Hi readers. In the absence of recent activity I thought while I attempt to catch up with a months worth of blogs, I'd post something childish to amuse you in the interim.
Earlier in the year, after suspecting for sometime my long distance sight is not quite what it should be, I was prescribed glasses. What a difference it has made too - I can now clearly see the numbers on the back of a football shirt to know who I'm shouting at when I need to.
Overall. I have been very surprised as to how well I've adapted to wearing double glazing. In the past I've dreaded the time and thought I would be very self concious of the fact. I didn't want contact lenses as that would be too much of a faff and so resigned myself to settling for the visual double glazing.
The only negative issue I've found after having them for about three months is remembering where I last had them. I only need them for distance and so always have to take them off to read things. I also sometimes forget to take them with me when I go out and for me at the moment, its not cool to tie them to a piece of string and hang them around my neck like any other sensible person would do. I'm actually quite surprised I've not lost them and or broken them yet.
What I have discovered, much to my delight and amusement, is it's added a whole new dimension to my childish behaviour as I have been finding endless opportunities of doing stupid things with them. Once I realised this, I have taken to recording it on my phone. Watch this space for future posts.
The next day saw us heading for Zarnesti and our dedicated
wildlife watching part of the trip. Besides the occasional sighting unlike
other trips our luck seemed to have run out on this one for casually seeing
lots of good wildlife without purposefully looking. We hoped to find a couple
of birdwatching sites on the way to Zarnesti, given our track record over the
previous two days we didn’t hold out much hope. Just north of the town of Rotbav,
we managed to find the unmarked track to the old station halt, behind which lay
a complex of heavily stocked and fished carp lakes – (Romanian for carp is
Crap). We were fortunate here to find several good birds, once we’d negotiated
detours around all the kennels of guard dogs – some on chains and some not.
This meant much of what looked the most interesting areas we could not access.
We did manage to see lots of marsh warbler, singing river
warbler, marsh frogs, great reed warbler and fieldfare carrying food to their
nest, little bittern and purple heron. After spending an hour or so here we
headed for our destination at Zarnesti in order to be there for late afternoon
in time to be taken on an organised bear watching trip.
Our route to Zarnesti took us through Brazov where we
experienced the best to date of our ‘Romanian driving incidents’. We had been
given fair warning about Romanian driving prior to our trip and thus far this
had proven true. Such was the highlight of our driving experiences I will save
it for a blog of its own!
On arrival at Dan Marins’ Transylvanian Wolf abode we were
treated to tea and homemade traditional Romanian cake. The directions given to
find the accommodation was invaluable – we’d never had found it otherwise.
Our first evening was spent fruitlessly couped in a hide
while a tub full of chocolate was deposited outside in the hope the local bears
would visit. The beauty of wildlife watching is nothing is a certainty and once
again, we managed to sustain our 100% record of not seeing a bear. Things
probably didn’t help that it began to rain and the wind got up. Also, forestry operations
were still taking place just before sunset which probably did not help. We returned
to our accommodation a little disappointed but this was soon satiated by a
fantastic spread for a late evening meal all laid on by Luminita Marin – a superb
cook and host along with husband Dan.
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Camberwell beauty
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Globeflower
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Heart flowered marsh orchid
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Ragged robin
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Roe deer
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Silver studed blue
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Slow worm
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Spreading bellflower
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Yellow bellied toad
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Dusky cranesbill
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Breakfast the next morning picked up where the previous
evenings meal had left off – amazing with enough spread to make a substantial
packed lunch with to see you through the day ahead in the field with Dan. Once
suitably gorged, we set of for a day in the lower alpine hills – stunning scenery
and the plants were amazing. One that sticks in my mind most is the hillside
cover in Globeflower, all about to break bud. In the UK this species is a rare
plant restricted to a few sites. I have visited one of these near Bakewell,
where I was fortunate to see a few plants eking an existence in the dappled
shade of some scrub. The scene on that mountainside once again put it all into perspective.
