Rosemary and I visited Valerie and Norman in Leicester along with Maggie and Ravi on the 27th September 2014 to visit King Richard III. We looked around the recently opened exhibition, saw where Richard III had been excavated from under the car park. Drank a few beers in the local pubs, and even joined BBOWT at a Sunday Market. Great time was had, lots of lovely food.
We took a trip down to Hill Head to have a look around Rosemary’s parents’ old retirement stomping ground. We watched the Oystercatchers, Turnstones and gulls feeding at low tide. Interesting watching the gulls dropping shellfish onto the stones in the hope they would break open. Tricky business as other birds were ready to pick up the remains.
Walked on over to the Osborne View for lunch. Ate outside in the searing heat. The place has much improved over the last few years.
Next we walked around the Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve, owned by Hampshire County Council. We walked the east side visiting all the hides. These are all relatively new, built in the last 10 years. Herons and duck were on display. There was excitement in the last hide when long yellow tailed tits or something like that were spotted.
Finally tea at the Haven cafe, and a final view of a hovercraft being tested.
Early September we travelled to Norfolk to see Mike and Ann. The weather was glorious, especially on the day we visited Walsingham, the Abbey and Wells-next-the-Sea. The Abbey was weird, it is a pilgrimage site with people pilgriming there from all over Britain. We had lunch in a pub, and then drove over to Wells-next-the-Sea. Not there for long, though managed to get a picture of the offshore wind farm which looks a little unusual with the way mirage has bent the turbine blades down at sea level. No this was not a time lapse exposure.
