Another bus

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.

Another dashing gig

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.

A strange tern of events

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.

A Good Friday for Vale

Usually once or twice a season my friend Del and I exchange trips to see our respective teams play. This season I was to be entertained with the Good Friday match at Aldershot.

It's rare my appearances at a Port Vale match have the same good luck as Del's reciprocal visits to Craven Cottage. However it has to be said my visits are, with one exception usually, to Port Vale's away matches. I expect, given their chronic away form, the outcomes would not be too dissimilar were we to try a Fulham away match.

However, on this occasion I was treated to an all too rare Port Vale victory. Louis Dodds was the hero of the day scoring both goals in the two - one victory. The Aldershot consolation came from a deflection late in the game. At least with Port Vale having the run of play it silenced the incessant beating of drums coming from the away fans stand. Its was enough to make you want to beat your head against a wall. 

Being used to visiting a Premier League ground does spoil you in that many of the teams from the lower divisions can barely survive financially. This often shows in some of the grounds I have visited which are part way through renovations they've not been able to afford completion of. Aldershots ground being no exception to that with only having about two and a half usable stands.

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton yarns)

(c Rotton Yarnns)

The trip down to Aldershot on the train was quite interesting, just running into Kings Cross we saw the first of three foxes we were to see on the trip. It was the second leg of the journey from Waterloo to Aldershot via Woking that was the most interesting. Due to Bank Holiday engineering works, the train had to take on convoluted route via local branch lines for much of the way. This entailed it travelling so slowly that butterflies were easily identifiable as the fluttered along the track side vegetation in the warm spring sun. We managed to see a few orange tips and brimstones, along with another couple of foxes on the trip.

Not such a dash

Two gigs in a week is rather like waiting for a bus. On this occasion travel to the gig was not so time critical on account I was a) on holiday and at home and b) the gig was local and a mere 30 minute drive to the venue. That being the glorious Stables at Wavendon on the edge of Milton Keynes. Its a lovely small seated venue, always with a pleasant atmosphere and audience who really go to listen to music. To be able to see the artists in such intimate surroundings adds to the night, particularly too when you get to meet and greet after the gig.

Tonight's show is a double bill of two of my favourite modern blues bands. Both scarily so young and talented. It's a breath of fresh air to know good live music does and will live on. Until recently I'd feared there to be no up-coming musicians interested in that genre of music. Its certainly been an eye opener to start discovering all these 'kids' that play as good as and quite possibly better than my old hero's.  I put it all down to two people - Paul Jones and Joe Bonamassa!

More often than not, I forget to tune into Paul's weekly evening blues radio programme. On this one occasion, about seven years ago, I tuned in and heard this awesome blues song. For once I took note of the artist and soon after was the proud owner of the CD Blues Deluxe. I then needed to see this guy who at the time was only in his late twenties - could anyone this young really want to play the blues? I assumed he would not be very popular in the UK, but when I bowled up outside the Shepherds Bush Empire, people were queuing around the corner of the block! What's more I heard people discussing one of the support bands - some kid of about 20? This can't be true, kids don't listen to this kind of music, never mind play it surely?

Anyway, sure enough there was this support band, a three piece power blues trio fronted by this kid called Scott McKeon - they blew me away, it was like listening to Cream, who I was way to young to see or for my ears to appreciate at the time. I even brought Scott's album Can't Take No More at the gig  Then of course Joe came on and that was the first time I ever saw him. Including the gig four days ago, I have now seen him about six times! Each time he gets better and as readers are now aware he no longer requires a truss!  

Since then, my ears have been opened to seek out new blues acts and I still am in awe at how many are actually out there. Tonight's two acts are no exception. The support band is Mitch Laddie, who was there promoting his new superb album Burning Bridges This his second album, the first being This Time Around.

I first discovered Mitch on Amazon when I went to buy Scott's second album Trouble. At the time Amazon were doing their usual trick of advertising a similar album on that page. Well it worked with me (mug! or not so). On this occasion, it was This Time Around and also a CD caller Innerevolution by Philip Sayce, another superb artist who I've still to catch up with live.

Mitch Laddie played a superb set this evening, covering many of the tracks from his latest album and very few from his previous CD. I've never seen him anywhere other than the Stables. The first time he played support to Walter Trout and last year he was part of the New Generation Blues tour one of the gigs of which was at the Stables. Appearing on that same tour, as they had also done a year before in 2010, was another young blues power trio under the name of Virgil and the Accelerators who were playing tracks from their album the Radium.  When I first saw Virgil and the Accelerators, I'd gone to the New Generation Blues Tour in 2010 to see another of my favourites Oli Brown who was heading the sessions that year. He will be the subject of a later blog.

