Kielder Water
Feb. 17th, 2008 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iainjclarkWe spent a nice day ferrying my brother-in-law up to Kielder Water in Northumberland. He works up there teaching outdoor pursuits, and it very slightly beats-the-hell out of my office as a workplace. Photos on our website here.
Kielder is a large reservoir surrounded by dense forest. Although it's man-made, you'd be hard-pressed to tell once you get away from the dam itself (and the really quite science-fictional looking observation tower that pokes out of the water nearby). There's some ongoing erosion around the shoreline as everything naturalises in, but otherwise it would sit comfortably on the outskirts of the Lake District. It's bloody cold at this time of year, so we didn't wander around for too long (plenty of frost in the shadows and actual ice along the high water mark) but we're lucky to have beautiful countryside like this only about 90 minutes away.
Janet actually stood on the floor of what is now the Reservoir, at the foot of the observation tower, when she was a child (thanks to her Dad who was servicing some of the machinery in use on the site). I think that's pretty cool. Looking at wiki it was finished around 1982.
It was nice to get out. Janet was ill with a nasty cold and cough for the best part of last week, but struggled diligently into work throughout -- apart from last Monday when it became clear that even crawling out of bed was beyond her best efforts. I persuaded her to see sense and take the day off sick. As a result we haven't done a great deal other than sit in the warmth for the last couple of weeks.
I have however purchased a lovely Ipod Classic 80GB in black, and the atrociously-named Jivebox from Logic3, a fine ipod speaker dock with a really solid and satisfying sound. I nearly bought several other ipod speakers from the thousands on offer, but a few good reviews (including a Gadget Show recommendation) convinced me and I'm pleased they did. I'm now um-ing and ah-ing about the in-car listening arrangement. At present I've got a lash-up that feeds the ipod headphone socket into the RCA cables at the back of our stereo. This works fine but I could do with a proper dock that holds the ipod in a convenient place and charges the ipod while we listen. This is the front-runner at present (the 2008 version, which may not be available 'til next month).
Kielder is a large reservoir surrounded by dense forest. Although it's man-made, you'd be hard-pressed to tell once you get away from the dam itself (and the really quite science-fictional looking observation tower that pokes out of the water nearby). There's some ongoing erosion around the shoreline as everything naturalises in, but otherwise it would sit comfortably on the outskirts of the Lake District. It's bloody cold at this time of year, so we didn't wander around for too long (plenty of frost in the shadows and actual ice along the high water mark) but we're lucky to have beautiful countryside like this only about 90 minutes away.
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Janet actually stood on the floor of what is now the Reservoir, at the foot of the observation tower, when she was a child (thanks to her Dad who was servicing some of the machinery in use on the site). I think that's pretty cool. Looking at wiki it was finished around 1982.
It was nice to get out. Janet was ill with a nasty cold and cough for the best part of last week, but struggled diligently into work throughout -- apart from last Monday when it became clear that even crawling out of bed was beyond her best efforts. I persuaded her to see sense and take the day off sick. As a result we haven't done a great deal other than sit in the warmth for the last couple of weeks.
I have however purchased a lovely Ipod Classic 80GB in black, and the atrociously-named Jivebox from Logic3, a fine ipod speaker dock with a really solid and satisfying sound. I nearly bought several other ipod speakers from the thousands on offer, but a few good reviews (including a Gadget Show recommendation) convinced me and I'm pleased they did. I'm now um-ing and ah-ing about the in-car listening arrangement. At present I've got a lash-up that feeds the ipod headphone socket into the RCA cables at the back of our stereo. This works fine but I could do with a proper dock that holds the ipod in a convenient place and charges the ipod while we listen. This is the front-runner at present (the 2008 version, which may not be available 'til next month).