The world in a mirror

I love car windscreens and hoods (i'm strange like that). They produce beautiful effects and with them you can create everything from an expressionist painting to a window into some far away galaxy.

I love them covered in fresh raindrops when they glitter and shine or reflecting street lamps on a frosty night when they become a constellation of stars. They become multicolored filters that twist and turn the world in a multitude of different ways. Or they can create impressionist dreams of colour, shape and form.

Beauty is where you find it and occasionally for me thats reflected in the bumper of a parked car.

The historic welsh town of Caerleon

Located a few miles from the city of Newport is the utterly charming welsh town of Caerleon. I was having one of those days when I just wanted to jump on a random bus and see where it took me and I was very pleased with the result.

Caerleon is set right in the heart of some beautiful countryside and has an absolutely lovely selection of small, locally run shops. It is also the site of some fascinating history, having been both the site of an ancient roman fortress and an iron age hill fort.

Fortunately today the town is a much more tranquil place and upon arrival I set about exploring the nooks and alleyways that lined the high street. As I explored I stumbled on an side street lined with beautifully carved wooden statues and filled with lovely little new age shops (including a jewellery shop, that had a working metal smithing work shop inside it).

After doing a bit of exploration and photography I stopped for lunch in a local cafe/bar. As I relaxed I enjoyed the atmosphere of the place and tucked into a delicious goat cheese and olive sandwich.

Afterwards I took a walk along the Usk river and crossed by onto a scenic winding footpath that took me up to and past the remains of the roman fortress itself.

I left the town refreshed at having had such a great day out.

Newport by night

Its no secret for me to say that out of all the places I'd rather not be Newport would rank pretty highly amongst them. In fact I can't help but feel a good old nuclear bomb might in fact raise the property value here significantly.

Having said that even I have to admit that it is surrounded by some pretty lovey countryside and the town's grimness conjures up some lovely images of urban decay. It was the reason that as the light was fading I took to the streets with my camera to see what I could find.

I took pictures of car head lights glittering in the reflection of nearby street lamp, phone booths that held swirling patterns of brilliant white paint and metal grates turned to hypnotic colour by neon lights.

A stormy sky turned the town's bridge into a strange alien artifact and the lamps that covered the town turned ever tree to gold and orange in the fading light.


In short with a little work art does actually turn all that glitter into gold...even when whats glittering is Newport.