Following on from Mitch Laddies great set, came the headline band of the evening in the form of Virgil and the Accelerators, for what is now the third time I have seen them, each being at the Stables. Again an awesome set played out from this three piece with Virgil's younger 18 year old brother Gabriel on drums - he can play like that at 18? Holy sh!! You can tell Virgil is heavily influenced by Hendrix among others and now looks the part with the mop of corkscrew hair and dress style similar to what Hendrix and Clapton wore in the late 60's. The following clip was filmed on the night.

Disappointingly, no hint of a new album and so being somewhat left behind by comparison to the other above afore mentioned acts. But none the less a great band and even better that both Mitch and Virgil are at this years Rhythm Festival near Biggleswade over the August Bank Holiday. Hoorah!!!

Though I walk these thousand miles .....

Even if using home as a holiday base, to catch up with all those things you've been putting off doing, it means you get time to relax and take five. It also gives the chance to take the odd day out to go and do something else.

Still recovering from the weekends Joe euphoria, I set off with my friend Derek for a days birding. We'd been planning this trip for a week or two but had been undecided at to where we should head. The debate was not over what birds we might see, but which of the two venues, Titchwell in Norfolk, or Minsmere in Suffolk had the best tea room. Both places are about the same distance and travelling time away. The debate also centred around where we might easily purchase fresh fish.

The decision was finally made on a chance visit to the pub the previous Thursday. There, a colleague mentioned a pending family holiday to the Suffolk coast the following week and he'd heard Otters were being seen frequently from one of the hides at Minsmere. I've never seen Otter in England. I stopped in a cottage a year ago right near the path to that very hide mentioned and two colleagues, keener to leave their beds one morning than me, saw two Otters a few yards away from them, at the side of the road and within sight of the cottage.

So, Minsmere it will be, we also decided the tea room there does have the edge. Readers will note, still no mention has been made of what birds we might like to see on our little trip.

Setting off not too early, we arrived at the reserve just after it opened at 10:00am. We failed our first intelligence test in actually how to get into the place from the car park. They've had some building done since my last visit and linked the visitor centre to the toilet block with a new reception area. In order to get to the toilets, which is where we first wanted to head and subsequently the shop, tea room and reserve, you have to go through the new reception.

Once suitably relieved, we headed off through the reserve woods and alongside reedbeds, stopping at hides to overlook the marshes. The Marsh harriers were in fine fettle, putting on some superb courtship displays between fetching bits of materials to build their nests. There was an occasional grunt and boom from Bittern's lurking in the depths of the reed, but disappointingly no sign yet. Bearded tits were also somewhat elusive as it was a little on the breezy side. Understandably they were keeping their heads down, showing only occasionally when their incessant 'pinging' calls gave them away. The other thing we'd become aware of was the lack of migrants, in fact there were more blackcaps (3) singing at home that morning than at the reserve (0)!

After visiting the last hide which is where the Otters have recently been seen, needless to say not today, we headed back to the visitor centre for lunch. At lunch, we met the colleague and his family who'd mentioned the previous week about the Otters. As they were leaving to explore the reserve more, they were somewhat amazed when we said we're about to head off to Aldburgh to buy some fish before the they sold out and closed. Its nice to know we take our birding so seriously.

Just before leaving we decided to visit the conveniences, here we had the first comedy moment of the day and the subsequent theme for this blog title.

While using the urinal, there was someone in one of the cubicles, with one of those pedometers that talk to you, telling you how far you've walked, how fast you are travelling now and how many calories you've burned off, etc. Well Derek and myself, along with another chap who'd been in there found it extremely difficult not to snigger loudly at the robotic voice of the pedometer.

Our second comedy moment was to come on our shopping trip.

Having arrived at Alburgh, we headed for the parade of sheds selling their freshly caught wares. Armed with a shopping list from two colleagues back home and not decided about our own choice, we set about checking prices and availability so we could contact our friends and they could confirm their orders and quantities based on our information. Sole and Seabass were the main targets, very little of which we found at the first two sheds, although the second shed did have some Herrings at £5 for 5 pounds in weight. At the third shed we found our quarry, more available Seabass and importantly lots of Sole of three different sizes. We discussed costs with the people and as they don't take credit card we said we'd be back shortly while we went to get some cash from the town, now we'd found what we needed. We passed a forth shed on our way. This had lots of fish but was a little more expensive than the previous one.

