neil.baldwin – Page 29 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

A trip to the seaside

After a couple of days of hot weather it is a bit colder, so with a change in the weather we felt our bodies needed a change of terrain. We decided a trip to a couple of RSPB sites on the coast was in order. First we would go to Millom to look round RSPB Hodbarrow NR, then on to St Bees Head where there is a watch point.

We left hut 09:30ish and headed down the valley road to pick up the A595 that runs north south along the coast.
The land on the coast is very agricultural, I guess it is the only opportunity between the barren lake land and the sea, also being some what cut off they would have needed to be self sufficient in days gone by.

Millom is an old iron ore mine, opened in 1850 and closed down in 1968, and at it’s peak employed 1,000 workers. The old mine explains all the grand buildings in the town center, it now looks a bit down on it’s heal but there is clearly still industry around, which we noticed as we drove around lost looking for the RSPB signs. The shops seemed to be mainly independents, I tried a hardware store to get an imperial nut for my panorama instrument, I had left at home, they were very helpful, but could not find one. They said they knew some one 300 miles away that sold all sorts of imperial stuff, I laughed and said I have a nut but it is also 300 miles away!

The nature reserve is formed by the harbour wall built for the mine, but now flooded and forms a big lagoon. There were lots of Warblers signing we got Chiffchaff, Willow, and Sedge. There is a good hide and the list on the whiteboard was impressive, we got Merganser, Eider, Sandwich and Common Tern, Ringed Plover, Mute Swan, Shelduck, and Tufted to mention most of those I remember.

We stopped off Tesco to get some lunch, then drove on to St Bees where we parked at the beach car park £1.40 for 2 hours.
**stop press as I write this sat on a cliff at St Bees head, I get a message from my phone, that I am roaming, so I want to turn data off? It turns out I am connected to MANX the Isle of Man mobile provider. **

We walked up the coastal path and found a bench for a rest and a chance to update the blog and do a bit of sea watching. There were Guillimots and Razor bills about. The parking money was running out so we headed back to the car to driver to Egremont to stock up on supplies for the next few days walking, we wanted to not be tied to stopping at pubs, for lunch so we got some rolls and stuff to fill them with.

Next stop would be Wasdale we wanted to go and have a look, at the lake. The village of Wasdale seemed a bit more tourist developed than Eskdale. We drove through the village and up to the lake, the views from the lake are stunning even when it is a bit hazy (although not as hazy as it has been). The lake look deep not very wide but quite long, the mountains descend very steeply down to the lake, particularly on the Eskdale side, when you look up the lake it is framed both side and at the end by high Lakeland Fells. There were clouds about so the photo’s should be a bit better than then pones taken in the past few days, with the harsh sun, and cloudless skies.

We took the shortcut back to Eskdale Green, over the hill, had a quick refresh and headed down to the Bowerhouse Inn where there is free WiFi so if you are lucky you may get some photo’s for the previous three posts. They are uploading as we speak.

Tomorrow we are thinking that we need to drive back over to Wasdale and do some walking around the end near Wasdale Head. Perhaps even having a go at Scaffell Pike, but that is quite a big under taking, so watch this space.

The holiday really starts on a Monday

You really feel that you are on holiday on the first normal working day off. Today was no different, we woke up with the sun shining, a gorgeous if a bit hot lay ahead of us, the weather forecast ahead looked good, cooling slightly as the week progresses, which would be welcome, but today we were promised another scorcher.

The hot weather has made sleeping a bit interrupted we have kept the windows closed because the goats and sheep seem to bleat all night, and then the cockerel next door crows as the sun comes up at 04:51, but if they are the only complaints thing can’t be too bad!

Today we plan to walk up the river to the top end of the Esk valley, it should keep us around shade when we need it, and we have high hopes of seeing Dippers, as the river seems just the type that they would frequent. Highlights will hopefully include, Gill Force waterfall, Boot, Eskdale, and Dalegarth Station. The top end of the valley has a few pubs so if we can get there for lunch that will leave a short post lunch walk back to the station, and the train home.

We headed out at about 09:30 and after one hundred yards, had to go back because I had forgotten to put both of my walking socks on. It was already warm, so keeping to the shade was going to be the strategy, today. The bird were all out singing perhaps the crap spring has meant now is the chance for a second brood. There were lots of warblers, but our ID skills on warblers are crap so we only managed Blackcap plus 4 other assorted warblers. We got our first Stonechat of the holidays, as well as Wren.