We visited many sites with Dan. Some we had seen described
in ‘where to watch’ guide books but I’m sure we’d never have found any of them
had we not been with Dan. They are just in such obscure locations with no
obvious indication of their presence. After
a busy day in the field our banquet of an evening meal once again proved
scrumptious – Luminita is an amazing person! Breakfast the next morning
followed the usual pattern. We were also given enough again to make our packed
lunch for the day’s journey ahead to Brazov.
As I’m currently imprisoned due to inclement weather, it has
given me time to catch up with my trip to Romania at the beginning of June! Was
it really that long ago? It was all part
of a cunning ploy to avoid the media hype of a Diamond Jubilee celebration and
to see if by visiting the country with more bears than the rest of Europe, we
could rectify or misses in California the previous year.
This was a seven night trip which started by flying into Cluj and driving the 300
miles through Transylvania ending in Bucharest from where we flew
home. The trip was split into three chunks, travelling about a 100 miles
between each staging post. The majority of our time was spent with two nights
in Zarnesti and
two in Brazov each of
which are just 20 miles apart.
After collecting the hire car at Cluj we set off for Sighisoara. We aimed to
stop off at the Turda
Gorge and at Medias.
Wildlife wise it seemed to get off to a good start with stonechat and bee eater
seen from the car soon after leaving the town.
Attempting to interpret instructions from the guide book, we
got into Turda but found poor signage and the lack of detailed maps meant we couldn’t
find the turning, ending up in Campia Turzii. On reaching a junction we
attempted to loop back to retrace our steps. The road we found ourselves on was
a comparatively new duel carriageway which we discovered had no exits for
almost 60 km until you get back to Cluj!! We were able to see where we wanted
to get to and from a distance the gorge looked very nice.
Deciding now to give the gorge a miss, we tried to locate
the historic town of Medias, one of the oldest in the country. We managed to
get as far as Tarnaveni
and once again managed to miss a turn and become horrendously lost. This was
much to the amusement of the inhabitants of the town we decided we needed to
turn around in and again found it difficult to relate what was on the map with
what was on the ground. Detailed maps of Romania do not exist the best we could
acquire was a 1:700,000 which are next to useless when trying to find anywhere
off the main road.
Not wanting to waste more time, we tried retracing our steps
back to a road that would, we hoped, lead us to our destination for the next
two nights in Sighisoara. Eventually arriving, we found our accommodation to be
right by the entrance into the historic city. After a well-earned rest from our
long day, we headed into the town for a relaxing meal and quiet drink before
turning in for the night ready for the following days exploration of the town.
View from hotel room balcony to the Sighisoara clock tower (c Rotton Yarns)
View from clock tower to hotel - my balcony canopy is in the centre of the picture and our hire car is the first car on the right in the street below (c Rotton Yarns)
Our day in Sighisoara was spent slowly following the perimeter
route of the towns old wall, taking lots of photographs en-route of the
historic buildings. There were two notable things about the wildlife in the town;
first there were no swifts but lots of house martins. Given the antiquity of
the town, this seemed very odd. Also, it was odd to see common redstart sharing
the rooftops with their relative, the black redstart. The latter was not a
surprise to see, being quite the norm for any European town, but the common
redstart was certainly a surprise.
The following are a selection of pictures from around Sighisoara.
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Later in the day, we attempted to follow instruction in the
guide book that would take us to the Brieti
ancient oak wood pasture just two miles from the centre of town. Only ten
years ago, the site was under threat of being destroyed to make way for a
Dracula theme park. It was only after local, national and international
objections were the plans shelved.
After several attempts, we eventually found what seemed to
fit the directions. However, instead of an oak wood, we found ourselves in a
hanging beech wood on the side of the hill with not an oak in sight! Foiled
again. The only consolation was the sighting of a lesser spotted eagle which
I’ve never seen before.
