Decided a local trip was in order, so we invited Helen’s folks for a walk round College Lake. The weather was really sunny and hot, we got there at about 11ish so not the best time of day to see birds. The usual suspects were on the water and island adjacent to the entrance. We walked on round the side twards the far end.
In the wooded are just pas the sand martin nest area I spotted an unusual plant that looked very primitive as plants go. It was a long stalk (6 inches) with with 4 regular buds on evenly spaced up the stem, topped off with a blobby bit. It turned out to be a Shady Horsetail (Equisetum pratense).
We were soon down to the field where the shrubs are planted. I scanned the fences ofor birds and spotted what I thought mightbe a Cuckoo. IIt was distamt so I got a bit closer and was more convinced. When it flew closer onto another post there was not doubt, later on on we all heard it call one time. In the filed near the cuckoo were 4 Whetear.
We finished off the walk with Ice Cream for some and a soft drink for others.
The weather has been great all week, at work I have been doing timelapse videos of a new sewage treatment plant all week, but more of that later. I suggested that we go to Kew to see the place in all its spring glory. We decided to go and take the mother in law.
Woke up this morning early the day looked like it would be blue skies and sun all day. We headed off just before 10am, picked up our guest and headed off towards the M25. The traffic was OK and we were soon round the M25 and onto the M4 heading towards London. We exited at J2 and picked up the road that crosses the Thames at Hammersmith Bridge. Just after the bridge if you take the first right and then follow the signs to the Kew car park, (tight and narrow left between two houses), we arrived just short of 11am and easily found a place to park. Parking ticket is £6 and if you like you can park for free on Kew road but it can be a bit tricky.
Entrance to the Gardens was quite steep at 10p short of £14. The car park is on the Thames side of the park and there were no queues. Any way £40 worse off and we were into the gardens. The river side of the gardens is not really on the main drag so we headed east towards the pagoda end and took in all the plants and trees. there were some fritillaries, which are a lovely flower they come in purple and white and look like bells hanging from a bent over stem. fritillaries are quite rare and declining, but are native to the Thames valley and Suffolk. Another highlight was two types of wild garlic, Ransomes and Few-flowered Garlic. I have come across Ransomes in our local woods but I have never see the Few-flowered ones, which were not as pungent as the Ransomes.
Tulips
There were lots of trees in bloom including Rhododendrons, Magnolias, and plenty of cherry like blossoms. After a trip up the treetop walkway, (Helen and her mum chickened out) we headed over to the most easterly green house. After looking round the green house the plan was to meander our way back towards the west end where we entered. We stopped off at the botanical art exhibition and I managed to miss the bit that connected the old building to the new building, so that pleasure will have to wait until next time.
After looking round the middle greenhouse I struck up a conversation with a lady who was taking a panorama shot using a panoramic attachement on a tripod. We exchanged tips and I passed on the name of the software I use Hugin (here is the link http://hugin.sourceforge.net/). I took a good look at the camera bracket she was using because my one made from B&Q angle irons is not up to the job. If you are reading this can you send me a picture of your bracket. She she was a member of the Muswell Hill Photographic Society, and had got a couple of pictures commended in the Kew gardens photo competition.
Pond panorama
We had lunch at the Pavilion, where there was lots of nice food on offer including plenty of veggie options. As it was only 12 we opted for a lighter lunch of sandwiches, followed buy the obligatory day out cake. Once refreshed we headed over to the last of the greenhouses the Princess of Wales conservatory, where all the tropical stuff is housed. Helen did not like the humid atmosphere she claims it makes her hair curl so she looks like Bonnie Langford!
Turns out there was another green house to look round, the one with the giant lilly pads. Today however they were not giant, they had obviously had a clear out and started again as the pad were only up to a foot across. I tried taking a panorama shot here as I thought it would be a bit like the St Pancras one with roof offering an interesting pattern. If it works you may see the results here, but at time of writing it needed a bit of tweaking to get the handrails to line up correctly. Sometimes you wish you had the tripod and pano head with you, but when you set out you just can’t be bothered to lug all the gear around.
