We woke up to a sunny but fresh morning, Helena d Nik were up for a walk from Minsmere so after breakfast, and settling the bill (food and drink as usual came to more than the accomodation) we parked up at the reserve temporary car park, and headed out towards the Bittern hide which we soon followed by the Island Mere hide from where we got great view of Marsh Harrier and Smew.
We then headed out towards to Scotts Hall and on to the footpath that leads over to Dunwich Heath. We did not stop at the NT tea room but headed round the heath an straight back to the reserve and into the South Hide where the north wind was blowing straight into the open windows. Now that the sun was out the hides and footpaths were packed, unlike yesterday when we saw no one. We must be real hardcore!
Helen and Nik needed to head off home so we went back to the reserve tea room for some lunch. Unfortunately they had run out of parsnip back and baked potatoes, I think that had been surprised by the influx of visitors pent up by the poor weather the day before. We got some bird food from the shop, 20% off, then headed back to the car and said goodby to Helen and Nik.
We also headed back and made good progress door to door the journey was 2:30, with one stop for some bread and some salad for tea. The M25 was busy but was always moving.
We were up for breakfast at 09:00, but lingered because the weather did not look promising. We left the pub at about 10:00 and dumped my car at Warblerswick the plan was to walk back to the pub, via Dunwich, the heath and Minsmere. After a short beach section we headed in land across the marshes and reed beds, toward the disused windmill. It was grey, not too cold, and not raining we were out in the fresh air so we were happy.
When we got to the windmill we found that the footpath was closed and fenced off, we decided we would do what other people had done and carry on regardless, we had walked all that way and we had not had any warnings that might have made us take an alternative route. The half made p[ath was very muddy as it had been laid with grey clay from the marsh, then there was a section with gravel which was like walking on a beach, but it soon passed and we were heading past Dingle Great Hill (all of 12 feet in elevation!). We walked throught the woods overlooking Dingle Marsh and saw seom lovely isolated houses and soon entered the village of Dunwich a lot of which is now under the sea.
Hats drying in front of pub fire
The planned stop at the fish and chip place was cancelled because it was closed, from November to March, it was also raining and there was no shelter. We ended up in the The Ship Inn for lunch rather that having the Heidi Pies we had bought in Southwold the day before. I had some shell on prawns, and the others had goat cheese toasties which looked really nice. We had to eventually drag our selves out of the pub and into the rain.
We headed up the hill then eventually over and onto Dunwich Heath where we were hoping to see Dartford Warblers, but there were to remain elusive. It had started to rain so we stopped off at the NT Coastgaurd Cottages for tea and cakes. Whilst we were in the cafe it stopped raining but it soon started again as we headed down off the heath to Minsmere, and the south hide.
During the whole walk we had not really seen a soul and the south hide was no exception, we had the place to oursleves it was a welcome break from the rain. There was not much to see as it was a bit early in the year, but we managed to identify a Med Gull and a Little gull. We woke Helen up and set off back to the pub via the sluices, just as we turned in land at the sluices it started to really rain, so mush so that I had to get the poncho out. We walked the last mile or so in the pouring rain, but still managed to add Barnacle goose to the weekend list. As we go back to the pub the rain stopped, Nik and I went off to pick up the car and the Helen’s went off to see if they could see the barns owls.
In the way back to the car we came across quite a few Muntjac in our headlights. We picked up the car went back to the pub, watched the remaining half of England thrashing France at rugby and then headed to the bar for something to eat and drink. Another great day despite the weather.
We are off to The Eels Foot this weekend to meet up with Helen and Nik. The Eels Foot if you don;t follow the blog is a pub in a village called Eastbridge just on the edge of the RSPB reserve at Minsmere, it has a couple of features which attract us back, the beers is excellent (Adnams is my all time favourite), and it is a close as you can get to Minsmere for accomodation.
We set out after the rush hour and the plan was to meet up in the Lord Neslon in Southwold at about 13:00, we headed down the A41 but soon turned off when we heard that the M25 was closed both ways between the A42 and the M1, it turns out there was a 6 car pile up. We wasted a bit of time but ended up taking the shorter but slightly longer cross country route involving amongst other roads, A14, A12, A505.
At about 12 we got a call from N&H, they had been way laid by and antiques shop and would be late, so we went to Minsmere for a quick circuit of the reserve and an excellent lunch at the visitors centre. Then we met up at the pub at 14:00.
