Revenge is best served cold.....

This afternoon Andy G and I headed off to Lyme Regis and the Town Mill Brewery. As it's lifeboat week we had some trouble finding a parking space. Eventually we parked and before heading of to the brewery we called into the Volunteer for a pint. The choices weren't brilliant but we both went for a Sharp's Own at 4.4% which was a refreshing ale with a rich brown colour and a caramel sweetness.
We then headed off to the the Town Mill Brewery.

The brewery is situated in the old Mill buildings and shares its space with Bakery's and craft shops so is one of the smallest I've ever visited with its 5 barrel plant. It was quite busy, with at least three people in the shop so Andy and I had a quick look around and the decided to go to one of the pubs in the town that sold their beer, The Harbour Inn.
We walked down to the front and as we had forgotten it was lifeboat week were amazed by how many people were on the promenade. We soon realised that they were all watching an aerial display by the RAF parachute team.

We arrived at the Harbour only to see that there were no Town Mill beers on so we had an Otter 'Bitter' and went back to the Brewery.
We were the only ones there now so we both ordered a four pint take out of their Revenge at 5.3%. Their advertising says's its best served cold but sitting here now waiting for the Olympic Opening Ceremony to start I don't agree. Its best served at room temperature.

I Don't like Mondays.....

Yesterday evening I made my first visit in over a month to the Gravel Pits. I was amazed at how much the vegetation had grown in that time.
It was very quiet on the bird front with the usual herd of Canada Geese on the East Lake along with a couple of Coots. There were a pair of Bullfinches calling near the gate.
Most of the activity this evening came from Butterflies and Dragonflies. I saw a Gatekeeper on the wing but it wouldn't settle for me to photograph it. There were also lots of these Cinnabar Moth larvae feeding on the Ragwort.

Cinnabar Moth Larvae (Tyria jacobaeae)

I walked on down to the hide pausing only to photograph this Dragonfly.

I'm a bit vague on Dragonfly identification and can't find this in my limited reference books. I also saw male and female Common Blue Damselflies.

Common Blue Damselfly-Female (Enallagma cyathigerum)

Common Blue Damselfly-Male

I also saw a very obliging Small Skipper, I'm usually chasing these around waiting for them to land to get a photo and failing, this one was quite happy for me to get as close as I wanted.

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

I walked back towards the gate and scanned over the West Lake. The water levels were as high as I'd seen them after all the rain of the past weeks.
The only birds in evidence were a few Swallows skimming the surface and a Juvenile Grey Heron.
As I got near to the East Lake again I 'flushed' a Sparrowhawk from the grass verge, watching it as it flew away from me and over the trees. Almost at the same time two Green Woodpeckers flew in and the female pitched up on a fence post allowing me to get a few shots before they both followed the Sparrowhawk over the treeline.

Green Woodpecker (Picus vividis)

I'd had a text from Andy G just as I was leaving for the Gravel Pits about going for a beer, so I now headed into Chard to pick him up.
We decided to go to the Yarcombe Inn just over the Devon border, but upon arriving were a bit vexed to find it shut on Monday's !. We then thought we'd try the Candlelight only to find the same outcome. Third time lucky as we went to the Eagle Tavern wondering what ales we might find there. We were glad to see that they had an Adnams ale on, but 'Lighthouse' at 3.4% although quite refreshing was otherwise unremarkable.
We then moved onto the Bell at Broadway noticing that the Five Dials was also shut. The bell is a Wells and Young's pub ,but unfortunately the Young's beer was off so we both settled for a Courage Directors.
It was quite a pleasant evening to sit outside a pub with a beer in hand watching Swifts 'screaming' overhead.
Perhaps Mondays aren't so bad after all !

