Coming home

My normal B&B/Hotel of choice is Briarfields but Trish and I were in Bagthorpe Hall.

The house was once huge!! but the main bit was knocked down in the fifties and what you see was in a terrible state. It has been wonderfully restored and it really is like staying in a stately home.

My room was comfy (lovely duvet) and the breaky rather nice (a large plate of raspberries and loganberries a nice touch). And it was very good value.

Not every B&B has it's own walled garden!

Cheryl, Corinna, Trev, Trish and I met up at Welney.

the birds were camera shy!

The birdy highlight was a Pectoral Sandpiper....

Home!

Well that's holiday one over! I didn't use a dSLR once and to be honest I never felt I needed it. Birds are the only real reason I need a dSLR..

The holiday was good and although the weather wasn't perfect it never got in the way so no complaints. I stayed at the Huntsman at Falfield (near Slimbridge which I never got to.) and I would happily stay there again if I was in the area..

Straight home today and off to Rye Meads I was greeted by a Common Whitethroat in the car park. There were lots of Blackcaps, is it me or are there more than normal. Also lots of Cetti's at Rye Meads these days.

Notable birds? Sedge Warbler, two Little Egrets, Lapwing and a Snipe. Oh and not a bird but nice... a vole!

The flipping birds were playing hide and seek from the camera!!

The Hert & Middlesex Wildlife Trust part of the reserve can be hit and miss but it was good to see a Mute Swan on one of the Island nesting again. Very funny to see a Canada Goose sitting nearby in a few weeks the male Mute will be giving it hell......

This Mute came to say hello.

 And YAY baby Coots ugly looking devils!! But still so nice to see them.

home again

I didn't hang about this morning. I had anticipated stopping for an hour but in the end came straight home and sat with dad in his garden.

Annoyingly getting the case out of the car and stabbed my finger on the lock and lost a bit of nail. The word you are looking for is ouch. Will take a while to grow back and is ruddy sore!!

I had a really good few days the weather wasn't always perfect but at its worst it was still dry and at its best lovely.

I ought to add I stayed in the Boot Inn Flyford Flavell. Service was very good and the staff friendly. My room was fine (the only really minor gripe was that plug points were a bit far from the bed - think laptop :D) everything worked and I had freeview (I didn't use it much, these days its MP3 or radio, but it was nice to have) and wifi. Food was decent pub standard and nowt wrong with that. Price was what you expect to pay nowadays. If you are in the area and need somewhere to stay I'd recommend it.

So 4 weeks to the next one :D

Reality Bites

came home yesterday. I left the hotel in bright sunshine and the further east I got the duller it became. By the time I arrived home it was chucking it down. The plan had been to cut the grass and then do some birding but as it was I put my feet up. Actually it was so chilly at home I stuck the heating on.

I did enjoy the break, it was very relaxing. I reread Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, it is meant to be Science Fiction but really it would appeal to a much wider audience. It features time travel but it is not heavy on the science more of a comedy of manners really. I'm now reading Wilkie Collins The Woman in White which was first published in 1861. The Mayfield House Hotel was good. Food was nice, with starters and mains were the best bits for me. I did lower the average age of the clientele quite a bit!

Mum had a blood transfusion yesterday, this is so she'll be able to start the chemo. Having to sit all day everyday, for someone who was very active, must be awful. She has more appetite now than she was and seems brighter. They are getting a new aerial for the telly upstairs so she'll have access to freeview. There 'll be stuff on ITV2/3 that she'll enjoy.

For those who are interested my next break is in two weeks (yes Dawn) but I'm staying at home so hopefully you'll get a tour of local sites of interest in Essex and neighbouring counties.

On a separate topic. I note that Nikon have released two new camera the D300 and D3 and some sooper dooper high powered prime lenses with VR, I mention this for Ms D-Birder and to mention that my credit card will be staying firmly in my pocket.

Wednesday 20th June

My hotel/pub was The Houndshill Ettington, it was a decent country pub. I'd stay there again.



I then found that Wrest Park wasn't open today sigh. So I came straight home and popped into Rye Meads

and ..

that is that.

I stayed at

The Old Black Lion, Hay-on-Wye. Room a tadge small but the food was to die for and the beer excellent



The Gatehangers Inn, Ashendon, Buckinghamshire. Nice country pub.


Weather was awful Sunday, very fine Monday and Tuesday, not all that Wednesday. Ok thursday and gorgeous Friday and Saturday. So not too bad.

Friday

I picked up Nic early and off we went.

First stop was Stamford for breakfast. We were in a cafe called Truly Scrumptious and it was laid out with lots of stuff from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Stamford is a town of churches we popped into All Saints.





A walk along the river had this little lady and her family. Hard to believe they can ALL be hers though.




And my first Macro.



So where next? Off to Belton House just north of Grantham.




The church is full of memorials to the Brownlow-Custs.











And so into the garden for some macro practice.








And some more scenic shots.





We finished off at Normanton by Rutland Water




We were staying at the Ram Jam Inn. It was ok. I think it was sold a few years ago since it seems to need some TLC. Food was also ok.

For those of you into these things. The initial church photos at Stamford were taken with a Nikon D80 with 18-55 lens. The general purpose pics at Belton and at Normanton were taken with a Canon a620. The others were taken with a Nikon D80 and sigma 150macro lens. Those in Belton church were mostly taken with the Canon but one or two are with the Nikon/Sigma combo.

For the rest of the weekend i kept to the Nikon and swapped lenses.