About 2 miles out we had a rest sat by the river in the shade, the sounds of a river can be very relaxing, so far no Dippers. It was great keeping to the river as the going was flat, and there was plenty of shade. The habitat is quite different from what we are used to, there also seems to be a lot more birds about, perhaps due to the fact that we is in a far more rural location, and the landscape is quite ancient.

Soon we were rewarded by two Dippers one quite a fleeting view but the second we were able to watch hunting for stuff under the water by dipping it’s head under the surface of the water. After more woodland walking on a great smooth solid track we took another rest at hour two, near a bridge over a stream, just past Dalegarth Hall which is a mighty find building withe the fattest chimneys. Suitably refreshed we headed off to discover Gill Force.

Just before the falls we came across some stepping stones to cross the river, to a small church called St Catherine’s. We crossed and had a look round. The was a guy repairing the collapsed stone wall I did not envy him his job today, lugging stones about with no shade. The grave stones on the church yard were all very grand and large, I guess with all the stone and skills to mason it that is what you would expect, some of them were quite ornate, many had almost essays written on them.

Back over the stepping stones it was not obvious where the path went, so we followed the path that hugged the river bank. It turns out that it was not the footpath but after clambering over some fallen trees we were soon back on track. Ten minutes on we came a cross a lake of sorts with dragon flies and lilies growing, we took the opportunity for a sit on a bench and did a bit of bird spotting. We soon heard a Peregrin and spotted it gliding back and forth along the cliff.

The walk to the Woolpack in and Hardknott pass took about 20 minutes, it was 13:00 and time for lunch. The menu looked good and we could not resist the Falafel style veggie burger and chips, so we ordered one each and sat in the garden, I was supping and half of beer and helen a large lemonade with lots of ice.

Whilst we were sat waiting and trike turned up with lots of chrome and long front forks, the livery on the side suggested that guy did tours and they couple sat on the back seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

The veggie burger gets 3/5 certainly very welcome and filling. A Hercules flow low up the valley and reminded that I forgot to mention that two trainer jets flew over earlier in the walk. Now trying to build up some inclination to start walking again in the mid day sun. Perhaps another drink first.

We left the Inn and followed a sign pointing to Wasdale Head the plan to climb a hill and have a look at Eel Tarn, the climb took us from 60 metres to 220 metres in quite a short space, the climb was tough but the rest at Eel Tarn made it worth the effort. A pair Black headed gulls were nesting on the Tarn and we also spotted a pair of Mallards. Overhead at least 5 buzzards rose on the thermals.

The descent back down into Boot was a bit tedious and hard on the knees after the day spent on our feet. In Boot we stopped at the shop cum post office and bought some postcards, and a note book. It was hot in the shop and the shop keeper was, obviously feeling a bit tetchy as when I passed the time of day by suggesting that he was probably not selling too many has and gloves at the moment, replied that he loved it when people come in the shop and make statements of the obvious. Despite the great customer service we still purchased his goods! Down past the first pub and opted for the one near the station called the Brook House Inn a free house where the beer was really well kept. I had the summer all and Helen had Red Hawk something or other.

I had an ice cream as we waited for the train which departed on time and soon had us back to Irton Road station. We had spent almost 8 hours out a good day.

Mad dogs, field mice, cuckoos, and Bucks folk go out in the mid days sun.

Up not too early, had breakfast and watched a bit of Sunday morning TV. Helen spotted a field mouse that lives in the stone wall making dashes out to pick leaves, I failed to get a photo.

We took plenty of water when we left the house at 09:45, as it looked like another scorcher, sun block factor 30 was slapped on and Helen even wore a white sun hat. The plan was to walk the tops of the hills over to the sea at Ravenglass then get the train back to the hut.
The path the hut is on leads towards a river but we took a right to take us high over Muncaster Fell with views of both Eskdale and the River Esk valley on the other.

The climb was tough but once up top it was rolling but no shade meant it was quite tough walking. We saw lots of birds, Yellowhammers, Skylarks, and Pipits. We also heard several Cuckoos, then when we stopped for a break at some rare shade we got great views of a close by Cuckoo being harassed (or is that the other way round) by a smaller Lark/Pipit. Eventually thje smaller bird chased the Cuckoo off. Further on we saw another or the same one again in another tree.