Memory Lane

Sitting round Andy's the other evening listening to George Harrison singing "If not for you" by Bob Dylan got me thinking about the time Miriam and I went to see the great man.
It was the 7 July 1984 and we had just spent two weeks in the Lake District. We had had an eventful trip up when the master brake cylinder on our old Datsun Sunny 120 had given up when we were on the M5 at a services filling up with fuel. We went to pull away and had no brakes, lucky escape !
We managed to get towed to a local garage by the RAC but they couldn't fix it until the following Monday and we still had a three hour journey in front of us and a car full of camping equipment. They then suggested that we hire a car from them and pick ours up on the way home. That was a great idea I hear you cry but the flaw in the plan was that we were not coming home by the M5 but heading for London instead in two weeks time as we had tickets to see Bob Dylan at the old Wembley Stadium.
We had no alternative though so we took their suggestion and so thirteen days after we left our car in Upton on Seven we were back to collect it all repaired and ready to go. We had to transfer all our camping gear back to our car and then head along the M4 to London arriving on the south circular around the rush hour and during Wimbledon fortnight. Luck was really not with us as just as were pulling away from some traffic lights we realised that we had a flat tyre ! I now had to unload everything from the boot onto the pavement to get at the spare and change the wheel. So it was a relief when we arrived at our friends house in Charlton without any more mishaps.
On the following day ,Saturday the 7th July we made our way by train and underground to Wembley Stadium to see a great lineup of musicians.
Mir and I had only been married for two years and we didn't have a bean between us so the repairs to the car had pretty much cleaned us out. We had just enough money left to buy a large carton of coke which we shared and then kept filling with water from the tap in loo's to keep us hydrated in the afternoon sun.

This was,as many will remember at the height of the miner's strike and we were seated next to an 'on strike' miner from Leicester shire who kindly let us use his binoculars every now and then so that we could see the stage which seemed miles away.
The afternoons entertainment started with Nick Lowe's band Rockpile and was followed by UB40. Around tea time Santana came on and then at about 8pm the great man himself.
My memory of the gig it now quite hazy after 28 years but I do remember that late in the evening he was joined by Eric Clapton as a special quest.

It is Bob Dylan-Promise !!

All too soon it was over and we were heading home down Wembley Way and then back to the West Country the next day. It had been an eventful trip but it was great to see one of our hero's in the flesh.

A Local Club.......

On Friday evening myself and the whole gang made our way over the 'border' to Thorncombe Sports and Social Club for their annual Cricket and Beer Festival.
I was picked up by the mini-bus just after seven and after the short journey up the road we arrived at the club ready for a good evening. We numbered ten on the bus but were joined by two more later with at least eight of us being CAMRA members.
The ales on offer were all local brewery's and most of us had tried at least half of them before, but what the heck, it was a festival !

I went first for a new beer for me and the Mighty Hop brewery from Lyme Regis, this was their Mighty Red IPA, although at only 3.8%abv its not what you would traditionally call an IPA as it should be around 5%.
It was slightly cloudy as it had not settled since racking but it tasted OK.
Next up was another Lyme brewery,Town Mill and Revenge, a seasonal ale at 5.3% and one of my favourites of the night.
Next it was back to Somerset and the Quantock Brewery from Wellington.White Hind at 4.5% was a chestnut brown ale and was pretty non-descript and forgettable.
For number four it was off to Devon and the Dartmoor brewery's Jail Ale at 4.8%. This was another that I had tried before and is a full bodied mid brown beer with a slightly sweet aftertaste.
Now it was back into Somerset and one my favourite brewery's with Yeovil Ales Lynx Wildcat. This was the first time I tried this out of the cask and it was much better than its bottled variety. At 4.3% its a bronze full bodied and hoppy bitter with a grapefruit aroma.
Last of the night (well at the festival at least !) was a trip to Wiltshire and the Salisbury brewery Hop Back. GFB is an ale I've tried many times and never fails to deliver. A great session beer at 3.5%.
It was now 11.30pm and the Mini-bus had arrived to ferry us all back home but not before a few of us had stopped off at Andy J's for a couple more. We raided Andy's stocks and I had a bottle of Elsie Moe from the Castle Rock Brewery in Cornwall which was another 'new one' for me and was a strong golden ale at 4.7% with a nice citrus taste. I also managed to put away a Bath Ales 'Organic' before stumbling into the night and getting to bed around 3am.
Needless to say I felt decidedly fragile the next morning but it was a good night spent with friends and ale which could have only been improved with few darker ales.

