Yayy! We've booked to visit National Trust's Upton House Gardens on Thursday. Visitor numbers are controlled by the allocation of a limited number of tickets for arrival slots at half-hourly intervals. It'll be the first time we've been out for anything other than for shopping since we arrived here on March 3rd! Needless to say, we're looking forward to it very much. We'll only be allowed in the gardens, not the house, but that's fine with us. We've been there twice before, and have a huge collection of photos of the interior. This time, the sights, smells and sounds of the gardens will be plenty enough; a panacea to our souls.
(Preview)
The local swallow community have got a new trick when it comes to catching flies to eat. It seems now that there's a number of them who have learned about out-sourcing the job. At least, the wet part of it. For now, not wanting to get their beaks/faces/heads (depending on the height of the waves on the water) wet, they swoop around looking for some other mug who has got wet and got a fly. And when they see such a bird, they fly in and snatch it from their beaks! It's crazy, but it's what it really looked like, though I have no idea how often these fly-snatches succeed.
I've been very pleased to be re-acquainted with Rona House. Rona did a solo circumnavigation of the globe in her yacht, Cacique, in 1990-93. She introduced herself to me by email while she was reading my first book, Life with our feet under water. I was intrigued by what she told me of her solo journey, and she sent me a copy of the log she had kept in the form of letters sent as she travelled. These are now available on the web, and I do recommend that you read them. It's fascinating, and very scary in places! There's a link there that takes you to her Flickr collection of photos taken at the time, but click here if you want only to see them - or to see them first.
Now retired from yachting, Rona is spending half of each year in NB Patience here in the UK, and loving it. (What is there not to love?) Photos and videos of her canal and river experiences are also on Flickr.
NB Patience
And from me, clouds!
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Ah, good to here you can get out and about a bit more, Roger and Grace. I love your cloud photos! Not being a sailor or particularly interested in same, I might just give Rona's log a miss, but I'll definitely look at her narrowboating photos, being a Flickr member myself :)
ReplyDeleteYes, our dear PM has announced today that he's going to give us all loads of new freedoms - and all before the Contact Tracing app has been successfully trialled. We're thrilled! But there will be plenty more opportunities now like the one we're taking on Thursday, and we'll be sure to take them. Enjoy the photos!
DeleteSorry, typo!! Good to hear, not here :)
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