Been trying this up as and when I can and its still not finished, but as I'm falling behind Sue's blog then this is really old news. But here it is anyway...Sue and I are back from our holiday and what a fabbo time we had. Here’s a run down on all the exciting things we done.
Saturday
Left home and drove up to out cottage in Herefordshire. Stopped off at the Little Chef in Cirecester. It seems that they increased their prices since we last went into a Little Chef, which I must admit was quite a while ago. Kept seeing signs to churches, so thought there ust be some good ones around. Saw one close to the main road and stopped. Met one of the church ‘staff’ in the church. She told us about how she got into making the marmalade to sell in the church. We did buy a pot and absolutely wonderful marmalade it turned out to be.
Stopped off at Leominster Train station to have a look around. Saw one train come through. Nice station, but only 1 train an hour in each direction.
Greeted at the cottage by its owner who lives next door and a lovely little place it turn out to be. Loads of birds flying around, mostly swallows, house martins, blue and great tits and about a million sparrows. Sat in the garden and had tea. Lovely
Sunday
Off to Wales to the Gilfach Nature Reserve, as seen on Chris Packham’s Nature Calendar TV programme. Had a lovely walk around. Birding highlight was seeing 3 Red Kites circling together overhead. Did see to others separately, as well as a Buzzard. Sat and had a picnic on the site of the old railway line. Must have been quite a wonderful train journey through this lovely area. Went back to the cottage and sat and had tea in the garden. Lovely.
Monday
Hay-on-Wye. Second-hand book capital of the world. Was hoping to come back with lots of second-hand books but they were either too expensive or not want I wanted. Did buy a lovely book on the Lockheed Hercules Aircraft. Sat and had a picnic next to the River Wye and watched some Geese on the other bank. Looked at more bookshops before retuning to the cottage. Sat in the garden I felt a bit bored, so went for a walk. I saw on the map that there was a trigpoint on top of one of the hills nearby. I planned what looked like a nice circular walk to take in the trigpoint. Off down the road. Found the footpath sign into the fields and then off up the hill to the woods at the top. There should be a footpath through the woods that woud take me along the ridge of the hill. But finding the footpath into the woods, to connect with it was a problem. So I just went through the woods hoping to find the path. Eventually I came to what looked like the path. Bit overgrown with brambles and lots of other prickly things. But a footpath I looked like. Off I went hacking my way through. However the path got boggier and boggier and the brambles thicker and thicker. I was using my bag to hack my way through the jungle. It was slow, painful and hot work trying to hack my way along the path. Eventually I got to a point where I couldn’t go on. The brambles were just too thick. No way down and I didn’t want to go back after spending best part of an hour to get here. There was only one thing for it. Upwards up a very steep slope. Crawling up on all fours, I just hoped that they was some sort of path or something to help me. Eventually found a track, which led upwards into a compound, but more importantly, downwards to safety and home. As I walked down I managed to scramble over the fence to see the trigpoint in the next field. But barbed wire between me and it meant I didn’t get that close to it. But at least I saw it. The last part of the walk was bliss. Swallows all around me swooping low to snatch seeds drifting off the plants. There was about 20-30 of them and seeing so many, so close was great. Really made up for the earlier part of the walk. Got back to the cottage and flopped. Had tea in the garden and watched the birds. Lovely.
Tuesday
Simmons Yat & Sculpture trail
Following a recommendation we headed down to Symmond Yat this morning. Hoping to get by the river but ended up at Symmonds Yat Rock. Nice view across the valley from here. There were some RSPB people here with their telescopes watching a Peregrine Falcon nest site. They informed us that the birds hadn’t been seen that day. I stood around watching the Buzzards flying overhead and seeing the deer in the nearby field. Sue sat and read her book. I did buy her a ladybird badge and myself a falcon badge to put on my camera bag, even though I hadn’t seen one yet. Walked over to another viewpoint, just got there when we heard a strange noise. Rushed back and all the RSPB people we getting excited. The male Falcon had left the nest. Got a quick view of him. Really glad about that, another one to add to my life list of birds seen.
Went back to the reception hut to have a cup of tea but were driven mad by a screaming kid in a push chair (yes he was screaming) and groups of loud teenagers. Once decided to walk through the forest singing away as loud as he can. Oh well so much for a quiet day in the county.
Sue wanted to see a sculpture trail nearby and so off we set. Nice walk around the trail. Now my hour a day walking I do to/from work really helped, but I think sue struggled a bit with the 4.5 mile walk. OK she struggled a lot… Best sculptures were the cathedral and the cube. Back home to have tea in the garden and watch the birds, lovely.
Wednesday
Decide that today we’d do a visit to the town that was closest to the cottage. Leominster (pronounced Lem-ster if you didn’t know). Nice town, with a nice church. Headed off to a local Nature Reserve. But despite being on the Ordnance Survey Maps and signs around the place etc, wasn’t open and the guy didn’t know when it would ever open. Oh well. Checked the map and we went off to a nature reserve further away. Turned about to be a forestry commission place. Sue was too pooped to do any walking, So I did the 3.5 mile trail on my own. And a jolly good walk it was too. Went back to the cottage to have tea in the garden and watch the birds. Lovely.
Thursday
Shobdon airfield and National Trust Places
Wasn’t until I say it listed in the ‘nearby items of interest’ section of the cottage information, that I realised that there was an airfield nearby. Shobdon. Popped in this morning and had a cup of hot choclate and sat in their club house area. Did ask if it was possible to have a look around and was refused permission. Oh well, got what I could and had to leave it at that.
The off to two National Trust Places. A Castle who’s name escapes me and The Weir. Arrived a bit early at the Castle which didn’t open till 1pm. But there was a nice church in the grounds, which was been decorated inside with flowers for a flower festival. The castle was good and didn’t take us long to look round. We appreciated this as sometimes seeing room after room does get a bit boring. The Wier was very good. It’s a formal garden (which has gone a bit wild) along a quite fast flowing river. Lovely plants. Saw about 6 long-tailed tits fliting around a bush and later on a Kingfisher. My first Kingfisher this year. Went back to the cottage and sat in the garden watching the birds. Lovely,
Friday
Did some caching today. Went to the Secret Hills Discovery Centre in Shropshire, from where we did 5 caches.
Yesterday
I haven’t done a proper AFC Bournemouth away match for years, Ok I’m not counting the friendly at Eastleigh last year. I work with a guy called Neal and he’s a huge West Brom fan, So when the Chrries were drawn against the Baggies in the Carling cup we knew that we had to go up. I suggested we made a day of it. He could go and see his family, who stil live in the area and I spent the morning at Birmingham Airport, Which was OK, A few nice aircraft. Then riding on trains in the afternoon. Rode on my first Virgin Train Pendolino. Which was smooth. OK ish seat but the windows are tiny. Then rode on a class 350 unit. These are exactly like the south West Trains Class 450, except painted silver and are supplied by overhead electics. The on train annoucments were even more rubbish. Kept saying that we were heading to Coventy when actually we were heading away from it. Took a few bus pictures outside Moor Street station. Before using the Birmingham metro for the first time. Nice trams, fast service. Very good.
The Hawthorns is quite a big stadium. Holds maybe 20,000 but there was only 10,000 there. Good to see some familiar faces amongst the crowd and we were in fine voice. However we didn’t attract that much, not until the last 10 mins or so and lost the match 1-0. Still, go days spotting. Good to get another football ground in the book. Just didn’t get back till 1am, so a long tiring day
