Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Sussex sidlesham and sun!

Well a last minute booked trip to Sidlesham with a stay over at the Jolly Fisherman B and B and Dinner st the Crab and Lobster. Photos will be added once Pat has downloaded and passed on a few for me! Really fantastic weather added to the mini break away from London and part of a week off of Mayoral duties! The birds sere a bonus too - I haven@t yet written up the list as I was concentrating on enjoying myself! We visited East Wittering, West Wittering (I really like WW)Birdham and then Church Norton after the briefest stop at the Pagham Harbour NR Information Centre (for the loos!) then to find the Jolly Fisherman! Hahaha we went up and down the Selsey road in the rush hour a total nightmare - as the google maps I had seen were wrong! So sat nav had to be turned on both- mine and Pat's mobile phone and we eventually found the place! But birds..... Dinner was lovely - The Crab and Lobster turned out to be a ten min alk opposite where we ee staying and the night sky was brilliantly full of stars on our return....no street lamps in Sidlesham! Buzzards, Kestrels, a Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine were the birds of prey - a Barn Owl the only owl spotted but then the waders and gulls and wildfowl in abundance! Wagtails, Dunnocks and Robins. Tits assorted and flitty brown jobs some of which were pipits - mipit, ripit but no wipits! The corvids were out in force - Crows, Jackdaws and a few Rooks but best of all were a pair of Ravens flying along the ridge outside the Arudel WWT ! Oh and the display of at least one maybe two Kingfishers at Arudel was lovely and delightful! We had to be back for mid afternoon owing to Pat attending a concert at the Albert Hall - Van Morrision! :) great couple of days and great company!

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Trip to the North- well North Lincolnshire , Hull and Yorkshire!

Last week I went on a mission - to see friends from the past 4 of hom I hadn't seen for over 30 years! I also visited friends ho had newly moved to Hull! The weather as kind in fact it was amazingly sunny and warm! The Friends in Grantham for that's the first venue Adrian and Kate were lovely! We got on as if we had seen each other the other week albet a little catching up to do but since we have been friends on facebook for the last 18 months we kinda knew each other! :) Their dog Daisy and the delightful Henry were lovely! I visited Far Ings nature reserve on the Tuesday morning - and saw an amazingly close Kingfisher- fishing and displaying and perching! I even got pics- I think I made a new birding friend too who helped me with my camera as I helped him with some bird id! My friends in Hull fed me well and it as good to see them again. On the Wednesday I met up with another birding friend Cheryl and we went to see a mega rare at Kilnsea ( we had planned to go to Spurn anyway and it was on the route! )A Masked Shrike - only the 3rd ever to grace our shores! We had a lovely walk towards spurn head and lots of laughs as well as viewing thousands pf waders! On Thursday it was a quick sprint across to Hornsea where my last lot of friends have a house altho they live at the mo in a village called Wetwang! Pat and I soon were falling about laughing as we alkd to Hornsea Mere and did some birding - we felt the call of the bacon butty and cup of tea - before walking to second field to view the lavonian Grebe that had been spotted there! Plus a Red crested Pochard plus hundreds of Coots other ducks and lots of Mute Swans....oh and a Black Swan that appears here every winter! In the afternoon we were joined by Dave - as his day off is a Friday so we could spend a while together! It was very good to catch up. The odd thing is that Adrian, Pat and I had joined the same school for our probationary year - they were in the same dept and I lost touch with them in the same year 1982....both had got married I was Usher at Adrian and Kate wedding and meet their first born. I sang with a couple of others at Pat and Dave's wedding - as well as her sisters..... so why the lost touch? These things happen - Great though to be back in proper touch and I shall be visiting them again! In fact I need to go to stay with Pat and Dave fairly soon so I can see all the churches that Dave is vicar of- they sound special a all are grade 1 listed! I have to add photos but its proving difficult so just the prose at mo!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

This should be an interesting day!

I am just going to take a leaf out of a friends book and be cryptic. This could be an amazing day! Will be back tonight with hopefully some photos to tell the tale!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Hampton to Kempton Waterworks (Steam ) Railway

2013 not 2014 Superb organization and a very enjoyable event! I cant remember everyone's name but they were undoubtedly a very friendly and knowledgeable bunch! The traffic between Isleworth and destination was remarkably clear with Uday driving safely through my ward (full of parked cars everywhere as The Mosque was busy). Into a Listed Building which anyone passing by on the A316 would recognise - two towers - http://www.hamptonkemptonrailway.org.uk/

Friday 17th May Opening a Steam Railway Station.

2013 not 2014
July 2014 No resolutions just going to try to keep this updated - almost a year has passed since my last blog post! So its been a busy year too! Mostly to do with Local Elections - with some birding in between and some Deputy Mayor events. So in May we had the Local elections in London and Labour did really well - in the Euro's I was so pleased to see that we won 4 seats in London- we ere expecting to hold our 2 and add one but with the results going so well in the locals there was every chance we might just get the 4th and Seb Dance - I will remember his face on being elected for a very long time- what a great bunch our London Team were - fantastic! Now the 4 are working hard for us in the European Parliament! I am now The Mayor of the LB Hounslow.