The pub was followed by a some shopping, I bought a paper. I also managed to get some pano shots of the main square, but the light was grey and overcast so the results might not be that good. It seems ever since I have been wanting to take panorama shots the weather has been not conducive.
Cattle grid with critter ramp
After shopping we headed of to the pub, via the long spiral route, due to my navigation. We just had time to see if the owls were out, and get a shower before eating in the pub in good company. The menu did not have so many veggie options as usual but we made the most of it all the same.
I was tracing my route to work on street view, doesn’t everyone? I came across someone I know, and to boot their face had not been blurred out.
I have yet to speak to them and ask them whether they can remember the encounter with the strange car.
Google street view
There has been a lot of fuss over street view in Germany where there are all sort of worries over privacy. For example Google agreed that they would also blur buildings if the people living there requested it. Trouble is with some apartments there were people who asked for the building to be blurred but them other people who lived there then complained that they did not want it blurred.
Google has also had to, in some countries, publish the time and places that the car will be going to an area. If only they did that here in the UK, we could all go out there and stage funny/peculiar things for the car to photo!
back at Christmas we booked up tickets for the new Aylesbury theatre to see the Chinese State Circus, and today was the day to go and see it. I walked home from work and we decided to go to the Wendover Peking for dinner then off to Aylesbury for the 20:00 showing.
The menu had changed at the restaurant they now have quite a few veggie dishes on the back page. I had hot and sour soup Helen had cashew wanton for starters, then we had a selection of dishes as a main, Chinese leaves in schezwan sauce, faux sweet and sour wheat balls, with chow main and egg fried rice on the side.
We paid the bill then popped into Tesco for some supplies and parked up in town near the theatre. The theatre is a relatively new addition to the town and we had not been before. Its is in a very imposing position and when the canal basin developement goes through it will take pride of place. Its is inspired by the chilterns, the outside is all wood stone and glass then inside there are lots of random sized wood panels.
We had paid for the expensive seats in the lower circle, the show was not sold out. I wonder whether there is really a credit crunch on, the circle seats were full but the seats on the ground floor were only two thirds full. Any way I digress what was the show like you ask? I would sax mixed.
There were good bits the girls on the on the unicycles were definitely the best bits, the tumbles and pot jugglers were good, the fighting monks were not that impressive, and the strange monkey and “new york taxi driver” characters were bizarre.
Certainly my favourite bit was the unicycles, the performers were all on 10-12 foot unicycles and came on and did some formation cycling, not so impressive, but then all stopped and with one foot kept the unicycle going and with the other they flipped metal bowls on theirs and their fellow performers heads. On a couple occasions they would flip multiple quantities, facing top to bottom, which would all land stacked on their heads.
All in all the show was OK, but there were a couple of acts that made the whole thing worth watching. The theatre has fairly comfortable seats and is well worth a visit.
I’ve read the book so it will be interesting to see if the film is as good as the book which was OK but not memorable. It is the story of Howard Marks (played by Rhys Ifans) a notorious Welsh drugs smuggler.
The film uses an interesting technique, the film starts off in the 60/70’s and they use genuine footage with the actors overlaid to great effect. It does however give a film a sort of amateur feel to it but in a good way.
Rhys Ifans plays the role well and adds to the whole slightly tongue in cheek attitude to the film.
Film about 3 policemen in New York’s 65th precinct. Each of them have complex situations. One is under cover, is a good cop who is afraid he is turning ferral, wants out, and his boss needs him working undercover. He is also indebted to a criminal who once saved his life.
The next is a family man with 4 kinds and wife pregnant with twins, who want to move to a bigger house, the one he is is run down, and he has trouble paying the mortgage. He feels under great pressure, and has stolen from criminals to get money to move.
Finally the one played by Richard Gere is a week away from retirement and just wants to serve his time.
The plot is complex and it all comes together in the final scenes.
Today Helen and I had planned a trip to London, it was almost scuppered when I remembered BT wanted to get their temporary mast used to hold the aerial that provides the link to the offices up and running while a tree was blocking the signal. The tree was recently cut down so there was not excuse now. They wanted to get on site to make sure the line of site was still good. Any way I phoned Mick who was on site and he agreed to let them in so we were free to go.
The plan was to visit an exhibition that Helen had spotted at the British museum, about the history of the English language. I had never been to the British library so did not know what to expect. We parked up in Berkhamsted and got the 9:40 train to Euston. The british library is just down the road from Euston just before St Pancras station, so we walked..
