{"id":11833,"date":"2022-10-16T08:25:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T08:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=11833"},"modified":"2022-10-16T08:25:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T08:25:19","slug":"twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=11833","title":{"rendered":"Twins?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of days ago, your &#8216;umble scribe escaped his normal stomping ground to visit the local <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Caldicot_Castle\">castle in Caldicot<\/a> (Cil-y-Coed) in Monmouthshire, South Wales, which has existed in some form since about 1100.<\/p>\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/Caldicot_Castle.jpg\" alt=\"Caldicot Castle entrance\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11846\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/Caldicot_Castle.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/Caldicot_Castle-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\r\n<p>The tour of the castle and environs was followed by a splendid breakfast at the Aroma Caf\u00e9 in the centre of Caldicot.<\/p>\r\n<p>Travelling back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalrail.co.uk\/stations-and-destinations\/stations-made-easy\/severn-tunnel-junction-station-plan\">Severn Tunnel Junction<\/a> on the outskirts of Rogiet for the return train entailed joining the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walescoastpath.gov.uk\/?lang=en\">Wales Coast Path<\/a> just past Caldicot railway station, where your correspondent observed the station sign was looking somewhat the worse for wear. <\/p>\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/caldicot.jpg\" alt=\"Caldicot station sign\" width=\"600\" height=\"547\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11847\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/caldicot.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/caldicot-300x274.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\r\n<p>Note the heavy peppering by air pistol or shotgun pellets.<\/p>\r\n<p>Your &#8216;umble scribe could not help but be reminded on what seems to be a tradition on Crete of taking potshots at road signs.<\/p>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_11848\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11848\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/Crete_Aradaina1_tango7174.jpg\" alt=\"Cretan road sign with ammunition holes\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11848\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/Crete_Aradaina1_tango7174.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2022\/10\/Crete_Aradaina1_tango7174-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11848\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>On Crete there is a tradition of firing off weapons at such celebrations as marriages and the island is also reputed to have the highest level of gun ownership in the entire EU. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/opinion\/252715\/guns-on-crete-set-back-greek-efforts-to-save-lives\/\">According to Greek news site Ekathiremini<\/a>, there are estimated to be between 600,000 and one million illegal firearms on Crete, which has a population (2021 figure) of 617,360.<\/p>\r\n<p>Are Cretans carrying on a tradition of their homeland in South Wales or is this local traditional vandalism? Have your say in the comments.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of days ago, your &#8216;umble scribe escaped his normal stomping ground to visit the local castle in Caldicot (Cil-y-Coed) in Monmouthshire, South Wales, which has existed in some form since about 1100. The tour of the castle and environs was followed by a splendid breakfast at the Aroma Caf\u00e9 in the centre of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,25],"class_list":["post-11833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddities","tag-comment","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11833"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11849,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions\/11849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}