We stopped for a break, water and fruits bars, near a cairn over looking the sea view, Sellafield could be seen, as could an Inviting looking lake. Next stop would be the lake then Muncaster Castle for lunch/ice cream. We found the castle entrance, stopped for a comfort break at the car park toilets, and then had ice cream and lemonade, at the World Owl Trust cafe, the girl there also refilled our water containers.

We opted to not pay to see the castle as it was too hot and they wanted £12! We followed the public footpath through the grounds and “accidently” got lost and ended up on a better public footpath that closely follows the river, spotted Treecreeper, Woodpecker, Heron and Merganser.

Another rest for another snack bar and liquids was taken in the last shady spot, at the edge of the woods. Then it was off for the final leg past the lighthouse, Roman bath house and fort before Ravenglass.

We got a bit lost as the footpath was not well sign posted, we were not sure if we had followed the path or not. We had a look round the Roman bath house, there was not much of it left.

We arrived in Ravenglass at about 14:40 just in time to catch the 14:50 train. We had planned to look round the seaside but it was hot and we were tired. The train is quite swift and 20 minutes later we were at Irton Road Station literally 100 yards from the hut.

We had not had any lunch so we had an early tea of my pasta sauce and garlic bread, and settle in for an evening watching telly and an early night. We had a lovely day even though it was hot and hard work.

Going Up North not so grim

Spent most of last night packing, the phrase “Travelling Light” does not apply in this household. Hopefully the Mrs won’t need the thermal layer she packed. Up with the birds (noisy b*ggers) and managed to fit said luggage into the car boot, which must have Tardis like qualities.

Headed off at 8am for the M40. Had an interesting moment on the A41 near Waddesdon when a large deer ran across the road. We’ve started our holiday bird list, so far we have red kite, rook, wood pigeon, blackbird, magpie, buzzard and kestrel. Heading for the M6 toll in the hope that it might be less busy than going through Birmingham. On the M6 toll hardly any other cars what a fab road. Best £4.80 I’ve spent since, well I last spent £4.80 I suppose. Podcast update: out of the 1300 Neil downloaded for the journey we are on no 2, first Andrew Neil now Anthony Horowitz. Blog update: its been a busy month, 599 hits so far, helped by the 60 odd hits via the RSPB retweet of the Minsmere visitor centre pic. Neil also tells me have reached a nice round no of posts since the blog started, 512 (note from driving Ed to non techies, that’s 2 to the power of 9 or in binary 10000).

OK thanks for that Ed, back to my in car ramblings. The bad news folks, is that we have 165 miles to go and this is the in flight entertainment. I’ll try for some motorway pics to liven it up a bit but don’t say I did’nt warn you. Sorry but its either posting here or the lorry alphabet game and I can’t face that just yet. Just be grateful we’re only travelling to the Lakes, if we were on the Dumball you’d have my waffle all the way to Odessa! Good luck to all the Dumballers by the way, great adventure, great cause.

We turned off the M6 at junction 36, and the road just climbed for some time. Soon we passed through Windermere, then stopped for diesel and a pee in Ambleside. Then we turned off the A591 onto the A593 a much smaller and twisted road. We found somewhere to park for some sandwiches and espresso from our trusty flask.Whilst sat under a shady tree we saw a Jay and heard a Cuckoo. Embarrassingly I managed to fall off, over backwards from the rock I was sitting on and landed in a pile a couple of metres down the slope. Only my pride was broken!

Next we had a dilemma either up and over Wrynode and Hard Knot passes or the long way round. Helen was all for the long way round but being the driver was not in the best of negotiating positions. The road is single track with either wall or drop at the side, and to boot it is the steepest road in England. I thought the steepest road was in Devon at Porlock?

The road is interesting and probably not to be tackled in the dark or winter (when access is banned). Helen managed to get some shaky video between “sharp” intakes of breath. At times you could see only as far as the next bend then you got views as it twisted on up/down for a mile or two. At one point we spotted and large bird of prey, probably and Eagle of some sort, it was too wide to be a Buzzard. Without having to stop too many times we were over the passes and down into the valley, Helen could finally take a breath.