The building is a modern brick built one, and has a large open area in front, which is probably popular with office workers at lunch time when the weather is warmer. There is security on the door, but they let me through. The exhibition was in darkened rooms, which I found annoying as with my glasses on I had to stand quite far away to see clearly and with them off I had to have my nose up against the glass boxes. I guess the rooms were dark to protect the delicate books.
The books covered the very earliest examples of the English language when the books were written and illuminated by hand often by monks. As you went through the exhibits the language became more up to date. Apart from the beautiful books, what caught my eyes (and ears) was the videos of comedy sketches about posh and common accents, and an interactive map of examples of local accents through the years from the 1800’s to date.
Center point
Whilst we were at the library we had a look round the permanent exhibition which contains more old books as well as some other stuff, for example a birthday card with the words of the Beatles song Hard days night on the back, as written by Lennon when he composed it, and Yesterday by McCartney on another scrap of paper.
After the library we popped into St Pancras for a coffee and to have a look at the building. We had coffee at Paul’s a French style cafe, I had a slice Tarte au Myrtles. Then we went to have a look at the fantastic building. I have recently started taking panorama shots and took the opportunity to take a shot of the glass a steel arched roof. You can see the results in this article.
We then walked towards the centre to visit Foyles, there are some lovely neighbour hoods south of St Pancras, with normal shops and businesses, the sort of place you would want to live if you had to live in London. Once back on the main drag we hopped on a bus and got off at Trafalgar square. There was an Amnesty rally going on in support of the Egyptians.
We walked up towards Charring cross road and stopped off to have a look round the catering supplies shop Nisbets http://www.nisbets.co.uk/, if you can’t find what you want there then it does not exist. We bought nothing! Foyles was as usual full of books, we had a look around and I bought a make magazine and Helen got some more murder mystery ones.
Helen is not so keen as me to pack as much as possible into every trip so we headed back to Euston with a quick stop off at Tottenham Court road. At Euston I god a Thai prawn soup as a late lunch, before we jumped on the train back the the open country side of Buckinghamshire.
Flooded footpathOff to Holmfirth for the weekend. The M1 was unexpectedly kind and it only took us 3 hours, in spite of wild winds and rain. The roadworks near Nottingham are now complete and the extra lane makes a big difference. I tested out my netbook and dongle, and that whiled away the journey very nicely, although I should apologise for the excessive number of Facebook comments. Neil was able to enjoy the news quiz and the Archers in relative peace. Lots of warning signs about the high winds and the Sheffield bridge stretch was restricted to 40mph. Got up Norf at 7.30pm and K cooked some lovely tomato n spinach pasta.
The “interesting” weather continued on Saturday. The smalls went to drama and afterwards the menfolk went hunter gathering in Holmfirth. In the afternoon we braved the weather and went for a walk on the Dearne Valley Way. It rained and rained but it was a lovely spot, with towering beech trees. To reach the woods, we had to traverse a set of what were normally stone steps but the continual rain had turned into a small waterfall. The woods were a popular spot for the birds, we saw several treecreepers and a nuthatch. Many of the sloping paths had temporarily turned into streams. We had hoped to cross the river to get to an impressive rope swing, however the stepping stones had disappeared under the deluge and we could not find a safe place to ford it, although the smalls took some convincing. Swollen riverBack home to de damp and hot drinks all round. Then we watched Toy Story 3 in front of the fire. K had cannily prepared chilli in the morning and left it slow cook. With wraps, home made salsa and guacamole, grated cheese and sour cream, it made a delicious dinner. Followed by some lovely Co-op yogurt and strawberry ice cream. When the smalls went off to bed, we tried out Rummikub, a number game which seems to be based on cards and enjoyed several rounds. Us wimmin stayed up to put the world to rights, although I am glad I said no to the slow gin.
Still very windy on Sunday although thankfully the rain had stopped. We did some cottage research for Bath, for a rather delayed birthday celebration. It will be lovely to do it in the Spring, with the lighter days and plants waking up again. We have found a fantastic looking house in central Bath, which fulfills our detailed requirements list and even has a couple of parking spaces! We had an early lunch of beans/cheese on toast and then headed off down the M1, which is where I am currently typing this. 16 miles to Northampton so have passed the half way point.
This is Banksy’s first film, about a French man living in California who somehow gets involved in documenting street artists and their art.
It is filmed as a documentary with plenty of intervieww of the french man and Banksy. The french man essentially gets his camera turned back on him by Banksy.
This is a hard to explain film but well work wathcing.