When we returned about 15 minutes later the shed selling all the Sole had closed and gone home! Doh!! Why oh why on earth did they not say to us that they would be closing after we'd told them what we were after. Luckily for us, shed four had what we wanted and we were able to recover the situation, I just nipped into shed two for my herrings on the way back to the car. It was while walking back to the car we saw our only Swallow of the day heading in off the sea to fly up the coast.

Having been shopping for about three hours, more than we'd spent so far birding, we finally got back to Minsmere at 15:30 with a sudden realisation and panic that the tea room would be closing in 30 minutes! Heavens above, we cannot go without our afternoon tea and cake.

After finishing that, and seeing a Mediterranean gull pass over head, which we first picked up on call, we headed out to visit the famous scrape. It was here that I finally got to start taking some pictures at last. Not before finding about 100 or more Red throated divers on the sea, many of which were in beautiful summer plumage. Too far away to photograph.

The following is a selection of shots taken from the hides on the east of the scrape. I was unable to take any pictures of Avocet. The only things vaguely resembling them had bodies and looked nothing like those depicted on the RSPB logo.

Black-headed gulls (c Rotton Yarns)

Shovelor (c Rotton Yarns)

Black-headed and Mediterranean gulls (c Rotton Yarns)

After our walk along the coast, we headed back into the reserve to visit the hides on the west of the scrape, where I took the following snaps of views across the scrape. The second shot shows the cliffs at Dunwich in the distance, if you look hard enough you might even see the Dartford warblers.

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton Yarns)

Then, while listening to a booming Bittern, I also took some atmospheric reedbed and sky shots.

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton Yarns)

As we left the marshes to head through the wood and back to the car, the willow weavers was just packing up for the day having nearly finished a willow house which looked pretty awesome.

(c Rotton Yarns)

As we were about to leave the car park for home I suggested we should take a convoluted route past the back of the reserve and out through East Bridge in the hope of seeing the Barn owl which hunts regularly in that area. We arrived by the bridge where a couple with binoculars were hanging around, while another couple sat a short distance away in the field looking like they were staking it out for the owl. Typically, I'd packed my binoculars away - something I never used to do. However, Derek, with a little more sense had his to hand and randomly decided to look at a pool that had been dug out near the reed bed. There, much to our surprise was a Glossy ibis which we were aware of being in the area. Although neither of us have seen them in the UK, we were not to fussed at making an effort in seeing it, as it could have been anywhere over such a vast tract of land. As far as we could tell the couple by the bridge were not aware of its proximity to them, but did tell us the barn owl had done its rounds half an hour before we'd arrived.

Over the whole day, we managed to see a total of 64 species in about six hours birding and walking several miles - don't ask how many coz I don't posses one of those talking pedometers.

This leads one to harp back to 'The beauty and the beast' post from January in which I made the point about why I can never be bothered to go birding in UK. Our attitude there remained the same lackadaisical approach we always take and yet by comparison, we saw 39 species - that's only 25 less, in half the time and barely walking half a mile if that!

Grrr, why is our wildlife becoming so depleted?

Below is the list of birds seen on the day. If you think I'm going to link each with the RSPB A to Z bird guide, think again! I've got better things to do so I'm afraid you'll have to do it yourself :o)

Species List for Minsmere (02/04/2012)
Red-throated Diver
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Fulmar
Great Cormorant
Great Bittern
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Glossy Ibis
Mute Swan
Greylag Goose
Barnacle Goose
Common Shelduck
Eurasian Wigeon
Gadwall
Eurasian Teal
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Eurasian Marsh Harrier
Common Pheasant
Water Rail
Common Moorhen
Common Coot
Eurasian Oystercatcher
Pied Avocet
Northern Lapwing
Black-tailed Godwit
Common Redshank
Ruddy Turnstone
Mediterranean Gull
Black-headed Gull
Mew Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Common Wood Pigeon
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Meadow Pipit
Winter Wren
Hedge Accentor
European Robin
Mistle Thrush
Cetti's Warbler
Common Chiffchaff
Bearded Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Marsh Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Wood Nuthatch
Eurasian Treecreeper
Black-billed Magpie
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch
Common Linnet
Reed Bunting