The weather was scorching but there was a brisk wind, to take the edge off it. We got a bit lost finding the hut, mainly because we ignored the advice and went over the passes, Helen was having to do the directions backwards whilst reading a map. Tom Tom was also a bit confused as it knew we were near but not on the right road, perhaps it could see a gravel track to get us there? We only lost five minutes and soon found the place, sat in the side of the hill with views up the valley towards Langdale Pokes.

The next door neighbour made us feel welcome and the owners soon turned up to let us in. The hut is well appointed with a big bed, so we should be great for the next week. We unpacked the car and had a sit down, before taking a stroll out to discover Eskdale Green.

We took the cross country route via foot paths, saw Yellowhammer, Swallow, Robin, Sparrow, and Buzzard. We found the well stocked village shop so we won’t go hungry and we now know where the pubs are. I write this from The Bower House Inn beer garden with a pint of Bower House Ale and an IPA. There are a couple of veggie choices on the menu so we should be ok for eating out later in the week. Suitably refreshed we headed back to the hut to eat the homemade curry we had bought with us.

In summary we had a great journey up with no delays, the accomodation is spot on, the local pub serves good beer, and the weather looks fine for at least 3-4 days. Things are looking good.

Keeping it local

After a very busy weekend last weekend we are having a quiet one. The plan get up not too early have some breakfast (reading the paper?), a bit of a tinker with the blog, a short local walk, then see if we can catch the Queens Jubilee fly past over Halton, finally cook pasta for Helen’s parents, and watch the Chelsea v Munich match.

Things got off to a great start, Helen was up first and then as I came down stairs at about 08:00 she was walking in the door with the papers. I usually have toast and expresso for breakfast at the weekend, and save my home made muesli for weekdays. Today was not exception I finished off the Bonne Maman cherry jam I have been working my way through for some weeks.

I have tweaked the blog a bit, by moving all the panoramas about as the menu they were on is getting a bit long. I also noticed that http://neilbaldwin.com was getting more Google juice than the blog, even though it is more or less just a holding page for a Drupal site. So I fixed it once and for all, it now redirects to the blog address at http://neilbaldwin.net so that will fix that small issue. I think as the blog is the site than changes the most will not keep the two domains separate, and if I do want a content sites then I will just create sub-domains for them which should keep things much simpler.

The fly past was due soon after 12:30 so we headed about of the house at about 10:30, and drove up to the BBOWT reserve at Dancersend which is in the hills sort of between Tring and Aston Clinton. It is between two valleys and can be a really nice place to just sit, relax and take everything in, as the hills shelter it from noise apart from the odd aircraft.

There were plenty of birds singing when we got there, the usual suspects Tits and Chaffinch but also a couple of Warblers we thought most likely Blackcaps from the song. It was a bit early for orchids but there were a few early Butterfly Orchids just starting to bloom, and the usual Pyramid orchids could be identified by their black spotted leaves. We wandered around and Helen took control of the camera with the big lens and I scouted round from some bugs and plants to photo with the LX3. We heard some tawny owl calls in the distance.

WARNING RANT — As we entered the reserve from the “pond on the bend entrance” we noticed that there was a lot of dog shit on the path in, it was pretty obvious that one dog was regularly walked up the path and the owner could not be bothered to clear up after their dog or make sure the dog did it business away from the path. Helen described it as “playing dog shit hopscotch”. Helen and discussed putting up a “there is not such thing as a dog poo fairy poster” next time we go up there. — RANT OVER

At about 12:10 we headed back down to the village park to watch the fly past. Basically as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebration today was the armed forces day to show off, and a fly past of about 60 aircraft had been arranged to fly over Windsor park and as is usual when these things happen many of the aircraft get routed to and from the event over RAF airfields. Halton being fairly close to London often gets a fly past, today was no exception.

Down at the park there were other people who had obviously come to see the spectacle, as well as Helen’s uncle who turned up soon after we did. We did not have to wait long after 12:30 for the flypast, in all probably about 15-20 planes passed over. At first we thought we were at the wrong end of the air field as we say some jets pass over the other end in the distance, but they were followed by three groups of fight looking jets, blue in colour. I had the setting on my lens not quite appropriate for the shot so did not get any decent pictures but I have included the one you can see here, as you can tell the light was pretty crap and it was very hazy.

