyed following part of the Darwin "town trail" but didn't have time to see his home and garden which are not easily available for the public due to some short sighted thinking. His home is used for local government offices and the gardens are only available during church fundraising periods. Hopefully that will be fixed soon.

A different kind of landmark

Darwin's Gate is a landmark in Shrewabury

More importantly, these sights remind me of the importance of ecological discovery and evolutionary principles as well as the need to conserve biological diversity. This is very apparent as we travel through vast areas that have been greatly changed by centuries of human activity. In many areas we've travelled through on this trip the landscape has been greatly changed and many native species are missing or replaced by nonnative ones. There are also many indications that climate change is accelerating this anthromorphic process. 

We missed this talk but know the story well now 

We will be giving much more thought and reflection to the importance of this work as we visit the London Museum of Natural History. I'm specifically interested in the celebration of Alfred Wallace who independently and collaboratively helped shape the theory of evolution. Much of Wallace's work took place in Indonesia. Visiting that special and very diverse place last year will make this opportunity even more meaningful. I'll have more to say about that soon as we had an amazing visit there today and will be back tomorrow for a behind the scenes tour with one of the museum scientists and our hosts in London.

Coming Home to Shrewsbury - by Laurie

Over 40 years ago (!!) my family spent a year traveling through Europe in a Volkswagen bus--all 8 of us (!!!). I was 17 years old, in what should have been my senior year of high school, and it must have been a traumatic year because I remember almost nothing.

We traveled just about everywhere in Western and Eastern Europe that year, except Greece (where there had recently been a coup and people were asked not to support the new government), Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia (which required tourists to spend a certain amount per person per day), and Scotland and Ireland (my parents waited until after we went home at the end of the year to go there).

For 5 months in the winter we lived in a house in Shrewsbury. It was a nice big house in a newer development at the outskirts of town, with four bedrooms upstairs. Pretty luxurious for the likes of us who had been camping/hosteling for months. We settled in and my brothers and sister went to school, my parents traveled around looking at sights, and I stayed home totally bored. At my age students had either left school to work or were going on to university. I wasn't allowed to work. I did have two friends, Rita and Carol, but I believe they worked during the day. The only things I remember are that there were only three channels on the telly and nothing to watch during the day, and that this was when I taught myself to knit and knitted my little brother Jon a sweater.

So, fast forward 40+ years and I'm back in Shrewsbury. I've lost touch with Rita and Carol, which I greatly regret, and have no idea where that house was or anything else here. It's still a total blank.

But, we are staying in the nicest B&B yet, had a fabulous dinner last night, and look forward to exploring Shrewsbury as tourists. It's a really charming town.

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury.

There is also a Darwin Shopping Centre.

 

Themes - by Laurie

When we planned this trip we decided that our themes would be Nature and Climate Change. It's always good to have a theme, it helps focus the trip and ensures a common thread throughout your travels. Even when we don't have a theme, a common thread usually emerges. 

But trips seldom go as planned. We've been mostly in cities so there has been little opportunity to commune with nature, and I've had few interactions about climate change. In fact, for the last couple of weeks I've been planning to write a post to announce our new themes: trains and eating.

Eating is what we do the very best, and we're certainly enjoying eating our way through the countries we visit. I am well aware I will pay for this joy when we return but I'm not willing to give up one morsel of this aspect of our travels. We start most days with a B&B breakfast--today I had organic fruit salad and porridge plus hot Camembert with mushrooms on seeded toast. Yesterday I had lamb cawl (a lamb vegetable stew) for lunch. And an Eton Mess for dessert last night. Yum!

But the point of this post is that, although eating is certainly our major theme, we've had the ultimate climate change-related experience today so climate change will remain a major theme of this trip. But I think the Centre for Alternative technology deserves a post of its own.

Waffle with brown cheese in Norway. 

Dinner buffet on the ferry--once is enough.

Langoustines at Isle of Mull.

Fish pie for me at the Fish Cafe.

 

Wales in a Whirl - by Laurie

We chose to hang out in Scotland beyond our allotted days so our time in Wales was severely truncated. In fact, we only stayed there one night, although we'll be going back today for the day. 

We got the last accommodation available in Aberystwyth--a somewhat seedy resort hotel along the promenade. Certainly not up to our new elitist standards. But Aberystwyth was well worth visiting. It's a college town and very lively. We used our time there well.

We explored the ruins of a fascinating castle, with standing stones, at sunset. Then we went to dinner at a local pub chock full of students and ambience, with a burger menu on a 2-story chalkboard that reached down from the second floor. I have been sampling the local draft (draught) cider at each pub while Dale checks out the local ale.

The castle. Note one of the standing stones to the right, a Bardic Circle.

Next morning (after breakfast of course--we never miss a breakfast) we went on a hike along the coastal trail. Just in the last year or so Wales completed a walking trail around the country--over 800 miles, I believe. Much of the trail follows the coast. This was a 5-mile, 2-hour walk from Aberystwyth to Borth. One of the great things about Wales is the train system, which goes to many small places, including from Borth to Aberystwyth, so we didn't have to walk back.

So we headed up Constitution Hill to the trail, vast ocean on one side and indifferent sheep on the other. We saw cormorant-covered rocks below and 4 to 8 (depending on whether second sittings were new birds or not) red kites flew overhead. The two hour estimate was highly optimistic. This trail went way up and then down and then up again over and over again. The trail description said there were 1 or 2 hills. This Sacramento girl would say 8 or 10 really steep hills. After we completed the trail there was still a mile or more walk to the train station in Broth. I was very pleased to have accomplished the whole walk and even more happy to take the train back.

A georgeous walk along the coast in Wales. 

Borth is a resort town that never quite made the big time like Aberystwyth. The small railroad station, built 150 years ago, is now a train museum. The man and wife who run the museum talked to us enthusiastically about their trip to the US 17 years ago when they put 12,000 miles on their railpasses in a month! We also learned more about Borth than we'd ever expected.

Borth back to Aberystwyth, picked up our luggage from the hotel, then back to the train station for the trip to Shrewsbury. When we first came into town we didn't even know which direction to take from the train station. Now, a day later, we knew that station and town like an old friend. 

Red kite flying overhead (note the forked tail), one of the highest points of this very high day.