We are off to Snape, Suffolk, for the new year with friends, so we thought we would take to opportunity to drop in on an ageing relative in a nursing home near Southend on sea.
We were up and about with plenty of time to spare, so we had a leisurely breakfast then headed off at about 0900 and arrived in good time via the M25. We found the home easy enough as we had taken a peek on Street View the evening before. The home seemed to be well run and the staff were friendly and helpful. P seemed to be happy enough but it took some time before she figured out who we really we’re. We chatted for about an hour and got a few laughs out of her.
The Barge Inn, Battlesbridge
We then headed off in the direction of Snape but not before I gave Helen the official guided tour of Southend. She seemed very impressed. The highlights included Shoeburyness beach huts, St Mary’s church and school, and the infamous Priory park in Prittlewell. We tried toi spot the restaurant with the wooden revolving door that P loved so much but it seems to have gone.
We headed out via Rayleigh and stopped at The Barge Inn for some lunch, I had a Adnams Fish burger with chips and Helen had a Goats cheese salad with chips. Both were tasty and good value.
We got stuck in a jam on the A12 which meant we got an unexpected tour of Witham as we tried, in vain, to bypass the queue.
Arrived at Abbey Farm, just outside Snape at about 1620, after some confusion over which building we were in Helen called the owner who sorted us out and gave us the guided tour. Very nice property will serve us well for New Year.
Up early it was cold outside, -1, frost everywhere. The plan was a trip to London, not for christmas shopping, but for a cultural visit taking two photography exhibitions, and possibly the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery. We felt smug as Christmas shopping was all but done, if not wrapped. The roads to Berkhamsted were icy but the temperature was now a balmy +2. We nabbed the last parking space near the station, and jumped on the 0900 train to Euston.
I remembered that I had seen a photo of a Lego Christmas tree at St Pancras, so we agreed to swing by. It turned to be not as impressive as I imagined it might be. It was big, green and covered in lights and baubles tree, and 100÷ Lego. I took a few pictures while Helen resisted the lure of the champagne bar, then headed out to get the 59 back to Euston and on to the Imperial War Museum. It had started to rain.
We had booked up to see the Don McCullin exhibition the night before. Don McCullin is a famous war photographer, I am sure you will have see his work in the sunday supplements between the 60’s and 90’s. The most famous one is the close up of shell shocked soldier with the thousand yard stare. The exhibition was good with plenty of articles that McCullin had donated, including the Nikon with the AK47 bullet hole. The was an interesting interview video of McCullin and his stories of how he got into with anecdotes of war, and his subsequent shift away from war photography and into Landscape photography. We thought about lunch at IWM but decide that something on the Southbank near our next port of call might offer a better choice than the cafe.
The Imperial War Museum panorama
We jumped back on the 59 bus and got off at Southbank, on Waterloo Bridge. The regular Slow Food market was on by the Haymarket, but although tempting it was too cold for al fresco eating. We even fore went buying some nice bread because we were travelling light and did not want any luggage.
Helen spotted a Pizza Express so we popped in for some fast food. It was the same one we took the took the Australians to some years, it might even have made it on to the blog, just.
Suitably replete we headed to The National Theatre to take a look at the Landscape photographer of the year exhibition, and it was brilliant, all the photos where printed and well lit, a real inspiration to any photographer. A sign of the times hardly any of the pictures were taken on film. Many used the Canon 10-22mm EFS lens that I like own and like so much. We headed out and took some pictures and video of the north bank of the Thames which was looking glorious in the winter sun.
The National Gallery, London
Out final destination was the National Gallery se we jumped on the 159 over to Trafalgar Square. We asked at the desk they had tickets for 2030! Apparently people queue up at 0700 3 hours before the pace opens just to get tickets. We popped into Waterstones (waste of time) then jumped back on the 59 to Euston, where a fast train was waiting to take us back to Berkhamsted.
Some friendly French people sat in the seats near us, and after exchanging a few word in French they started asking me French grammar questions. is it Londonien or Londonienne? How should I know. We were back home by 17:00 for some left over soup from yesterday. All in all a great day out if a little cold.
You will all have seen the Fenton Benton video doing the rounds on all the new websites if you haven’t I have included it below. Basically ASloaneRanger was videoing the deer in Richmond park when a man calling a dog Fenton or Benton crashes through the scene chasing and calling for his dog. The best ones are the mashups just do a search for Fenton Benton on youtube to find the, I have also included a few below.
Thanks Helen for that effort here is a slightly more verbose film review.
Point Blank (A bout portant) film poster
The film starts with a loving couple, the wife is pregnant, and in a separate thread and injured guy is being chased by two armed men.
The injured man end up in hospital after being hit by a motorcyclist. The husband of the couple turns out to be a nurse and saves the life of the fugitive much to the annoyance of the people trying to kill him.
