Twin churches, Bees, Roses, Soup and Cake on New Years Eve

So it's still grey and dull so on the last day of the year I headed to Anglessey Abbey. I was early so went a few miles up the road to Swaffham Prior.

Swaffham Prior has two churches sharing the same churchyard.

St Mary's is now the Parish Church of the village.

St Cyriac is now in the care of the excellent Churches Conservation Trust.

No stained glass here but nature provides its own reward.

And so on to Anglessey Abbey.

It has been so mild lately....

what the heck? BEES!!!

A few Snowdrops out. Give it a month....

There are still roses about!

I wandered into the cafe for my hot soup and those naughty National Trust people had arranged it so that the first thing I saw was cake!!!!! So I had a nice vegetable soup and succumbed and had a slice of Coffee & Walnut, oh come on its the last of the year!!

So off to Dad's. See you next year!

Local Birding

There had been a Great Northern Diver nearby for quite a while so I had a stroll over. Of course the bird had flown (or at least wasn't seen by me!) and the grey skies weren't conducive for photos! Still I did see Goldeneyes and Goosanders which were nice. Other good stuff were Kingfisher, Redwing, Fieldfare and Great Spotted Woodpecker. It was interesting to see a mix of Great Crested Grebes some in winter plumage and others in breeding plumage.

Given the lack of pictures here is a Blue Tit.

Back to work tomorrow. Two day weeks I can live with!

And so that's Christmas come and gone

I went to Dad's for Christmas.

Christmas Day was very lazy. The telly was rubbish and so I read a fair bit.

We went to Finchingfield Boxing Day to stretch our legs...

I left Dad's after breakfast. Very quiet at Rye Meads. I tried to make a Siskin amongst a Goldfinch but alas... there were the usual ducks (including Shelduck) and Redwings and some small flocks of Long Tails and Goldfinch.

The light was awful and birds were not playing ball.... so this is all I got...

Bird of the day was a Green Sandpiper