They say "time flies when you're having fun" & indeed I can concur after an eleven day break over the Easter/Royal Wedding period that seems to be over in a flash.
We enjoyed a visit to Wenlock Priory and Daniel's Mill - both worth their own blog entries outside of this.
Congratulations to Prince William & Catherine (good name that!). Many people have commented on how nice the wedding was: simple but elegant. Simple bar a little pomp & ceremony.
Enjoying modern technology I am sat inputting this by phone in the garden. The remnants of the warm sun are keeping me warm for the moment, though I expect this ever-increasing cold wind will win over shortly. I can't complain though; what fabulous weather we have had!
Showing posts with label days out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label days out. Show all posts
Monday, 2 May 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Homebuilding & Renovating Show
Entering a packed NEC at opening time, the show offered a large variety of information about home building and renovating. With over 500 exhibitors we gathered inspirational ideas on SIPs houses and timber frames; finance; renewable energy solutions (solar photovoltaic, heat pumps, rainwater harvesting, heat recovery, biomass); landscaping & garden (luxury bamboo gazebos, carbon capture turf, decking, garden rooms); architects and stuff for the house (TV fireplaces, showers, kichens and central vacuum systems). We enjoyed a couple of interesting seminars on sustainable self-build (building a low impact, low energy home) and budgeting (how to build a 4-bedroom detached house for under £150,000) and strolled round the "Cutting-Edge Home" by Border Oak and Oakwrights' "Low Energy Home" - partially built traditional-like oak frame houses within the hall, demonstrating energy efficient building materials, prefabrication and craftmanship! Such a busy day, we wandered out as they were closing!
Monday, 21 March 2011
Hobsons Brewery
Our trip began with a sample of the beer (choice included Twisted Spire, Mild, Bitter) before proceeding on the actual tour. Emphasis was placed on the renewable technologies the micro brewery is using to make the brewing process more efficient as well as ways where they are reusing or recycling products to reduce waste.
A wind turbine supplies some of the energy required by the plant, while ground source heat obtained from 4 boreholes with looped flow/return pipes running to 55m deep provides some of the heating requirements. Underfloor heating is used in the offices while the 2nd fermentation room for bottles is heated to 25'c.
Using a heat exchanger, chilled water used to cool boiled malting barley is recycled to be used itself in the boiling process. Yeast is reused where possible, cleaned with a mild acid bath to kill the weakest and keep the population healthy.
Waste products are recycled or reused, as much as possible, with cardboard being sent to the local school, hop waste being used for horticulture and waste barley used as feed for animals - the feed is of a high enough quality to be used by animals in their last 45 days of life. The brewery are also trialling use of a waste cardboard/hop mix to produce their own beer mats.
A wind turbine supplies some of the energy required by the plant, while ground source heat obtained from 4 boreholes with looped flow/return pipes running to 55m deep provides some of the heating requirements. Underfloor heating is used in the offices while the 2nd fermentation room for bottles is heated to 25'c.
Using a heat exchanger, chilled water used to cool boiled malting barley is recycled to be used itself in the boiling process. Yeast is reused where possible, cleaned with a mild acid bath to kill the weakest and keep the population healthy.
Waste products are recycled or reused, as much as possible, with cardboard being sent to the local school, hop waste being used for horticulture and waste barley used as feed for animals - the feed is of a high enough quality to be used by animals in their last 45 days of life. The brewery are also trialling use of a waste cardboard/hop mix to produce their own beer mats.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Erasmus Darwin House
Situated with the frontage on Beacon St and the rear with access to Cathedral Close in Lichfield, Erasmus Darwin House was the home of the said Mr Darwin from 1758 to 1781.
A distinguished physician by trade (he was invited to become the royal physician but declined), Erasmus had ideas well ahead of his time including evolutionary biology, feminism and the notion of modern cars and aeroplanes. Although they never met, his books hugely influenced his more famous grandson Charles, who published "On the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection" in 1859.
He came up with an improved design for steering carriages and, it seems, may have been the source of a number of ideas upon which fellow members of The Lunar Society progressed patents and inventions. A founder member of the Society that was described as "a dining club and informal learned society of prominent industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals", it also included Josiah Wedgwood (whose eldest daughter Suzannah married Erasmus's son Robert - their grandson through this marriage was Charles), Matthew Bolton, James Watt and Joseph Priestley to name a few.
A distinguished physician by trade (he was invited to become the royal physician but declined), Erasmus had ideas well ahead of his time including evolutionary biology, feminism and the notion of modern cars and aeroplanes. Although they never met, his books hugely influenced his more famous grandson Charles, who published "On the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection" in 1859.
He came up with an improved design for steering carriages and, it seems, may have been the source of a number of ideas upon which fellow members of The Lunar Society progressed patents and inventions. A founder member of the Society that was described as "a dining club and informal learned society of prominent industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals", it also included Josiah Wedgwood (whose eldest daughter Suzannah married Erasmus's son Robert - their grandson through this marriage was Charles), Matthew Bolton, James Watt and Joseph Priestley to name a few.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)