The film takes many twists with good cops and bad cops, chasing the guilty and the innocent around the Paris streets. Filmed in reportage style with none of the hollywood polish. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good thriller.
We were supposed to be going round A&C’s for a look at their new extension then on for a walk, but C, the Olympic torch bearer, was feeling a bit under the weather so Helen and I decided the weather looked so nice that we should go for a walk anyway.
We decided that we would walk from Cholesbury cricket ground, and keep as much as possible to the surrounding beech woods, as it was mushroom season and there should be plenty to photo. The sun was shining and it was ideal autumn weather. We walked towards the village hall then took the foot path that runs along side it. We passed the church on our left and entered a small section of woods, by crossing the site then following the footpath NW, we then came to an opening where there are usually some horses. We kept to the footpath and enter Buckland Wood, where the footpath seems to peter out but if you keep in the NW direction you eventually hit a T junction with a bridleway where we turned right.
The bridleway lead us to a rural road where we turned right and followed the road for about 400 metres. There were not many mushrooms about, we theorised that the conditions were perhaps not quite right, perhaps it was too warm. There was the odd clump about but not the usual abundance. We soon turned off and followed a path though a small wood then across a field with a crop in it. The small wood had lots of holly in it which had more than the usual amount of berries on it, the birds are in for a treat this winter.
Eventually we hit the track, called Shire Lane, that leads to Hastoe but we turned right away from Hastoe but back to Cholesbury. The lane is a great one to cycle down from the Hastoe end because it is just slightly down hill all the way and you can keep a fair lick going. At the end of the lane we hit the road again which we followed back to Cholesbury cricket ground, just round the bend and after a dip in the road, you can get off the road and go via the woods adjacent to it.
We both agreed that it was a nice short walk, 4.5 miles and took us 1 hour and 40 minutes. There was not many birds about, probably because it was around the middle of the day, traditionally very quiet.
It is the weekend of the London to Brighton vintage car run (#LBVCR) and as is traditional Helen and I are participating with a good friend Rory, who has a 1903 Humberette. I went over on Saturday to buff up the brass and polish the paint work before loading the car on to the trailer and securing it for the journey to Hyde Park on the Sunday. As usual Rory & Rob were bickering over the lack of preparation on Rory’s behalf and the right way to do things.
We were in bed by 20:00 because we had to be round Rory’s at 05:00 to leave. Helen was up and 04:00 and I surfaced at 04:35 and we made it to Rory’s by 05:00. Whilst sorting out stuff at home we got a call from Helens mum she had decided to cadge a lift to near Brighton to visit a relative. We picked up Helen’s mum of the way after leaving only 5 minutes after the planned time. Strangely we ended up in front of the others despite not having overtaken them, turns out that had also picked someone up on the way. I let them overtake and followed them down to Hyde Park.
Parking is never a problem at that time of the morning and we were soon over by the Serpentine, watching the pigeons lying round in a large flock. As predicted we were there far earlier than we needed to be, it was 06:15 and we had a 07:20 start so we went to the cafe that was doing a roaring trade and relaxed for a while. Back out at the start queue we chatted and took a few pictures then the 6 minute warning sign came round, the driver struggled to get the car started again but a small drop of magic juice from a very old bottle with a nozzle seemed to do the trick, I didn’t ask what was in it sometimes it is best not to know.
We hurried back to may car and joined the 50 mile traffic jam to Brighton Madeira drive. It did not take too long to catch up with the old crock, I think it was around Purley. When we got to Streatham we had to be diverted off the usual route because the police had cordoned off the high street. Not a problem for my car but it involved a hill so some of the old crocks were slowed significantly. The Humberette just a about made it. Around Croydon we did a passenger change then we stopped again for a coffee and a swap over at around Merstham.
We were now into the usual routine and plodded on down to Crawley for the official coffee stop, where we all met up at the White Hart, for a beer. Rory had managed to upset a local taxi driver by nipping into a free parking space that the taxi driver had been waiting for. Even worse was to come as when we left Mark left his car in Crawley but not before swapping spaces with Rory’s car and again upsetting the locals. The traffic normally gets worse as you leave Crawley and everyone is now up and about, this year was no exception.
The weather was holding out, i.e. it was not raining, but it was overcast so not really ideal for taking photo’s, never the less I had a go at the technique where you set a long shutter speak 30th/60th and follow the motion of a car in the hope of getting a blurred back ground and static subject, essentially giving the picture a sense of speed. You can see the best shot in the post.
We passed Pease Pottage, which I only mention because of the strange sounding name. Then we we over the big hills without a fuss. We dropped off Helen’s mum and then did a final meet up with the car at the slip round just before the Needles, then headed to the west of the railway to dump the car at the NCP near the Travelodge, interestingly we were spending more to accommodate the car for a night than we were on ourselves, the NCP was £25 for 24hours and the room was booked early for £23.50.
