Tree Huggers - Don't read this!

This is the church at Holdenhurst village. For those who live close to Bournemouth you will have passed this village on the A338, but will not have noticed it. Nearby by is the Cooper Dean roundabout named after the Cooper Deans who are buried in this churchyard.

One of the houses in the village.

Now for the tree bit. We had two decorative cherry trees removed from the front of the house because they were getting too large and were passed their sell by date. Here you can see the stumps. The house you see is not ours it is the next door neighbours.

The stump removal machine - I started watching the removal outside, but so much stuff was flying around I retired inside.

Close up of the machine. A real beast.

This is what was left. It's actually more than you think. At the time of writing Sue and I have shifted half a ton a material to the tip! It was 2 car loads and there is more to go.

In between all this we have been doing some geocaches. We didn't get to this one along the River Stour, don't know why.

This was a cache with a difference. The clue was attached to this slippery fella.

No snake was harmed at this cache - it was a plastic one.

January Caravanning - Chertsey

Caravanning in January! Mad I heard it whispered.

Just look at the photos and make you own mind up. Initially we had lovely sunny weather so we could go out and about and see the sights.

At this time of year not many caravan sites are open, but this one at Chertsey is. It's by the Thames and not too far from the stations which give access to London. We hoped to have a couple of visits to see some museums and galleries. We also hoped to meet up with Sue's sister and brother-in-law and Maggie and Andy who have a weekday retreat not too far away.

This is Chertsey lock. The campsite (not shown) is to the left.

Runnymede is just a few miles away and so we visited the John F Kennedy Memorial followed by the Air Forces Memorial and finally the Magna Carta Memorial.

 

This is the Air Forces Memorial.  Here is some information taken off their website -

'The Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede commemorates by name over 20,000 airmen who were lost in the Second World War during operations from bases in the United Kingdom and North and Western Europe, and who have no known graves. They served in Bomber, Fighter, Coastal, Transport, Flying Training and Maintenance Commands, and came from all parts of the Commonwealth. Some were from countries in continental Europe which had been overrun but whose airmen continued to fight in the ranks of the Royal Air Force.

 

The Magna Carta Memorial

Our first visit to London took us to the Natural History Museum where we wanted to see the 'Wildlife Photographer of the year 2008' exhibition. We have seen previous exhibitions in far flung places as Capetown and Sydney. As usual the photos were superb.

On leaving the exhibition Sue spotted this old fossil.

 

We were surprised to see this bit of V&A wall, damaged by the blitz, left as a memorial.

Burlington Arcade - there wasn't a Lidl or Aldi there!

Trafalgar Square - being a Saturday there were demonstrations in the area and most buses were suspended, so we walked.

We visited the National Gallery.

London Eye - the queue was too long on this bright, but chilly afternoon, for us to take a flight.

Sunset over the Houses of Parliament.

The following week we had a visit to Mercedes World at Brooklands. We've been before, but on a cold afternoon it's a good outing.

This is a 300SL 'Gullwing' coupe. Of the 1400 built 1000 still exist and are demand by collectors.

Sue trying out a rather expensive 4x4.

An even more expensive car - £279.000 worth. Buy one get one free? I didn't ask.

Sue's sister Pam visiting our caravan. She teaches in Chertsey.

Pam recommended we go to The Savill Garden to see the roof of the visitors centre. It's quite a 'wow' factor.

Extract from their website -

'The design by Glenn Howells Architects uses a gridshell construction, a landmark feat of contemporary engineering, inspired by the strength and beauty of a seashell. Using sustainable timber from the Crown Estate forests – larch and oak for the roof and floor – the building was constructed as a single cell space over-sailed with a gridshell roof.' 

 

Windsor Great Park

On our second visit to London we went straight to the Eye and had a 'flight' without any queuing.

 

 

I liked this photo because the mounted police were being followed by one of the 'Duck Tour' vehicles - it really held the traffic up.

Sri Lanken demonstration assembling outside Tate Britain. It was quite difficult leaving TB because of the number of people. Estimates in the press varied between 50,000 and 100.000 people. After TB we went to the V&A and the Science Museum.

Snow was forecast, but not this much. In the morning we had 6.5 inches on the car. Needless to say we didn't go out in the car that day. Fortunately it is possible to walk from the campsite as it is well placed.

Where's the car?

The caravan site - very pretty, but not if you are towing a caravan.

At the time of writing we are at home, but have left the caravan at the site. Although the main roads were clear, the side roads close to home, still had snow on them. We are waiting for it to clear before we collect the caravan.