morning at the Lavenham Falconry 19/AUG

I always wanted to have birds of prey on my arm. Did Marcus know that? Apparently it was my birthday pressie from him to have the experience. Since then, as usual, English weather hadn't been well every time he re-booked. Well, it'd been about 5month, finally, we had good enough weather for these birds to fly. They don't like to fly on hot sunny day or rainy day. Luckily, the Sunday we went wasn't very hot, actually, it got hot time to time when sun came out, poor owl! It was too hot and bothered for her. anyway, I was very excited to meet these birds. 

 

It was a bit of an job to find the place, we didn't really get lost, but some people were. When we got there, it was small land with a hut with dogs barking inside, friendly horse chilling out inside fence, and cute bench by the little river. I didn't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't how I imagined. Anyway, after 10-15mins or so, the owl guy with a lad turned up in a white van. Then slowly, one by one, people turned up in their cars. Not sure what was going on, but I went along anyway. The owl guy was counting up number of us who booked to do the "experience". Then, this point, I trigged we were there to have birds-on-arms-experience!!! ☺ Yes, took me a while to figure out (as usual) we were about to meet cool birds on face to face. (To be honest, up till then, I thought I just was there to see some flying birds...)

The owl guy looked a bit grumpy. Apparently, it was his day off, someone else was going to do the job, no wonder he looked a bit pissed off.

Him and his companion brought first bird.  He was very handsome. 

We all wore thick leather glove(it was a bit sweaty-smelly...☹), and the owl guy gave us bits of chicks on our hands. He called the bird, and he landed. Awesome! We all had a go at it, and we all stroke the beautiful bird. After that, we had 2 birds at time too. They were quite playful, and bit cheeky, they flew off to the trees and river to hunt. They came back quickly. It was magic moment when I faced with these birds with eye contact. Everyone's energy changed and somehow it was very calm atmosphere all the time we were there. Here's some photos of the morning. We had eagles, then owls. Apparently, there birds were very sensitive, when they got fed with some chicks ,which were born in shed, got very ill due to lack of vitamin D. It was very easy to cure, they got fed with vitamin D tablets and got well. Makes you think doesn't it. We are what we eat, very true. 

He liked climbing up on head. Looks very comfy and settled there doesn't it?

 

    

 

This is how big this owl is. I didn't realized till when I saw this pic. Gourgeous isn't he?

This is cute English owl with bits of chicks in her mouth. I thought she was really cute♥

By then, everyone was taking photos of birds. I wonder how many pics they took looked similar or an half wing in the photos............

This eagle(?) was the last birds we met. She was very cheeky. ☺

 

It took about 3 hours or so. we got there about 10am-ish, finished around 1pm I think. The owl guy explained lots of things but I don't remember much of what he said. All I remembered was everyone had really soft eyes when they looked at these birds. "soft eyes" means when people look at babies, their eyes get "arrrrrrrrrh",  you know what I mean??? ☺☺☺we all had the same look on our faces. Even grumpy owl guy had soft eyes, and very gentle and loving towards the birds.

One guy who came with his family got locked out from his car, his little daughter locked the car with the key inside. And he was ringing AA/RAC from someone else's mobile phone! Only a short time, but felt like lots of things happened already. After the owl experience, we were heading off to the beach....where? Whalberswick!!!

By the time we got to the beach, it started to get grey and temp went down. Still, theses English people were enjoying last bit of the sunny Sunday. Surprisingly, it wasn't as cold as what I expected. It was cold, but bearable.

This is English beach in Suffolk on sunny cloudy day. Not like Greece, France or La Gomera, still, beautiful and I love it.

How to get to the Griggs meadow:

• Turn left at the Swan Inn pub onto Water Street (turn Right at this pub if you’re coming from the other end of the High Street via the B1071 Church Street).
• Follow this road to the bottom of the hill until it bears sharp right onto Brent Eleigh Road (A1141).
• Stay on this road for 2.6 miles – Griggs meadow is signposted on the right hand side of the road (there are gates across the car park area).

This Lavenham Falconry is a family run business, and small. Unlike big places, they were very friendly people and very relaxed atmosphere. And peaceful!!! I liked it because, there's no shops, no cafe, or no big car park with expensive parking fee. it was free car parking. Limited amount of people, just enough to have everyone to experience the birds.

Here's contact detail;

Email: info@lavenhamfalconry.co.uk
Telephone: 01787 249691
Mobile: 07960 879 600 (Steve)

Opening Hours: 9am til 5pm 7 days a week

 

✿❀✿12/AUG Day out in Shingle Street, Suffolk✿❀✿

Another sunny Sunday, it was very unusual for us to have hot sunny weather these days. This day, I woke up with feeling..."sun's out!" Opened the blind in Marcus's bedroom...Wow,  it was sunny.

Again, we weren't sure where to go at first. Like last time, we wanted to go somewhere we could have peace and quiet. We had our early breakfast and cuppa, we left his flat(he's just moved!!!) in Suffolk early that morning. We wanted to go to Ipswich first to our favo shop...TK-MAXX!!!

By after 9.30am, we were already in Ipswich. Did some clothes shopping there, we got some bargains. Both in TK-MAXX and a small independent shop which had gorgeous jeans, and I bought a pair (half priced) for myself. I wanted a pair for myself for ages, but those usually cost around £300, Too expensive!!! Even on eBay, end up paying postage and export tax from USA, it wouldn't be a bargain!  We love bargains. Splashed some money there and TK-MAXX . To be honest, not a lot left there.

We were in Ipswich till lunch time, had some mid-morning(almost lunch time) snack there under a tree. It was still hot. While it was hot, we needed to get to the beach. Fortunately, the beach we were heading to was close, didn't take long time to get there. To get there,  take the A12 towards Woodbridge, then the A1152 towards Melton. Take the second exit at the roundabout after the river, towards Hollesley, then follow signs to Shingle Street.