Down on Madeira drive we met up with the others, the hospitality was not up to the usual standard as they were clipping the passes if you asked for more than one portion, and they were serving only the participant tickets. After sting around in the cold for a while we sent the girls off back to the hotel while the men packed the car up on the trailer for transport back to base.
We met up in the hotel lobby at 19:00 and the veggies outnumbered the meat eaters so we went to Food for Friends a veggie restaurant we had been to a few years before. I had a Thai platter followed by a Haloumi massala both of which I would recommend. We retired at 22:00 for some well earned shut eye.
On Monday we all met up at in reception and headed out to get some breakfast, as we had decided to splash out on a nice breakfast rather than the pretty basic fare at the Travelodge. It was really handy that The Independent on Saturday had a feature of the 50 best places to eat breakfast. There was one in Bright called Bills Placein and old bus depot. I must say that it is highly recommended, I had the veggie breakfast which was two slices of toast with Guacamole on one and Humus on the other topped with tomato’s, mushrooms and poached eggs, topped off with a sweet chilli sauce.
Suitably refreshed it was off round the shops of the lanes to see what we could find. I bought a pair of slippers and a print of a Treecreeper for the lounge wall. At around 13:00 we all met up said our good byes and headed home picking Helen’s mum on the way.
First I would like to thanks Steve for this post hes texted me to check if I was OK as he had not seen any posts for a while. Angela also gets a mention as she also mentioned the lack of new material. So spurred on by our fans here is a post for our weekend away at the Eels Foot Inn, yes another weekend at the excellent pub.
We left work on the dot and went back to base camp grabbed our luggage and set off to Hotel Baldwin where Kev n kids, had delayed thier departure so we could doa a quick “Say hello and wave good bye”. Mum made an excellent pasta dish despite having been eaten out of house and home.
We were up in good time as the cleaner were due at 09:00 and we had to get to the Lord Nelson by 12:00 to meet H&N, we had our doubts about them being thier by that time but we could not let them get there and us not be their. We decided to take a slight detour via Harleston (where we heard for N&H and yea they were running later than they anticipated) and then Denton to check out the grand parent grave. We did a quick tour of the shops in Harleston and had coffee and cake on the less busy back road that cirecles the main part of town.
We set off again and easily remembered the route to Denton, we we parked up at the church car park and without too much trouble found the head stone. I quickly took a set of panorama shots so watch this space for the results.
We left for the final leg of the journey, which was very pleasant as the weather was fantastic and the country side stunning. We arrived at Southwold around about 13:00 and went for a walk down to the pier as H&N were going to be another 30 minutres.
The high street and sea front were packed, it was the end of half-term and everyone seemed to be making the most of the weather. Down on the pier we had a quick look at the Down on the pier show http://www.underthepier.com/ which is a strange version of the traditional penny arcade and consists of machines to take your money but they are all somehow mechanic and brilliantly crass. Neil had a go on the frogger style game involing a zimmer frame crossing the road but the screen image came from a really camera pointing at a model road with moving lanes.
Met H & N at Lord Nelson, for a pint, and something to eat, I also paid for a T Shirt which they promised to post when new stock came in. Next on the agenda was some shopping. Both bookshops closed down and W H Smiths are moving in. N and I stood watching them replacing the wooden floor. Not very successful shopping trip but brought some heidi & cheese onion pies for lunch the next day. I took the opportunity to rtake another set of papnorama pictures, which when I get back to my own house will certainly post if worthy.
We left southwold and headed to The Eels Foot in it was late afternoon, lucky someone was around to let us have our room keys. We quicly settled in then walked a few hundred yards down the road to look at the field where the Barn Owls hunt. We were not let down, it is amazing how you can almost guarantee to see an owl as long as the weather is right. We saw at least two which at one point were both perched on the fence of the house on the bend.
Back to pub where N and Helen headed to the bat at 6pm in order to secure a table. Good job as 5 mins later they were all full. I joined them later and H was already there. Food was the usual fare I had fish n chips, and few pints of Adnams, wisely we were in bed by 10pm.
Sat am – cloudy, misty. Excellent fry up with veggie sausages, muchrooms, toms n scambled eggs, with beans on toast and a sausage for Helen. We then performed an elaborate car shufffle where by we left my car at Warblerwick then headed back to the pub in N’s. The women watched the Grand Prix qualifying. When they returned, we headed out circa 10.45am, fortunately remembering the pies for lunch.