Boule do neige
We stopped for Tea/Coffee before a look round the obligatory shop, then headed back to the car with a brief stop to look at the river and eat and ice cream. The drive back was a breeze and we stopped of in Tring to get some tea (salad and stuff) and to place a bet on the Grand National, I choose the favourite and a rank outsider. The favourite came in 3rd so I might get some money back but not as much as I bet, there is probably a life lesson there, a £10 in the hand is better than one passed over the betting shop counter.
All in all a great day out with great weather, Oh and I forgot to mention we added a bird to the life list, Ringed-necked Parakeet, Helen’s mum spotted it at first I thought it was a sparrow hawk, it was travelling fast and had hawk like wing silhouette, but the give away was the slim pointed tail. When it circled round you could clearly see it was a bright green bird so there was no doubt, about the identification.
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.
Only a couple of days holiday left so helen and I thought we would make the most of it. It seemed to be much brighter today the sun was threatening to come out. I was charged with planning a route while Helen when to church. We had already discussed going to Chesham (Waxwings outside Waterstones) and perhaps along the river Chess, so I streetmaapped that are looking for possibilities. I settled on driving to Chorleywood then underground to Chalfont and Latimer then walk back along the river Chess. There is a much longer walk between Chesham and Rickmansworth, details of which can be found here.
Actually getting walking proved to be the hardest part of the day. We set the sat nav to get us to Chorleywood, but I suspect I chose shortest rather fastest because the quality of roads we navigated were narrow and rural. We finally got to Chorleywood and parked up on the common next to the Amersham road, then headed across the common towards the underground station. As we approached the underground station a BMW estate drove pas and my hand clouted it’s wing mirror, he/she did not even stop to check I was OK, if it had got me higher up my arm if could have done some damage.
Once at the station we god our tickets (£8) and headed onto the platform, only to find the gate to the tunnel was locked and we needed to be the other side of the ticket barriers, but the ticket machines would not let us back in. I managed to force open the barrier, which set off the alarm. Helen refused to squeeze through so we waited until someone opened the gates so she could nip through. During which time a train came to the station and departed, meaning a 30 minute wait for the next one.
The weir at Latimer house
Whilst waiting for the train I thought I would get some video footage for a small montage of our walk, but even that was not to be as an Aylesbury train came along before I had a chance, we had to hop on. At Chalfont and Latimer we again came up against locked doors trying to leave the station, but once out we headed through an old housing estate, and eventually came to a woods where the Chess valley walk was sign posted.
Finally we were out in the country side, much to Helen’s relief. It was all down hill to the bottom of the valley where the river was. We joined it level with Latimer house, where there is a lake a a large weir. As we crossed the bridge there where at least 6 large trout in the river. The footpath follows the side of the hill which can be a bit muddy and annoyingly awkward to walk on, but it soon levels out. We were walking with the river flow so the walk would be all down hill, in fact looking at the map it was all of 15 meters (from 78 at the bridge to 63 where we turned off).
View back up Chess valley
We saw quite a few birds on the way highlights were flocks of Redwing/Fieldfare and a single Bullfinch (female). Eventually we came to a very large cress bed farm at Sarratt Bottom which looked that it was a going concern. I wouldn’t mind returning later in the year to buy some. Along the way we also passed the tomb of William Liberty (died 1777) who was the local bridge builder, apparently he wanted to be buried alone so that his bones would not get mixed up when he got to heaven. Seems other people had different ideas as the plaque explains how his wife and possibly another family member were also buried there.
Finally it was time to leave the river valley and head up the hill to the car park. The walk had taken about 2 and a half hours and I reckon we walked about 5/6 miles. We will certainly return another day perhaps to make a day of it and do the full length 10 miles.
We have had a surprisingly busy day. The usual sort of thing this morning; presents & mulled wine followed by much peeling, chopping, basting and boiling. Lovely lunch featuring home made chestnut stuffing and of course, bread sauce followed by…Christmas pudding, accompanied by flaming brandy or in Neil’s case, a bucket of custard.
Then Neil & I went for a walk down to the river for some much needed exercise. We walked around a mile and saw lots of birds, heron, long tailed tit, cormorant, redwing, fieldfare, blue tit, mallard, barnacle goose, red kite, buzzard, moorhen and a flock of geese that we struggled to id. Neil took a few photos and we pottered back as the sun was going down and it was getting chilly. Back to Neil’s folks where Neil realised he had lost his phone on the walk.