After it was obvious that the rest of the fly past was not coming we wished Helen’s uncle farewell and headed home for a light lunch. I spent the rest of the after noon tinkering with Bigshot VR which I have not given up on yet, but which I sill can’t get to the panorama thing. I can get it to display basic Deep Zoom format pictures, but that is about it. I also took some pictures of the wildlife in the garden.

Later on we will be preparing pasta and garlic bread to eat before the football. I’ll spare you the details and end the blog post here.

Priority boarding chaos.

After a great weekend with glorious sunny warm weather, I was surprised to see the forecasts for Monday and Tuesday, in Portadown, minimum temperature of -2 night and rain during the day! I had to get my winter coat out.

There was madness going on at the airport, I had to queue to buy a priority boarding ticket, if you could have seen the queue to get through security it was well worth the £4, the queue was longer than I have ever seen it, right down the escalators round the and about 40 yards back into the hall in a queue about 6 deep. The golden ticket got me swiftly through, but not before the woman in the lift who had been extolling the virtues of the priority queue and how organised she was pre-booking at £3, spent 5 minutes looking through her folder for here priority proof of purchase and boarding card not very organised!

There was some confusion as we were herded by the Easyjet queue system because the queuing poles and tapes naturally sent people (without advice from the Easyjet staff) down the special assistance section, which soon became full. There were quite a few confused faces at the beginning until everyone got the right idea and the normal people queue, started to fill up. Note I now consider my self a normal person, no speedy boarding for me anymore, who needs it? I was at the front of the normal people and would get a seat towards the back of the plane, which according to my good friend Rory is statistically the section where most plane crash survivors are seated.

I had a twitter conversation with @mike_lambert who seems to spend his life at Luton and Schipol airports, apparently the priority boarding was closed, even the machine I found open, in the past, I must make a point to save a £ and pre-book the priority lane in future, it is only going to get worse through the summer.

During the flight there was some confusion over our itinerary when the pilot announced that we were over the Isle of Wight, a few minutes later he came back on the tannoy to put our minds at rest we were over the Isle of Man. Not sure who was the astute person who noticed that, I some how filter the messages, and the details of what is bellow is filtered out. Perhaps I should learn to listen more carefully, one day I could miss an important detail?

An uneventful drive to the office and an equally ordinary day at the office was followed by a short drive to the Hotel. After the busy weekend it would be and early night, so I had a shower and went down to the eatery, for some sustenance.

My choice was Traditional Fish & Chips with mushy peas, and it was delivered in the usual swift fashion, where I swear the chef can mind read because the food is clearly cooked to order but always very quickly. Perhaps they have an army of chefs all just waiting for the next food order. I was in bed and asleep by 21:00.

After a goods night sleep I opted for tangerine segments, eggs and mushroom, with coffee and toast. Then checked out and headed to the office for 08:00 for another ordinary day at the office. I left at 15:10, arrived at the airport at 15:50. Security was a breeze compared to Monday at Luton.

I wandered down to the quiet end of the airport where there is no queue for a coffee, and overheard that the Luton flight would be departing from that end of the building, so I stayed put and waited for the flight to be called. When things work out like that it is a good day.
The weather was typical for the time of year with sun followed by dramatic rain storms, I was told the weather in Luton was terrible.
I is amazing how much heat you can generate in your Blackberry battery by sending a large email, I took a picture od the clouds over the runway and after about 15 minutes of sending the back of my phone was really quite warm! It just goes to demonstrate why there is such a difference between the talk and standby times quoted by the phone manufacturers.

They announced a 20 minute delay for “operational” problems, but a check with @easyjet on Twitter got a response that it would be 10 minutes late, I wander who would be correct, the people on the ground I suspect.

The plane used for Easyjet flight EYZ184

First they checked our boarding cards then let us wait on the stairs, then they had us stand on the tarmac for 10 minutes, at least it was not raining! They were boarding someone in a wheelchair via the lifting vehicle, so that messed the speedy boarders up, they had to enter via the back but as they got to the steps the cattle class boards got to use the front steps. The captain announced that the operational problem was an aircraft swap, perhaps they couldn’t start the other one.

The flight was a bit bumpy as we hit turbulence closer to Luton, when we landed at 18:45 it was chucking it down with rain. Was home by 19:45 for a home made frozen curry and a naan.

Minsmere, lies lies lies!

It was up early for us second day running, the Aylesbury RSPB group were running a coach trip to Misnsmere RSPB. Helen only spotted the trip on the local groups website on thursday, but there were still spaces, so we were on, and A of A&C was up for it too. C was going to football.