We walked towards Minsmere but then headed off through the woods behind the reserve. We were hoping that mushroom season would be at its high, however the dry weather seemed to have delayed their growth and there were not as many about as we had hoped, Helen got a few pics though. Excellent views of a goldcrest then turned right towards Dunwich Heath. Wallked past the pie bench of yester year. No sight of Dartford warblers on Dunwich Heath. Crossed the road then into the dark and into spooky pinewoods that lead to the Dunwich cliffs and priory remains. As ever I was determind to peer over the cliffs although H backed up wisely once the word overhang was mentioned. Followed the path down to Dunwich itself. Sun was shining by now so we voted for a quick pint at in the beer garden of The Ship pub (which, should you ever find yourself pieless in the vicinity, does good food).
Down to Dunwich beach, where we ate the pies along with some chips from the cafe at the beach. A couple of brave swimmers. Discussion of choice of route for the next leg to Walberswick, where we plumped for the least populated option. So it was up the road past the church (passing several ladies with bodrums, the purpose of which we will never know). Headed up the stony track alongside Dunwich forest, overlooking the marshes. We saw excellent views of a goldcrest, and a jay and chaffinch enjoying the puddles. Past some rather lovely houses to a view over the march at Walberswick, where we saw lots of wildfowl. Through a gate onto the reserve itself and followed the raised path sea defence through the reedbeds back to Walberswick. Drove back to Eels Foot Inn for a rest I was soon aback out thpugh, back to the Barn Owl field, where I saw no less that 3 owls a marsh harrier and couple of unidentified waders flushed by the owls quartering the fields. What a a great spectacle for early Saturday evening, far better than Strickly!
N and Helen headed off to try to make sure we got a table, whilst I had a shower. They were lucky to get a table as the pub was very busy with a couple of large parties but as usual service and food were good. Neil & N had veggie lasagne. A few pints/glasses were drunk, and we ended up chatting to a friendly chap who had a Scottie dog, and who was a frequest visitor to the area, in between climbing the hills and mountains of Britain (including camping in the snowy Lake District last winter!). One last drink and some bemused observation of the rather drunk party who were drinking Zambuca (rather them than us!). Then off to bed and remembered to put the clock back too.
Up for another excellent breakfast at 8.30am, a bit of a record in that none of the party were suffering from hangovers. We must be getting older & wiser 🙂 Watched the start of the Grand Prix then off to Minsmere for another walk. There is a great deal of development happening at Minsmere, on the Visitor Centre, North Wall & sea defences. Off through the woods to the edge of Dunwich Heath. Fleeting glimpses of a bird we would have loved to have been a Dartford Warbler however we just did not see enough of it to be sure. Saw an optimistic mushroomer but he only had one in his basket.
Across the heath sighting a large group of deer grazing in the heather, then a coffee stop at Lighthousekeepers cottages. It was getting a bit chillier with the sea breeze. Another brave swimmer who then proceeded to disrobe entirely. We peered stalwartly at the sea until he had had a chance to gather himself together and then a trudge across the shingle towards east Hide. Saw a small flock of greenfinch and cormorants en route. Hide was busy but we did not have to wait too long for a window seat. Lots of wildfowl and black-tailed godwit, a couple of Berwick swans and three avocet. Then on to sluice bushes. Saw a robin and heard a wren, but no rare warblers unfortunately! Then back towards the visitor centre, admiring a ruff, redshank and little egret on the way.
We had some lunch at the visitor centre and spotted an unexpected treecreeper near the cafe. Then becauses we had’nt eaten our own bodyweight this weekend, thought we should probably have a cake, purely in the interests of supporting the RSPB you understand. Then it was, sadly, farewell to H&N and homeward bound down the very lovely A12, M25 & A41.
Monday is always the first day of a holiday i.e. the first day you are not at work when you would normally be at work. Today is a trip to a National Trust property called Arlington Court.
After the storm Taffy and I headed up the coast in hope of finding some breaking waves, but although we found some very windy spots we could not find a coast facing the right way with an harbour wall, probably because it would be silly to build a harbour wall exposed to the prevailing weather.
We got back to the hut and soon we were off to the NT property. The owners of the property were collectors of tut, and it is in glass cabinets everywhere. There is a walk round the property that is about 2 miles long.
We woke up at about 08:00 this morning, Taffy had been for a run and was frying his bacon ready for his ritual bacon sarny whilst he watched the rugby, Wales was playing South Africa in their first match of the 2010 Rugby World cup. Unfortunately Wales lost but is was a close match and could have gone either way. Once the ruby was finished we eventually managed to get ou act togther and headed out to Saunton Sands car park (£5) then headed out along the beach for about and hours then headed back for a coffee and cake. The weather was very windy, so much so the sand was being blown along the beach and my glasses slowly gather salt and misted up. On the beach I saw a grounded Shearwater and some Sanderling.
After coffee we headed back the hut after stopping to get some provisions as I was on kitchen duty. Not a very active day but we are on holiday that is what you can do when you are on holiday.