Was the phone lost here
Back out, assisted by Jack and down to the river. Some people were walking towards us and by chance Neil asked them if they had seen a mobile on their travels. They had spotted & retrieved it! They had called a number on it, my sis who had then called Neil’s Mum with their details, so Neil’s mum whipped on her wellies (complete with ice grips) to come in pursuit of us. So all was well, the nice folks did their Christmas good deed andwe all got a bit more fresh air & exercise than planned but did us good. Back now looking forward to an evening of Strictly & whist & maybe a tipple.
I think there might even be some bread sauce left too! Happy days 🙂
Sunday was the London to Brighton vintage car run. Helen and I with Helens mum joining us for a list to Hassocks, met up with the crew at Crawley after a wrong turning off the M25 meant we missed the exit to the Redhill Little Chef. We stooda around with Martin at CVrwayley town square until the car arrived then we went to the local pub for a traditional pint. Unfortunatly Rory could only be with us until Crawley, so it was then my responability to keep up with the vehicle and allow passengers to swap over a get a chance to ride in the 1903 Humberette.
At about 10 miles out of Crawley we swapped over to give Justin a ride, and Gerald joined us in the car. Gerald is a hockey chum of Gilbert, and had also played his part in the team of over 70’s who won the title at the world championships in Cape Town earlier this year. He is also the president of the British Naturalist Association. The weather was perfect for the run the sun was shinning and the leaves were golden as we went over the steep hill where some cars need a tow. At the Pikeham junction we did another swap and Mark joined the car for the final drive into Brighton.
We hurried down to the front where I dropped everyone off near the front then dumped the car in the NCP car park round the corner from the Travel Lodge. When I got back to the front somone had kindly managed to bag a cup of muled wine, another traditional drink for the run.
Pikeham
This year we had taken a chance and booked the Travel Lodge for the night, a bargain at £32.50, the rooms were small but the place was clean, and we had a good nights apart from the noise from the storm that had descending upon the country. After freshening up we met up in the bar and I used Google maps to find and Italian restaurant near by, it is a great service because it summarises the reviews from many review websites and presents the result in a really easily read way. I picked out one that had the best reviews and we used the directions feature to take us to the restaurant.
The place looked really nice although it was on the street where there are lots of takeaways and other restaurants, and where in the past we have had a couple of bad meals. From the outside it promised to be good, it looked clean and newly decorated. We all agreed the place looked good so went in. The menu had some great selections. We had between us Misto Mare (deep fried sea food), Olives/Breads and Bruschetta for starters then Spaghetti a la Vongole, pumpkin risotto, pork in a mushroom cream sauce and the sea bass special. Three of us had dessert Tiramisu and fruit salad, followed by coffee and liquers. The bill came to £40 per head and everyone agreed that the meal was really great and that we should check it out next year.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped of at a pub that did great real ale, as well as loads of different types of tequila!
Finally got to go to Prezzo in Tring, for a meal with Helen’s family. We all had £10 offer vouchers!
I decided I would have to have a desert after Carla at work said it was so good, but also fancied the calamari starter so I went off the voucher for the starter.
The food was good, I liked my main which was the fusilli pasta with asparagus, mushrooms, and pesto. I have to say that the cheese cake was nice but a bit too sweet for my taste buds.
At the Aylesbury museum today there was a Fungi exhibition organised by the Bucks Fungus Group http://www.bucksfungusgroup.org.uk . Helen and I headed down with John and Sallie. We did not know what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised, they had a long set of trestle tables, covered in samples of mushrooms, there must have been over 100 types there and they had all been found this morning with a 20 mile radius.
We had a good look round and John found an expert to identify the samples he had bought along. The people from the group were very knowledgeable, very willing to share their knowledge.
There was one that they had under a plastic bell cover, it was the famous Deathcap, apparently one mouthful would be enough to kill you. The poison is not filtered by the bodies organs, so the toxins circulate round the body doing more and more damage. After some time 10 to 16 days you die. One cure is to get a liver transplant, which has it’s own complications!
I bought a decision tree guide that takes you through the process of figuring out what is what.
It was well worth the effort of going to Aylesbury museum.