Despite the poor weather and my car not having beendischarged from the car hospital, I decided to continue my pursuit of attempting to awaken my dormant interest in natural history. Unfortunately, I don't think this weekends activities done it any favours in the least. The only saving grace was the fact I'd taken my camera which helped keep my sanity and retain the will to live.
Having slowly walked somewhere in the region of a six miles circular route from home, over the period of about 3 hours, I only managed to find thirty species of bird. Its at times like this when you remember why one just cannot be bothered to make the effort anymore!
Although I did find lots of nice plants to photograph, it was so slow that I even resorted to taking pictures of a slug! But it was a particularly big one.
a slug (c Rotton Yarns)
For the record, below is the mornings species list. The highlights for me were undoubtedly the whitethroats and kestrel:
The middle of the month always heralds the moth trapping and bird ringing sessions at nearby Beeston. The May session, due to the poor weather was particularly slow and I only managed to find seven species of moth in the trap that had been left out overnight. They were:
Green carpet
Muslin moth
Shuttle shaped dart
Hebrew character
Iron Prominent
Common swift
Waved umber
The bird ringing wasn't much better and in fact was so dull that while the ringers were away checking nets at one point, myself and one of the ringers took to playing with two hapless millipedes we'd found lurking in a crevice of the plastic patio table we use to work from.
First we attempted to see if they would fight each other, this was to no avail. They also seemed disinterested in trying to perform any kind of errr, hum, errr, cough .... anyway I don't suppose I'd be too keen on that kind of thing in front of an audience. The best we could muster from the poor creatures was to race them against each other across the table - it successfullyseemed to keep us amused for ages.
This is a classic Mildrew moment of gargantuan proportion but one which ultimately must have been a relief to the driver of the recovery vehicle I called out.
While on the way home from work, my car suddenly lost all power. Fortunately I was able to cruise it into a nearby entrance and walk the 400 metres to my house and phone the RAC. There was an irony to this in that it happened a mere 30 metres from the Cemetery at the edge of town. On calling the RAC, it seems they were busy and were not able to get out for a good hour. Wanting to get my monies worth of subscription I decided at the time to tough it out and turn down an offer of a tow up the road to the garage, despite I was supposed to be going out for a meal at 19:30. After almost two hours a contract vehicle arrived at 19:30 to assess the problem and rescue the dead car. It seems, as suspected the cambelt had broken - ouch!! He loaded me on and must have been quite relieved at my general joviality despite the long wait and ultimate terminal news. He must have been especially pleased when it also transpired the reason why he was so long at his previous job was the police had to be called out help him recover the vehicle. Apparently, rumour has it, he went to recover a car that had been put in a ditch. The owner had seemingly got the car out and was able to park in a nearby pull-in while awaiting recovery. However, the story has it a woman living in the house told him he couldn't park it there and whatever he'd told her elicited a call to her relatives who appeared mob handed and started to smash the car up! This happened just as the recovery vehicle arrived and apparently had to call the police so he could recover the vehicle. All very bizarre and whether true or not is quite an elaborate tale! After he'd dropped the vehicle off at the car hospital, I was able to persuade him to act as a taxi and drop me off at the venue I was supposed to be eating in only half an hour late and in time to get my order in. As this is a posthumous post, the cost for getting the car back on the road was not quite as expensive as feared. The bill was more of a redshank rather than a snipe. I prefer goldcrests, but in the light of things, one mustn't complain - redshanks are quite nice too.
As I'm having to produce a series of posthumous posts, I thought I'd amalgamate my attempts in May to do some natural history.
My first efforts came over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. This was the 6th and 7th of May. On the Sunday I visited the gravel quarry at Broom which was interesting and productive given the weather wasn't at all conducive and rather living up to what one always expects from a Bank Holiday - cold, wet and miserable.