The coach departed at 07:45, and we were soon on the M25. The day looked like it was going to be great weather wise the sun was shining and it was already warm and it was still early. The weather forecast suggested sun all day with some cloud possible late afternoon. What could be better a sunny day by the seaside, and Sole Bay to boot.

We had a comfort break just outside of Colchester, at a BP Connect with an M&S food shop. The journey was very pleasant it made a change to be able to gaze out of the window and enjoy the view, rather than having to keep my eyes on the road.

The end to end trip was almost exactly 3 hours, and a peasant journey it had been. We grabbed out what’s about sheets and map of the reserve, from the friendly volunteer, and headed off into the woodland trail in the direction of Dunwich Heath, in the hope of a Dartford Warbler.

We were not disappointed we headed towards two big lens, the couple were taking pictures of Stonechats feeding a younster, a a couple of Linnets. After a few fleeting glimpses two Dartford Warblers came a long really close and perched on the vegetation giving us cracking views. It was time for a celebratory coffee stock at the Dunwich Coastguard cottages.

I had elderflower presse, and a huge slab of bread pudding, lovely, the girls had cheese scones. Suitable replete we headed down to East Hide. The wind was much colder down on the beach, we quickly headed to the shelter of the hide.

There were not many waders about, Ringed Plover and a Sandpiper. Plenty of gulls and Common Terns, ducks Gadwall, Shelduck, and Shoveler. I noticed my BB battery was almost flat, I blame Google Latitude, constant trying to get a fix and communicate back to base. I have turned all the wireless off to try to finish this blog entry.t

We headed back to the newly adjusted visitor center for some lunch, beans on toast, parsnip bake and mushroom and leek soup was had amongst us. Then suitably refreshed we headed out towards island mere, where on the way a gathering were watching a newly fledged set of 5 treecreepers were being fed by attentive parents. From island mere we watched Bearded Tits flitting about above the reeds.

It was getting late so we headed back stopping off at Bittern Hide, in the hope of seeing obviously a Bittern. A few times a Bittern was called out and on a couple of occasions, we managed fleeting views.

With only half an hour to spare we strolled back to the visitors center, for a look round the shop, on the way we say 3 hairy green dragon flies. Back at the centre I took another panorama set of the building, if it turns out OK I will see if the RSPB want a copy. All in all a great day out and what value for money, thanks must go to the Aylesbury RSPB group for organising and the William Harding trust for the generous grant that keeps the price down.

On the way back we had the traditional team bird count sweep stake, all the birds the people on the coach counted are tallied up and the person who guessed the number correctly get half the money and the rest goes to the groups coffers.

We were back at Bedgrove just after 20:00 after a pretty smooth and comfortable journey. We got home and I had time to pack for a Monday trip to Belfast (watch this space you know what is coming) and then off to bed for another early start.

You should not believe everything you read in this blog, and never blog things in anticipation you will get caught out. It turns out there was a 1 hour delay on the A12 due to a horse box accident. We sent the time identifying wild flowers on the roadside. We hit the M25 at 20:00 the time we thought we might be back in Aylesbury.

We got to Bedgrove at 20:55 and were home by 21:00 I have time to have a shower and pack, catch up with emails and RSS feeds then it was time for bed and an early start. We certainly made the most of the weekend.

There are also a couple a panoramas you can see here.

Swinbrook on a lovely day?

We were up early for a walk with A&C, the plan was to drive to Swinbrook, to do a walk along the river Swin, look at the church where some of the Mitford sisters are buried, then have lunch at the Swan Inn.

It took us an hour with mishap to get to Swinbrook, even after A had missed a turning! We parked at the pub and waited for Helen to get permission to leave the car there for the morning. The sewage treatment plant smelt like it needed a service, there was some sort of in balance going on.

The walk was a 5 mile circular one that followed the river then crossed over the other side. That meant it was going to be fairly level walking but there would be opportunities for some muddy patches.
About 3 miles into the walk we got stumbled into Asthall and The Maytime Inn was a welcome establishment to have coffee at. The pub seemed very posh and the landlord had some amazing green with a bold yellow check pattern! The coffee was good and came with some nice biscuits.

