Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Good day at Clumber - Weather pleasant but coolish

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Even before we set off for our Wedding Anniversary day at Clumber I managed this quick picture of a Great Tit sitting just above the feeders, in the ornamental Rowan.

As you can probably remember I've been trying for sometime to get a halfway decent pic of one of these.

It isn't brilliant but, yet again, a record.

Their colouring is so strong it is difficult to quieten the contrast down a tad without rendering the picture completely wishy-washy.

We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day - why not? - we thought. It is our anniversary. When we reached Clumber we decided on lunch first followed by walk down to the lake, through the woods, then the walled garden and the glass-houses and finally back to the Restaurant for scone with jam and cream, plus tea. For our main meal we both decided on the fish-pie (an excellent decision because it was delicious) followed by bread & butter pudding and custard. One portion would have been enough for us both. But both courses were very good. Can recommend the Restaurant - and I noted the vegetarian options for Helen and Julian.

During our woodland walk I spotted and managed to capture a snap of this tiny bird. At first I thought it was a wren, but now I can see the photograph I am not sure. It is, I'm afraid a wobbly photo but perhaps enough for an ID. Any help, or ideas, would be welcomed.

When we arrived at the walled garden it was well worth the extended walk. And, with benefit of wheels, I managed with just one sit down. They really have extended my range quite dramatically. I'm so pleased for Yvonne's sake because she does so love a walk. My frequent camera-stops can irritate her but, overall, she is very patient with her patient.

We drove home the picturesque route, through Edwinstowe and hit the rush-hour in Mansfield Woodhouse. But a minor matter.

I've still got computer jobs to complete but they will just have to wait their turn.

My reponses to your previously posted comments

Yvonne ...... Going back to 50s cricket, the fast bowling was dominated by Freddie Truman and Brian Statham. If it hadn't been for them Derbyshire's Les Jackson would have collected many more England Caps. He deserved them.

David ...... You are quite right about 'endoscopy'. Merely a little poetic licence I'm afraid.

Bob ..... The Tesco kidneys sound a real bargain. But with most offal I have to be quite careful because Y can be a little picky re them.

I think Y eventually tracked down a list of 'players' in the Ashes series in question. But I know it wasn't easy. I bet she will provide a workaround though.

My 'giant leap forward' was a 'leap in the dark' to 'where the sun never shines'.

Rob ..... Talking about radio and sport - Y has just listened to Liverpool v Chelsea on BBC 5 live and loved every minute of it. From the other end of the house I could hear chortles, boos, and even applause ! She explored the idea of watching it live online but it would have involved paying Sky £2 and she didn't like the sound of that.

We must get little Den back on the blog and we must gentle him into being Dennis instead of Incy Wincy.

Jill .... My interest in football is about the same as yours, and it doesn't make us bad people. Looking out of my office-window I can see a beautiful moon - now that is interesting.

Hannah will be pleased with your comment about her teeth. She knows it will all have been worth it, when, as a a beautiful 16yr old she is flashing white bright smiles around !

So nice to have a blog-comment from her anyway. It stops us fogeys sinking too far into fogey-hood.

Coots can certainly be aggressive. I had a colleague (unfortunately no longer with us) Bernard John Clegg Coote and he was. - shall we say assertive ?

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Our EPS vice-chairman Tim Dawson works in the local Met.Office and he had previously e-mailed me information on the Beaufort Wind Scale - having picked up my interest from the blog.

He has written his own version for photographers. Please click here. I rate it as 'very funny' and an 'excellent piece of writing'. Congratulations Tim !

The © copyright remains strictly with him. And I can prove the date of publication.

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Quotation time ......

"Anything too stupid to be said is sung"

Voltaire

"Sleep tight - Catch you tomorrow"


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4 comments:

David said...

Glad to hear that you have both had a very nice day on your anniversary. I am sending you a comment from the new laptop which I finally got around to sorting out. Its a Toshiba a300 from Tesco Direct. Picked it up today and it seems very good. Signed up for McAfee as it seems to be pretty good.

bob said...

Great Tit great.
And I think it probably is a Wren (although colours don’t quite match illustration in my book the features, shape and attitude look right enough).

Pleased you enjoyed your Anniversary Lunch at Clumber.
I joined ex-colleagues at the Reindeer, Edingley.
Superb cod-n-chips (from £6) and excellent £5 ‘carvery’ (I chose a delicious meat-&-potato pie). Recommended.
My National Disaster;
it was pointed out that (100/1 winner) ‘Mon-Mome’ resembles name I gave our house, ‘No-None. I never noticed!

On ITV1 ‘Calendar’ tonight: Sutcliffe’s 19C terrific Whitby photos.

Don’t forget ‘Typhoon’ Tyson in 1954 (8 Australian wickets to dismiss Australia before lunch).

I think ‘endoscopy’is general,
‘colonoscopy’ particular
(my appointment is for an endoscopy examination, but I was left in no doubt…).

'giant leap forward': I thought ‘30 April/MayDay’ was a clue!

Like Beaufort Scale.

Rob:
Excellent shoe-shop offside rule
(but not offside unless interfering with transaction or if shoes passed to another assistant who passes them to friend – unless accidental).

Happy for Stags.
ManU/Porto Match excellent – and fair enough result.

I remember Trig episode.

Jill:
National Coal Mining Museum at Wakefield, West Yorkshire, provides opportunity to go 450ft down one of oldest working mines in England.

Pete said...

Glad to hear that you both had a very enjoyable day out on your wedding anniversary.Congratulations even if they are a little late.

Jill said...

I think that is a wren too, can't think of anything else that is that shape and little - hedge-sparrows roughly the same colouring buut they are slim and not that shape. We have a couple of wrens in our garden, they go in and out of ivy like mice.

Sounds a good anniversary lunch and tea, blow the diet for once!

I liked the Beaufort scale too.

We went to the exhibition of Sutcliffe photos in Whitby some years back - really because I wanted to look at the hand-knitted guernseys they were wearing....