I managed to find a few warblers including managing to see a lesser whitethroat before a common whitethroat this year. Walking alongside a hedge, I was aware of a common whitethroat singing from within and patiently waited for it to perform its aerial song flight. After a few minutes, nearby, there was a sudden out burst of the distinctive song of lesser whitethroat and the bird broke from its cover and flitted rapidly away to hide itself further along the hedge. Around the reed fringed pools nearby came the songs of reed warbler, no doubt recently arrived from their Trans-Saharan migration.
The usual array of waders were present as ever, those being Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Ringed and Little ringed plover.
The following day's walk was cut abruptly short by rain, having only been out for an hour walking the fields closer to home. But just before the rain did set in I was fortunate enough to at least find three migrant Wheatears. Unfortunately, the prospect of a photograph put the birds into panic mode and by the time I'd got my camera ready they had vanished almost as quickly as they'd appeared! How strange as a similar thing occured last autumn at the same place when I found a Whinchat.
As with earlier in the month I managed to see two gigs in a week, well the month ended very much on a similar musical note. Having recovered from Wednesdays trip to see Oli Brown, I was now of with Del to see some Spanish band or other called Amaral?
Derek had mentioned seeing them on the TV in Spain and was so impressed brought a number of their CD's. Other than they are the biggest band in Spain, only sing in Spanish and they're music genre is a pop, folk and rock fusion I knew nothing else of them.
The gig was at the HMV Forum, Kentish Town, and so we headed off from work to catch the train into London where we would decide on what to have for our evening sustenance. We had plenty of time as the doors of the venue were not due to open until 21:00.
On a sudden whim we decided randomly to head to Euston and visit the Ravi Shanka in Drummond Street. We'd not been there for sometime, and while it is a fairly basic place we've never been disappointed although it does get somewhat mixed reviews. Given its simplistic nature, I guess I've never expected anything different? I always find it amazing that while the portions never look huge, I have never managed to finish a meal off in the past. This time was an exception, I had a tasty daal soup followed by a uthappam and managed, just, to plough my way through. We then headed around the corner to a new ale house venue we'd been told of. It is called the Euston Tap and is one of a pair of old buildings marking the entrance to Euston Station. Its matching building across the other side of the street is a cider house. I plumped for one of the porter beers they had on offer at 6.6% proof. A very nice and tasty beer it was indeed.In hindsight, given I was quite full from the meal, it was not such a bright idea to partake of something you almost had to eat! As we finished our drink to head for the underground and the three stops up the Northern Line to Kentish Town I was beginning to wish Greenpeace would come and tow me back out to sea. On arrival at Kentish Town, we headed around the corner to the Oxford, where I decided a slightly lighter ale would be a safer bet for my bloated stomach.
We eventually headed the half mile up the road to the venue and began queueing outside waiting for the doors to open. It seemed very surreal that many of the pubs nearer the venue were barely full. Any other gig one attends there, the pubs are usually spilling out into the street. Its just a whole different culture. The doors eventually opened and the place began to fill slowly - very slowly in fact. This again is very unlike many previous gigs I've been to there, you could even get to the bar for a drink and be heard by the bar maids!
The support band came on about 21:30 and played for aorund 45 minutes. During the time after that, the place did begin to fill more in anticipation of the headline act who came on at 22:45! Of course we should have know better, when in Spain nothing happens until after 22:00 - this was the making of a potential long night. What a band they are! Very professional and I would say after Joe Bonamassa, probably the second best gig of the year for me. It didn't matter I cannot understand Spanish as virtually all gigs these days you can never hear the lyrics anyway so it makes no odds! As it happens Eve Amaral is a great singer and were I to understand Spanish, I'm sure I would have understood what she was singing. Her partner who plays lead guitar is also very good, nothing fancy, just some standard but good guitar playing.
As time marched on, Del and I realised we'd be getting the last train (01:40) home - if we were lucky! They finished their set to much applause at about 12:30 and then came the encore. By 12:45, thinking they'd finished we nipped to the loo before departing only to see they'd come back on again for more! This was looking seriously like becoming like a night out in Madrid when you don't get home until 09:00. I did suggest to Del he asked one of the crowd if they knew any good night clubs for after the gig.
