JUNE6

# June 6

I’m writing this the day after the fact because yesterday was pretty chaotic.

The day started later than I wanted it to. My phone did this frustrating thing where the alarm screen came up, but the alarm itself did not make any sound. I woke up and looked over to find the alarm silently going off. Can't be bothered, im in Europe. 

I had also been meaning to post something earlier, but we were having some technical issues with my laptop. Before the trip, I bought an adapter + converter at Best Buy. It came with a bunch of different plug types, including ones for the UK and Europe, which has been useful. 
I plugged it in to the UK specific "Type G" (type shit) adapter. The US as a three prong adapter too with ground, neutral and hot. But the UK ground pin offers a ground pin push mechanism. this is a safety feature in EVERY plug in the UK where the ground pushes a latch in the terminal and opens a shutter for the neutral and live pins. 
Honestly I think this is stupid. Why TF would you want to add moving part for a stationary object lol. Probably doubles the price of every outlet and then you can wear the outlet out if your inserting and pulling out a plug multiple times per day.  

One OTHER thing I keep noticing in the UK is that basically every electrical outlet has its own on-and-off switch. They are everywhere: houses, restaurants, airports, all of it.

I honestly do not know how often anyone uses them. It feels like the UK could save a huge amount of money by getting rid of the switches entirely. That has to be a decent percentage of the cost of the outlet.

New business idea: sell switchless non latch outlets to the UK.

## Chirk Castle

We decided to go to Chirk Castle, which is in Chirk, just past Oswestry. I believe it was built sometime in the late 13th century and took around 25 years to complete.

Driving onto the property was impressive almost immediately. There were huge trees everywhere, along with a wide variety of other trees spread across the grounds. Many of them had individual wooden fences around them. I was not completely sure what the fencing was for, but my guess was that it might be there to stop the sheep from eating or damaging the trees.

We saw the sheep later.

As we pulled up, it was sunny. Then, almost immediately after we got out of the car, it started raining. We had to go into the gift shop and buy an umbrella.

The property is massive. We looked at the map and ended up relying on the physical copy because I did not have service out there. We decided to start by walking toward the gardens next to the castle.

On the way, we passed some additional gardens and an auxiliary building that is apparently used as a squash court now, which felt kind of funny. Then we walked along the outer perimeter of the castle wall and approached the castle itself.

The castle is massive and daunting. It has six turrets. We first saw it from the back, where there is a square extension built into the structure. The stones in that section looked more uneven and asymmetrical, while the stones in the turrets seemed much more uniform.

I kept thinking about how difficult it must have been to move all of those blocks into place. The scale of the building is hard to wrap your head around. I still cannot believe it was completed in something like 25 years.

## Sheep Stars

We kept following the path around the castle until we reached the front.

Two things happened almost at the same time. First, the main façade of the castle came into view, with the Welsh flag flying at the top. Then, as we turned around, the entire landscape opened up behind us.

The view was incredible. The hills just kept rolling and rolling into the distance. You could see for miles. It felt like we were standing on one of the highest points in the area.

Everything was a different shade of green, except for these tiny white specks scattered across the hills.

They were sheep.

From that far away, they looked like stars in the sky. Sheep stars. I even saw a little sheep version of Orion’s Belt.

That may have been my favorite moment of the day.

## Garden maxxing

I took some photos in front of the castle, and then we walked into the gardens.

The gardens were honestly amazing. Later, I talked with Sam about why gardens feel so special. I think part of it is that a garden allows you to isolate the noise from everything else. The environment is so consistent and uniform that it quiets everything down around you.

Uniform was the word I was looking for.

Walking through the gardens, each plant and shrub was shaped perfectly. There were right angles, clear lines, and smooth, consistent forms everywhere. It felt like the kind of place where you can simply be with yourself, or with the people around you, and have a real conversation.

The whole garden was extremely well manicured and very green. It was mostly shrubs and shaped hedges, with different sections of neatly maintained flower beds. There was also a giant ivy plant growing on what I’ll call the west side of the building.

We walked through different archways and past different shrub shapes, and then I noticed three statues of naked women.

The first statue showed a woman with her arms crossed, holding or grasping some kind of plant. She appeared to be standing on a snake. I immediately thought of Mary, since she is often shown standing on a snake in Marian imagery, symbolizing the defeat of evil and deception.

As we continued through the gardens, we came across two more statues. The figure on the right had her eyes covered with a blindfold. The figure on the left had her eyes open, but her hands were bound.

I was not completely sure what the three statues were meant to represent, but the details felt deliberate. One figure was standing over a snake. Another could not see. Another could see, but could not move freely.

There is probably a deeper meaning there. I am not sure I fully understood it in the moment, but that is part of what made the statues interesting.

## Picking Three Things

There was honestly so much to take in that I do not know whether writing down every detail is the best approach.

I could write about the architecture, the age of the castle, the stones, the gardens, the statues, the sheep, the hills, or a dozen other things. I could probably write an entire post based on a single photo.

Maybe the better approach for this trip is to pick three things each day and write about them. Not necessarily the three biggest things. Just three details that stayed with me.

For today, I think those things are the sheep scattered across the rolling hills like stars, the strange calm created by a perfectly uniform garden, and the three statues quietly raising questions that I still do not fully know how to answer.

That feels like enough for one day.