lake – SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR)

UK: Georgia’s Undeciphered “Bashplemi Tablet”! (10.4.2025)

10/04/2025 Adrian (釋大道)

The next idea is that it might be a votive offering created as an act of worship – then thrown into a lake – to placate some type of pre-Christian deity. Of course, Georgia is not a Celtic area – with the (non-Celtic) Pagan Vikings not arriving until in the region until around the 8th-9th century CE (around four centuries after the arrival of Christianity). The problem with this idea is that if the people of Georgia were advanced enough to read, write and technologically produce such a stone tablet (using at least two-types of drill) – why go through all this effort just to throw the finished product into a local body of water? Perhaps the tablet was dropped into the lake by mistake. Either way, the tablet contains 60 discernible characters – 21 of which are unique – whilst 39 are repeated.

St Albans: St Germain’s Block! (30.5.2024)

30/05/2024 Adrian (釋大道)

We walked to the Verulamium Museum through the “Verulamium Park” – from St Albans Abbey. This boundary wall was built using Roman materials – but not until the 11th century. It was part of St Germain’s Chapel – an element found within the grounds of St Albans Abbey. Today, around 30-feet of what is left of this wall forms an isolated structure situated in the middle of the park. This was part of the original Roman Fortifications (designed to keep the British Celts out) – which were abandoned during the early 5th century – with the ruins incorporated into the later buildings of St Albans Abbey. Indeed, there is little evidence of Christianity being present in Verulamium during Roman times.

Torquay: King’s Gardens – Opened 1904 (Visited 14.4.2019)

14/04/2019 Adrian (釋大道)

King’s Gardens appears to have been the result of slum clearing in Torquay with a place called ‘Rotton Row’ being demolished for new houses (King’s Drive) in 1877. We only hope that the people once living in ‘Rotton Row’ were re-housed and not left homeless (as happens far too often today). Originally called ‘Alexandra Gardens’, it was re-named just after opening in 1904 as ‘King’s Gardens’ after Edward VII. When driving into Torquay on numerous of our visits from London, we have often seen free-roaming swans on a patch of ornate and picturesque landscape to the right of Abbey Grounds (separated by a small road). We finally got round to visiting this area yesterday – despite the howling wind and freezing rain! We did try to ‘walk’ from the house to this area, but the waves were coming over the wall and we had to retreat to the safety of the car and slowly drive through the storm of rain and sea-spray… The children – who are strong-willed and usually wanting to press-on – decided that a tactical retreat to the relative safety of the car was in order!

Ewell Court House and Grounds 6.5.2016

06/05/2016 Adrian (釋大道)

I was last at this place 20 years ago – and completely forgot where it was! Today, as temperatures soared to 20 degrees Celsius – we had a day out! In London we call this ‘countryside’!