My friend Patty assures me that, whatever I may think I see on my site, the pictures and captions are actually in the spaces in which I placed them. That said, I'll start off today with a counterpoint to the picture from yesterday. Patty told me she had photographed the river from a tower of Conwy Castle. Here is one I took of the countryside:






Earlier, Melissa and Mauri and Jeff and I climbed nearly to the summit of Corfe Castle, only to discover that the gates were chained for the night so we settled for supper in the village of Corfe and a taste of scrumpy. Which none of us liked so much, Rick Steves' enthusiasm notwithstanding. Corfe Castle dates from the 11th century. In the 17th century, it was ably defended by "Brave Dame Mary" Bankes, wife of royalist Sir John Bankes, against the Parliamentarians. When the castle finally fell, it was rendered useless as a fortress by strategically placed explosives - some say it was to be certain that the royalists could never use it again, others maintain the Parliamentarians were so outraged at their narrow victory over a castle full of women, that they destroyed the castle in a fit of pique.

Whatever, we arrived too late to explore the grounds, but not too late for some marvelous pictures of ruins at sunset, complete with livestock: