Tag: Egret

Cornwall 2023 4: Looe

Continuing my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall with an account of the centrepiece of the visit, a family meal in Looe.

Welcome to the penultimate post in my series about my long weekend in Cornwall. This post deals with the main event of the weekend, although we actually visited the town of Looe twice, on the Saturday to pick up my nephew who had travelled to Cornwall with my aunt but could stay in Looe due to tghe fact that the house my aunt was staying on along with two of her sons, their wives and the two young children (one for each couple), and they had been told that only seven people could stay at the house, so he would be staying with us at Fort Picklecombe.

LOOE

Looe straddles a river, and is divided officially into East Looe and West Looe. Before the reforms of 1832 East and West Looe were separate parliamentary constituencies and each returned two MPs, so this tiny place had four MPs, while big cities such as Birmingham and Manchester had none. The bridge – there is only one – remains a very prominent landmark.

SUNDAY LUNCH

We had a table booked for 11 people at The Sardine Factory, a predominantly fish restaurant, for 12:00 on Sunday (the earliest possible booking at that establishment, arranged due to the babies daily routine – both would be having an afternoon nap immediately after the meal). We had a zoom call on the Sunday morning with various other relatives, then had to visit the allotment on the way to Looe, but we got there in good time and walked in unhurried fashion from the main car park to the restaurant, arriving a few minutes early. They opened on the dot of 12 and we were seated not much later. I found what was obviously going to be a good beer on the drinks list (it was indeed), though the food was less satisfactory at first glance (as someone who is not fond of fish I seemed limited to the burger, as the sirloin steak, which I would have liked to order, was ludicrously overpriced, causing me to rule it out. Then we were shown the specials, one of which was roast beef with all the trimmings and was priced far more sensibly than the steak. I therefore ordered that, and it was excellent.

AFTER LUNCH

While the babies were taken for their post-lunch nap my family group made a brief return to our car to pick up the pots that the plants we had transferred to the allotment that morning had been in (one at least, which I carried, was quite an expensive pot) to return them to my aunt. Then we visited the house where the others were staying for teas and coffees, which were accompanied by a home made gluten-free ginger cake. Then it was time to return to Fort Picklecombe.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

At the Sardine Factory (as you will see I took a good few pictures inside).
This pic and the next two (one original edited three different ways) represent by far my best capture of the view from Maker Heights.

England and Australia off to Winning Starts at the Womens T20 World Cup

A look back at yesterday’s two matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup and some photographs.

The Womens World T20 Cup is underway in South Africa. This post looks back at the two matches that took place yesterday.

ENGLAND V WEST INDIES

West Indies batted first. There were no huge selection surprises. Katherine Sciver-Brunt entered the record books just by taking the field – at 37 years 224 days she became the oldest person ever to turn out for England in a Women’s T20 World Cup match. She also then became England’s oldest ever wicket taker in a match of this nature. England were not quite at their best with the ball and in the field, though Sophie Ecclestone emerged with 3-23 from her four overs. West Indies probably scored about 15 runs more than they should have done due to English lapses, eventually finishing on 136.

Sophia Dunkley served notice of her and England’s intentions by scoring 34 off 18 balls. However, she, Danni Wyatt and Alice Capsey all fell before England were halfway to the target. At that point Heather Knight joined Natalie Sciver-Brunt, and there were no further alarms as England cruised home with over five overs to spare.

AUSTRALIA V NEW ZEALAND

Australia are the current holders, and arrived at the tournament with an awesome looking squad. A blistering batting performance, with Alyssa Healy scoring a record equalling sixth World T20 cup 50 and Ellyse Perry scoring 40 off just 22 balls saw Australia total 173-9, a total that would require excellent batting and a fair amount of luck to overhaul.

The Kiwis, whose batting line up is not the deepest, started disastrously with both openers out for ducks in the first over of the reply. The third wicket pair hinted briefly at a revival, but when that stand was ended by a controversial decision. Thereafter no one really threatened to anything with the bat. Ashleigh Gardner took her first ever international five-for, 5-12, half of those runs coming from one defiant blow from Jess Kerr with the writing already on the wall. To sum up NZ’s fortunes, she was out to the very next delivery, and thje tenth and final wicket fell four balls later. NZ had scraped up a measly total of 76, going down by 97 runs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Today’s usual sign off comes in two parts, first a general gallery and then a specific focus on the Egret that seems to have taken up residence in the environs of the Gaywood River.

These three pictures show the first Greylag Geese of the year.

Now for the Egret pics…

A Sunday Morning Walk

An account of this morning’s walk, a tool for you to use for estimating the extent to which Liz Truss is deluded given the rubbish she spouted to the Sunday Telegraph and the photographs from the walk.

Just a short post today, describing a walk I took this morning.

CHOOSING THE ROUTE

In view of the fact that I will be heading into town for an early supper and intend to set forth in daylight I decided to pick a route that would not overlap with this afternoon’s in any form. I also like to avoid main roads as I have mentioned before (Columbia Way, though it is quite substantial, does not get heavy traffic at any time for the simple reason that is not really on the way to anywhere). Thus I decided to concentrate on Lynn Sport Park and the Gaywood River Path.

THE WALK IN DETAIL

I started out following Columbia Way until I reached Green Park Avenue, which I followed until I got to the start of the footpath that I followed to the edge of Lynn Sport Park. I then diverged onto a minor road that leads to a point near the scout hut. I then followed a rough but walkable path to the scout hut before turning back. I now followed the road alongside the Gaywood River until the point that the river curves away and the road crosses it on a bridge. From there I visited Gaywood Library just in case they had something worth reading. I emerged with four library books in my bag and then headed back across the bridge, before following Swan Lane along the bank of the Gaywood to the start of the Gaywood River Path, which I followed until the path to the Discovery Centre diverged from it. I then headed to Columbia Way, recrossed it and approached my home from the opposite side of the green space in front it that I had used on the way out.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off starts with a bonus feature. Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss was on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph today (many people were having their say about this on social media) demonstrating that she has clearly got a Decree Nisi if not a Decree Absolute from reality. Describing the economic establishment as ‘left wing’ demonstrates that she is beyond barking, but how far beyond I leave up to you (use the map below – I did not feel the District line offered sufficient scope) to decided just where she is in relation to barking:

Barking is in the red circle, and all points east count as ‘beyond Barking’ – where do you put Truss on this map?

Now time for my regular photographs…

Channel Islands 9: The Birds of Alderney

Continuing my account of my recent holiday in the channel islands with a special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney.

I continue my account of my recent visit to the channel islands with a special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney (the island is justly famed for its bird life).

TWO MISSES

It was too early in the year for boat trips to be running to the island of Burhou, just off the coast of Alderney to the north, and home to puffins (it has no human residents at all), and Wednesday took so much out of me that on the Thursday I was unable to face to fairly steep and fairly rough path that would have started the walk towards a point from which I could view the gannet colony. Here a few maps…

THE BIRDS I DID SEE

Although I missed two great ornithological sites for different reasons, I still saw a fine range of birds during my few days on Alderney…

I spotted this one (and took the picture) through the window of the taxi taking us to the harbour to catch the boat back to Guernsey.

I end this little post with a view of Fort Clonque: