February 13, 2005
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Happy Valentines Day 2005 Xanga
Happy Valentine’s Day
XangaI Am A Romantic
Especially on Valentines DayRomantic reaches to medieval times, knights and their ladies and castles. I don’t know of many castles here in the United States but I actually live within 5 or so miles of one. A few photos of castle, Chateau La Roche, built by a single determined man with his only help, his boy scout troop. The material, a lot of the local river rock.
There are no knights on white horses or damsels in distress but the local castle is a conversation piece and something you don’t find in many neighborhoods unless you live in Europe.
You can tour the facility. It isn’t nearly as large as those found overseas but the real interest lies, I think, in the fact there were no legions of workers who built it. Mr. Andrews was a man who wanted a castle and he was a boy scout leader. His dream after seeing castles in Europe was to design and build one of his own. He did it with scout help (they poured the concrete bricks in milk cartons). Amazing! The river rock comes from the Miami River which runs in front of the castle, a stones throw away but far enough to exhaust a man carrying the many buckets of rock the castle needed for its size. The Castle includes a nice view of the river with picnic tables to lunch at. For a quiet outing and unusual photos, it’s a good spot in Loveland, Ohio.
Winter time with snow would be a prime view but the road to the castle is one of the steepest inclines in our area. We (husband and I) haven’t become brave enough to drive the roads in snow and ice.
Two Castles: We actually have two castles in my neighborhood. This one is a copycat face with a business inside, the local roller rink. It sits at the end of my street just a little to the right, another stone’s throw. Picturesque for a little neighborhood, don’t you think?
Happy Valentine’s Day,
Comments (13)
y childhood is fulled with mock castles, when I lived at Matlock from my bedroom was one built to give the town’s workers money to feed their families. Riber Castle I have mentioned in several poems and extensivily in my novel “The Shivering Mountain”.
Amother one I loved is in South Wales, it’s name escapes me, though it begins with “C” and is in the Taff Valley north of ardiff, it was built as a fairy tale castle and based on one on the Rhine, the only large Rhine castle distroyed in the war.
Happy Valentines Day!
Romantic Castles and Nice Pictures.
Thanks. ^-^
Castles are somehow romantic though the reason why they were built is just the opposite ! There are ruins of a Norman castle very near here and I live about 45 minutes drive from North Wales were there are many castles bulit to keep the rebellious Welsh in their place.
Marie
Bravo wonderful thoughts and poetry. Love romantic castles too. I agree with you there is nothing more in important in live than love.
msplunge
These are wonderful photos of castles! How very cool to see this. Have a lovely Valentines Day!!
Wow this is really nice. A guy built a castle here in TN some years ago too…but he holds renaissance faires there mostly. This one looks much more genuine.
These are fantastic pictures.
This place looks really exciting.
I absolutley love castles. I have been to many in europe, and lived in one for a short while in Switzerland, when I was a teenager (friends of my uncle)
The last one, what a cool roller rink.
Thanks for sharing these.
Happy
‘s Day
OK, so I’m an idiot–you knew that all along…can I help it if the first few words were the same as in your blog and I didn’t catch that it was different??? You know that I am a computer idiot–’nuff said! Anyway, I have lots of memories of that castle, the main one being the time I tried to help out by sweeping up a cloud of dust–in his kitchen where he was cooking! Oh, well, once an idiot… We have a castle here in Rockford, too. It was purchassed by the Herst (think Patty) family and moved here from England stone by stone. I got to spend the weekend there with a church group–AND I found an unknown secret passage that no one (currently) knew about. It was impassable, but hey, I found it! It has lots of other secret passages, and places to hide the monks and a secret prayer room and a huge 4 story spiral staircase where I orchestrated a witch’s cackeling contest–way cool. But my bed was lumpy and cold and everyone said I snored though I know for a fact I didn’t sleep a wink. Anyway, the photos bring back some fun memories–thank you. You do great work!
You’ve captures some great shots of those castles!
It is the place every right minded Romantic would live in. Very nice castle. It would be great to visit there sometime.
Excellent pix, as well.
Jim
Industrious little boy scouts, I’d say. I hope they all got merit badges out of it.
Fantastic castle – unbelievable that boy scouts built this using milk cartons. What dedication and inspiration. Also very romantic. Love the photos.
Nice pictures, Mom. I like the last of the Loveland Castle. The skating rink is picturesque…Unless you shoot it from the other side
You did a great job of finding the best shot for a flattering photo. besos.