Lone Pine Lodge

I've been quiet lately because real life has been chaos between here, me going away to visit and problems with cousin A and Auntie N I haven't had a moment to myself it seems. My travels are finished and we have got Auntie N into a nice care home and A calmed down and recovering slowly from a month of almost no sleep as her mother kept trying to get out of bed during the night. at 70 A is in need of of a bit of care her self, her Mam has just got too much to deal with. Any way I had a nice morning with no commitments other than walking my girls so we went off to Cwmcarn lake with my camera and I to be 'arty' with my snap shots.
First the obligatory shot of the girls.

( And now for the Art )

The upper of the two rows of houses in this picture is known locally as the Spiteful. If you click through to the biggest picture you can just see the railway line that gives it it's nick name.

Way back when that railway was being built land that was not built on could be bought by compulsory purchase orders for pennies. Land with houses on cost the railway builders a lot more. When the Ebbw Vale to Newport line was built in the 1800s the builder wanted to tunnel through the mountain spur the houses are built on and applied to parliament for the order. Virtually overnight the owner of the land built 4 houses running down the spine of the spur and rather than paying full price the line went round the edge of it instead. Those original houses didn't last long and the ones that are there now were built about 1880 but the name stuck. This is the Western view from Windy Ridge Cwmcarn Scenic drive.

( more landscapes from Windy Ridge. )