Stratford and Romeo & Juilet

Had a great day out in Stratford yesterday. When we arrived we found a nice tea-shop and I had an Afternoon tea ... proper China cups and warm scones. Very nice. We then wandered around Stratford doing a bit of window shopping. Found the Christmas shop ... yes there really is a shop selling Christmas stuff in March !

The Christmas shop !

Had a look at Shakespeare's house but we didn't go inside.

Shakespeare's house

Had a walk along the river and caught the ferry back across. Bargain at 50p ! 

Ferry across the Avon

We then had a ttip up the Tower at the theatre ... the lift had broken so we had to walk up the five flights! Views weren't particularly good as it was very cloudy.

We then wandered down to the Church and saw Shakespeare's final resting place. Evening meal at the Dirty Duck. We then headed off for the evening performance of Romeo and Juilet. The RSC theatre has been completely refurbished and it is now very similar in set-up to the Globe Theatre in London. Romeo and Juliet was just WOW ... such a powerful performance. Definitely be making another visit to the theatre.

Newly refurbished theatre

Squirrel and a samosa

We spotted this squirrel while walking this lunchtime at Keele University.  Looks like he's just found his lunch ...

He'd just taken this out of the bin

Proving a bit difficult to carry

but once he'd got hold of it he was off ...

then he fancied a nibble ...

and now he's found a quiet spot for lunch

Buzzards

Went out for a lunchtime walk today and managed to catch a couple of Buzzards down Clockhouse Drive at Keele. Luckily I'd got the camera (haven't I always) and managed to catch a few photos.

Walk No 3 - Hanchurch

A great day for a walk yesterday. We'd not got all members of SKAR ... R was mssing so yet again it was the SKA walkers that set-off. 

We started off from Trentham Gardens and then headed out through the golf course ...the footpath goes straight through one of the tees! I think we needed a hard hat on to protect us!  I'd started using Run Keeper and a voice from my pocket kept us informed as to how far we'd walked and at what speed. We then headed out to Hanchurch Woods. We saw several birds (must remember the bird book next time!) but there were some great tits, robins, blackbirds, buzzards to name a few. This walk had more ups and downs than the canal walk we did last weekend.

The final part of the walk was back into Trentham park. There was a gate open and I'm sure you can sneak into the gardens for free from there !

My Run Keeper decided to stop recording at this point (6.2 miles) but Andy's GPS kept track of us and we finished back at the Garden Centre with 7.5 miles done.

The route

A well earned Afternoon tea comprising a warm almond scone and a pot of tea.

Super moon

Tonight has seen the first super moon since 1992 so never one to miss a photo opportunity out came the camera and tripod.  Still a bit of a novice with the camera so my photos are always more trial and error than actually "knowing what I am doing".

Early evening and the moon was sitting behind the trees

I left it awhile and then nipped out later and the moon had risen enough that the trees were no longer obscuring it.

Westport Lake March 2011

Well walk no 3 was postponed due to the rain first thing but by about 10.30 it had all cleared up and the sun was out. So armed with the camera I headed off for a wander around Westport Lake and a spot of twitching.


Saw a few Tufted Duck on the big lake.

Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

Popped some seed out and the usual birds came down for a feed ...Robins, Great Tits, Dunnock and possibly a Chaffinch.

Regular visitor the Robin

Chaffinch

Dunnock

Female reed bunting

Couple of mallards on the big lake.

Mallards

Then caught sight of a Great Crested Grebe as I was heading back to the car.

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

I think I need more practice at identifying the birds !

Books, photos and walks ...

It's been awhile. I've meant to get back into blogging but there always seem to be something else to do and when I do blog it's tended to be on my Dad's travel blog. I've also been doing a 365 project where I take a photo every day. I'm well into the project and we are now on day 152 but all these things take time but today today is blogging day ...

I've had a good week. I was successful in becoming a book giver as part of World Book Night and on Saturday 5th March I met up with my "book buddy" and we distributed 48 free copies of David Nicholls One Day up at Keele University.  It was real good feeling to be handing out books to people who would not normally buy/pick up a book to read. I think it also helped that there were two of us handing out books. I also distributed some amongst friends. I've popped an email address into each book and asked people to email me when they'd read it. Not had any replies back yet but I do know of one person who has read it already !

I also entered my first photographic exhibition a few weeks ago and I was successful in having two photographs accepted. They are currently on display in an exhibition at Keele University. My photos are "More than words .... " and "Pegged out".  We attended the "opening night" and felt slightly out of place so after a quick glass of wine ... we headed off to Pizza Hut !  Since the photos have been displayed I have some nice comments back from people and today I've sold one of the photos - either that it has measles as it now has a "red dot" on it! I think I can now qualify as an "artist".

We've started our own walking group called SKAR. This weekend will be Walk No. 3. My plan was to blog about each walk but I've not managed it yet.

So briefly Walk No. 1 was around Apedale Country Park. Excellent walk which was helped by great weather. The walk was around 5 miles and we ended up back in the Heritage Centre for chips, egg and beans and a mug of coffee. Great way to end a walk.

SKAR Walkers

Apedale

Walk No. 2 was Alsager to Hassall Green and back to Alsager. Weather wasn't so good but still a great walk mostly on the flat. Excellent Afternoon Tea in Lock 57. We estimated about 7.5/8 miles covered which is really good because if they had told me that before I started walking I would have said I can't walk that far.

Start of Walk No 2



Lock 57

Walk No 3 is this coming weekend.

Well now I'm hopefully back into the swing of blogging and I'll blog more ...

Bird Walk

Lapwings

We went on a bird walk earlier today around Keele. Weather was great.  We managed to see some lapwings down on Limes Road.

Lapwing in flight

Look like real "twitchers" stood watching the lapwings



Twitching !

A buzzard




Heading back ...

The walk back along Clockhouse Drive.