Knowing already the underground had closed - this is Britain where everything closes down at midnight - we decided to cut our chord and sing for it. We got to the underground in time to catch a late bus heading for Kings Cross and got there with about 20 minutes to spare before our train left.
Our train was disgusting and had it not been that I've been too busy, I would and perhaps should have emailed a complaint. It was so littered with rubbish one would be forgiven if you'd have thought it had ridden through a landfill site. The toilet at the other end of the carriage must have been blocked judging by the smell wafting down and one of the sets of carriage doors would not open which led to one couple not being able to get off at their stop.
But what a top night entertained by a top band and the suspense of will we miss the last train home and have to wait for the early morning milk train. We managed to get home by about 03:00 - no wonder I couldn't wake up until about 10:00, later that morning.
Well actually this time it was more akin to a trot. Having booked tickets for myself and Mr Tenses number two offspring to see the ever improving Oli Brown at the Stables, I found I was having to travel to Barnsley for the day on a site visit.
In order to ensure I returned to Milton Keynes in time for a much welcome evening meal at the delightful Tense Towers and get to the gig in time, I had to emphasise to my Yorkshire hosts the latest feasible train I needed to catch in order I got back to Bedford in enough time to drive the short distance to MK.
It had been a long day, given I had be up at 05:00 to ensure I got to Bedford in time to park and catch the 06:30 train. I then spent the day trudging around various parks and green spaces in what can only be described as a torrential monsoon,followed by a lengthy meeting. Needless to say, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open by the evening. But thanks to a terrific set by Oli Brown there was no danger of me nodding off! He played almost every track from his superb new album 'Here I Am' and its great to see him do his party piece walking around the audience in the auditorium playing to them.
Roll on the Bedford Rhythm Festival in August when he'll be appearing again.
This weekend saw a worrying development in my mental well being. I went birding locally on two consecutive days. Normally I have better things to do with my time than waste it trying in vain to struggle with finding a handful of birds or other wildlife. But, I have recently felt my lack of natural history is not good and I should make an effort to get out as it can't really be all that bad.
My first trip on Saturday, was to drive the other side of the A1 to visit the Broom complex of gravel pits. There are, so I was recently informed, two areas of interest. Those being the main lake just off the Stanford road which should be good for passage terns and gulls. The other is the new workings nearby along Gypsy Lane which seems to be more popular with passage waders. My first port of call was the main lake where the 30 or so common terns looked most impressive as the hawked over the water for fish. I scanned them quite intensively with both binocular and telescope in the vain hope of finding an arctic tern, but my luck was not to be. There were good numbers of tufted duck, great crested grebe and coot present. There were also breeding lapwing, redshank and oystercatcher.
Yes - you did just read that right, surprisingly enough I even got my telescope out of the cupboard to use. I thought I might need to mug up from some beginners guide instructions on how to use it at first. But I soon got the hang of it after initially wondering why everything at first seemed further away until realising I needed to look through the end with the smaller diameter lens.
The short drive along to Gypsy Lane was new territory for me. They new workings seemed to be fairly quiet with just a small handful of common tern, lapwing, redhank and oystercatcher again present. There were also a couple of shelduck, but nothing really in the way of wader passage.
The next day, I decided to take a long walk around the fields and woods closer to home. I set off first toward some horse paddocks, then along some farm hedges past ploughed fields before turning back into the woods and emerging by the TV transmitter mast. I then wandered around there before heading along the road which meets up with bridleway that runs in a west-east direction just north of my house, before heading off it along the track and road home. There was very little to see on the walk but the wonderful song of skylarks were a treat. Its such a lovely sound and is certainly one of the most evocative of sounds, synonymous of the English countryside. I also managed to see an orange tip and a brimstone butterfly.
