Looked in the one-room piping museum, attached to the hotel. Had a go on the bagpipes. Harder than it looks. A group of Japanese schoolchildren arrived, and they all had a go too. Lovely. Got the subway train to Hillhead, and walked in a pleasant neighbourhood past red sandstone university buildings to the Kelvingrove Art … Read more “Saturday 29th June: Glasgow”
Google redirected us through rural Shropshire to avoid a motorway accident, so we drove for an hour through green lanes passing fields of crimson poppies iridescent in the morning sunlight. M6 was slow, as always. At Glasgow piping centre hotel we were met with a complementary glass of Glenfiddich, and have a poky room with … Read more “Friday 28th June: drive to Glasgow”
Through sunshine to our usual Shropshire stop-over, The Raven hotel in Much Wenlock. Pint, meal, wander around the village.
Crab Kedgeree, French toast for breakfast, then a good 12.4 mile walk. Blue is the planned route, red is where we actually went. Through the church yard and out of Dunster past the cemetery. Climbed up onto Exmoor through a deer park, good views back of the castle, Exmoor ponies, no deer. At the top … Read more “Saturday 16th February”
Drove to Dunster stopping at WWT Steart Marshes on the way. Walked around the reserve for a bit. Birds seen: Kestrel Raven Lapwing Golden plover Linnets Stonechat Reed bunting Cetti’s warbler Wren Wigeon Teal Shoveller Mallard Shelduck Cormorant Pheasant Skylark Pied wagtail Brown hare (not a bird) Staying at Luttrell Arms hotel.
We drove 40 minutes to the car park next to Bel Tor. From there we did a 9.5 mile circular walk that took in wooded river valleys and high moorland. We walked to Ponsworthy, and a few miles further on we passed a farm and a number of dogs of various shapes and sizes ran … Read more “Wednesday 26th December”
We planned a walk to a pub in Chagford. It started out drizzly and misty. We walked along the side of the River Teign and watched dippers. We passed an open air swimming pool, closed now and with dark brown dead leaves on the bottom. After a steep climb up a muddy field followed by … Read more “Tuesday 25th December”
We left the hotel and walked along the seafront to the west, hoping to get to onto the beach to look for fossils, but at the end of the concrete walkway the tide was too high, so we turned back. We drove to Charmouth, and walked back along the beach there towards Lyme Regis. There … Read more “Monday 24th December”
We drove to Romsey, arriving at 11am. We had a coffee and then went for lunch with Vera at Prezzos. Wendy came round in the afternoon, followed by Ian and Nicky. We had a chat with tea and mince pies, but the pastry on the pies was too thick. We left at 5pm to drive … Read more “Sunday 23rd December”
We parked in front of a feeder in the Greylake RSPB reserve car park and watched the birds until it stopped raining. Then we walked on the trail through the reedbeds and sat in the hide. The sun came out. There were lots of ducks, some buzzards perched on fence posts drying out their wings, … Read more “Saturday, Greylake, Swell Wood”