Trains and Beer

Last night the usual suspects and I went to the Somerset CAMRA branch meeting at the Red Lion, Babcary.

This was another 'pub tick' for Andy G and I and we were surprised to see how busy it was for a Monday night even without the branch descending on them. The meeting was the usual mix of correspondence and reports from brewery liaison officers but of interest to us was the details of the beer festival in September.

This years festival will be on the 8th and 9th of September and will be hosted as usual by the West Somerset Railway at Minehead Station.
This is one of the highlight festivals of our year and the mix of steam trains and real ale is too good to miss.

Minehead 2011

Beer on the platform-how cool is that !

Trains and Beer

Holyford Woods NNR

This afternoon I paid a visit to Holyford Woods LNR near Seaton. I've not been here since we lost our dear old dog about 18 months ago so a visit was long overdue.

The woods are located in a steep-sided valley and comprise mostly mature deciduous trees. Its notable for its large numbers of Marsh Tit and it wasn't long before I had located my first individuals flitting through the undergrowth.
Most woodland species are evident here and I could hear Chiffchaff,Great Spotted Woodpecker,Green Woodpecker and Nuthatch calling.

I spent around an hour wandering around before chancing upon this Spotted Flycatcher.



Spotted Flycatcher(Muscicapa striata)

I could see that the rain was heading my way so I decided to head for home, but not before I called into the new Tesco's at Seaton which stocks a fair range of bottled ales. I topped up my reserves and was home at 4pm.

New Stock



Kew

Yesterday on our way home from London we called into Kew Gardens for a few hours. We arrived around 11am and although the weather was mostly dry there was a heavy oppressive feel to the day.

Palm House

Its a great place to just amble about and the paths are all wheelchair friendly. The only downside is the constant aeroplane noise from the 'one a minute' flyovers !

All the time we were walking I could hear the calls of Rose-Ringed Parakeets or as their commonly called Ring-Necked Parakeets (Psittacula krameri). These colourful and noisy additions to the British list originate from South Asia and Central Africa and because of our climate which is similar to the mountain foothills they have become very successful and numerous. I could hear them constantly but couldn't quite get a good view.

We managed to get around quite a bit of the grounds before we started to feel peckish and went to find some lunch.

After lunch we went to the Palm house, and if we thought it was hot outside, boy was it steaming in there !

We now decided to head for home as it was still a two and half hour drive, but first we called into the small gift shop. Whilst we were there I heard more Parakeets calling outside and leaving Miriam to browse the overpriced tat I went out to look for them.
I was more successful this time and managed to see one in a large London Plane outside the shop.

I moved around to get a better view and was surprised to see that it was at a nest hole into which it gradually disappeared.

What you looking at !

Going

Going

Gone 

After an unpleasant drive home in the pouring rain we arrived around 5pm absolutely shattered !

What we saw from the (not so) cheap seats

Yesterday Miriam and I headed off to London to see Regina Spektor at the Royal Albert Hall.

We set off at midday and were in our accomodation by 5ish. We were due to meet up with Lydia our daughter at the RAH before the show so we grabbed something to eat and then went to get a taxi. This proved to be easier said than done. I've found before that if they see a wheelchair they are less inclined to stop, so I used the plan that's worked before. I hid Miriam in the hotel foyer and hailed a cab myself, this worked a treat and soon we were on our way.
The cab driver asked what we were seeing at the RAH and when told we got the usual response of "Who !"
We get this a lot but most people know her without knowing it as this 32 year old Russian/American pianist with her quirky brand of Anti-Folk gets used in movies a lot, such as Prince Caspian,500 Days of Summer and In Bruges.
She played a great set with songs from her new album 'What we saw from the cheap seats' interspersed with oldies from all her back catalogue.

When she finished the audience gave her a rousing applause and she came back to give four more songs for an encore, starting with Us, Fidelity,Hotel Song and Samson.
I first saw her three years ago in Hyde Park and this was so much better.