I got a set of panorama shots in the church yard. The village was typical Cotswold stone, very idyllic, as we left the church a couple of Morgan cars drove past with suitcases strapped to the rear. After Asthall you have to walk on a small road but there was not that much traffic, and as an added bonus there were a few sightings of Whitethroat, a first for A&C, and a lovely view of the valley as the road with higher than the river. At Widford there is an old mill that has been converted into dwellings, and it was our point to cross the river for the second time and do the final mile back to Swinbrook. From the bridge we saw a Grey Wagtail.

We took a look at the Widford church we seemed very old the layout was unusual in that the pews were in open top bovexes with doors to get to each set which would probably seat about 4 people. More panorama shots were taken.
On the outskirts of Swinbrook we spotted what looked like a Muntjak but turned out to be a Hare! The girls manged to find the Mitfords head stones and had a good look round while a took a couple more panorama sets.

Back at Swinbrook Swan Inn we got back into normal footwear, and then headed into the pub. There were quite a few black and white pictures of days of old and the people who live in big houses. The food was reasonable, but the service was quite poor. Especially when we ordered a bottle of wine and A had to go to the bar and find out where it had got to half way through the main course. She gave them her look of disapproval.

The drive home was again un eventful. We had had a great day out with A&C, and hope to return again someday. Perhaps eating at the Maytree Inn at Asthall instead. It was early to bed for us as we had a coach trip to Minsmere arranged with a pick up from Bedgrove at 07:30.

Panorama service resumed

If you have been reading my blog you will know that I have battling with php and the javascript created by PtGui but finally I have a script that will display panorama’s that I can store on the site. See the example below example, I took it when we were away at New Year, near Snape Marsh, in Suffolk.

Miscellany or musings

If you read the last post you will know I am travelling today, and I am obviously inspired to write as this is the second one and it is only 08:26 in the morning. I am sat on an easyjet flight.

The trip to the airport was full of surprises. I missed the parking bus so walked to the terminal. I noticed in the verge what looked like an orchid but it was blue, I must investigate. The priority lane has become popular and I ended up queuing, but still had time for and express and a pain au raisin.

The flight was called on time departing from gate 18 the closest one to the terminal building. I am definitely convinced that speedy boarding is a waste of time. I was at the front of the queue and got a window seat near the back, with little effort, and none of the rush you have when you have Speedy boarding and feel you must be at the front to get the seats you have a right to because you paid extra.

The plane was at 2/3 to 3/4 full. The rain had cleared the atmosphere and the views from the window of the aircraft were great. The Irish sea still looked a bit choppy and we hit some turbulent air as we left the west coast over Liverpool. I also noticed that the Rape crops are starting to flower, it is surprising haw much of the English country side is taken up with it. Does it go to human consumption or animal? I have had cold pressed oil but I prefer the flavour of olive oil.

Arrived only 10 minutes late, and picked up the hire car. The weather in Northern ireland was similar to the mainland typical spring blueskies with big cumulus clouds threatening, a down pour.

Meetings went well, and it was soon time to head back, I left a bit later than I would have liked, so did not bother to fill the car up, luckily for me the petrol gauge was the LCD block type and had not registered any usage so I got away with it. No sooner had I got through security the flight was called to gate 18, don’t you just love it when things run smoothly, (that comment may have been a bad mistake!).

Easyjet plane from gate 18 Belfast International

The flight was quite crowded, more than 95% full, they were looking for volunteers to put baggage in the hold free of charge, to ensure enough room in the overhead lockers. You could tell we were running to capacity because the steward was making announcements to the effect “hurry up and stow you baggage, then sit down so we can take off” but using the politeness only air stewards are capable of.

Despite no speedy boarding I got a decent window seat near the back. I managed to drop my pen twice whilst seated, it can be very difficult to retrieve anything from the aircraft floor once seated. If you lean forward hand have long enough arms then you can just about reach the floor, if the item is any where other that where you feet go forget it, the item is lost. I was lucky twice I dropped my pen and twice I was able to retrieve it.

Apparently we flew over Liverpool at 37,000 feet which compared to Everest nearly 30,000 feet is pretty high, the sun was shining we were way above the clouds, I could see some bubbling up into storms but nothing really very big, so I guess the weather below was probably quite pleasant. The captain announced that we were 20 minutes ahead of schedule, they day just got better and better.
If I was a real writer I would now have to turn this post in to a story where everything was going well then… But I won’t.