Yes, we went shingle street. Marcus took me there before. And I liked it. That day, it wasn't many people there, the car park there was small, soon filled with cars. This shingle street was funny old beach, has a line of houses along the beach. Appearantly, there used to be more houses back in days, in 1800-1940's. It has very interesting history. I found an article from the guardian.

It says:
"From the Martello tower that marks your starting point, built to protect England from invasion during the Napoleonic wars, to some well-preserved second world war pillbox defences, this walk has an impressive military pedigree. Just up the coast is Orford Ness, where the first experiments with radar were conducted in the 1930s, while Shingle Street itself has been the subject of fevered speculation ever since it was evacuated in 1940. Conspiracies include rumours of a German landing and a shoreline littered with burning bodies, schemes to protect the coastline with an impenetrable barrage of flames and the testing of experimental chemical bombs. Four dead German airmen were certainly washed up on the beach, and weapons testing did result in the Lifeboat Inn being blown up. As for the rest, the conspiracy theories rumble on.

Keep your eyes peeled for
Tern eggs nestled in the shingle and seals basking at the estuary entrance."

Sounds interesting doesn't it? It's on Suffolk Heritage coast, near north of Felixstowe, also, Shingle street is a site of special scientific interest due to its rare flora and fauna found there.

Found these flower on the beach. Cute isn't it?

Sky looked a bit grey when the clouds went under the sun. I fell asleep again. It was a bit chilly time to time( it was a bit windy there too), when sun was out, it was lovely. Marcus went for a swim and across to the little island opposite to we were sitting. Sea wasn't rough, but the current was fast. 

Water wasn't cold either. I just put my legs in the water. The same as when we went to Hunstanton, water was warm! I was expecting water to be cold, so, it was lovely.

 It's too small to see it, but there's a seal in this photo chilling out. After Marcus swam across there, he went to say hello to the seal. He didn't mind, after while, he jumped in to water, as Marcus walking on the island, seal was swimming, looking at him. Then, when they come to the edge of the island, the seal disappeared, as I was wondering, he popped his head up in front of me. He was cute. He had huge eyes.  He looked at me, and I automatically said hello and waved at him. "hello? Norie, what are you doing?" .......... Afterward, I realized what I did, and smiled at myself. ☺☺☺

This is another plants which live on the shingle street beach. I called them Cabbage. They did look like a funny kind of cabbage. They had yellow flowers when it was in season. I was not sure why they were there and the name of the plants. Later, I looked into it, it was sea kale, and edible. I picked some, took home and cooked. And they were delicious! It now becomes one of my favo veggies, and look forward to the season.

 We were there till after 4pm, enjoyed our peace and lunch, and watching dinosaur flying...(seagulls)

Before we went back to Marcus's new apartment, we stopped for a drink. I can't remember the place, I think the name of the pub contained the word "may". Anyway, it was packed outside. Almost empty inside the pub, I couldn't believe they had air con on inside. It wasn't that hot, you know....☹, it's England.....

View from there was quite nice, there , looked like nice walks, I'd like to do some loooong walks on the coast one day. 

We saw a cute boat. I'd love to own the boat like this, and go out to the sea watching nature goes by. At moment I'm just waiting to win some lottery, oh, I need to get some first! ☺☺☺

❀❀❀5th/AUG mini holiday in Norfolk❀❀❀

Finally! It was our mini first our mini holiday in Norfolk this year. Marcus's been STILL bizzy moving house for last a couple of months at least. We didn't spend much going out and about...We did go to Colchester or Newmarket for some shopping and walks near by. But We both were busy doing other stuffs, we weren't managed to get to the beautiful Norfolk coast. So, this day was very exciting for probably both of us, getting together and potter by the beach. We couldn't make our mind to start off with where to go.... still, didn't take long time for us to decide to go to Norfolk coast.
 

We always go to beautiful Holkam, we wanted to explore a little further. Marcus found little place called "Brancaster staithe", sounded nice. So we were off. 

From Bury St Edmund, through Thetford, Swaffham and Huntanton...... All those places were our favo places. Theford has a massive forest, Swaffham has a really nice Waitrose, Hunstanton has a beach. ☺☺☺ Lovely drive too. Feel good to go through the forest especially when it's sunny. Beautiful trees on both side of the road, swaying with light wind, sunny sunshine goes through between leaves....make wonderful tunnels! ☺

About 2 hours or so driving from Bury, we got to the Brancaster Harbour. We picked our snack up from the car, started walking. We got little lost to get to the foot path, we managed to find in the end. It was lovely walk, I wanted to get to the beach. We walked, walked and walked.... The footpath carried on, didn't look like it lead to the beach, so, we walked back to the harbour. Along the way, found a lovely house with big garden facing the sea.

Also found some pretty flowers by the sea. They look happy living there with sea water.

Right, we were (Me, actually...) on the mission to get down the beach with our lunch. When we got back to the car, we drove off to a beach near by. We found in the end.... But, it was too much for us, too many people! Yes, we are old, we like peace and quiet.... I got a little grumpy, after walking 30mins or so, the beach wasn't how I expected! (that was my expectation, a bit tooooo high for summer holiday)

Anyway, bless him, Marcus suggested to go to Hunstanton. It is tourist place, but at least, I thought I could have some fun looking for some fossils on the beach. So we drove off.
It was sooooo cool. When we got there, the car park was full. We had our lunch in the car, because, it started pouring down! (AGAIN ☹!!!!) But cool thing was: within an half our, people who were on the beach (which was lots!) started coming out, AND, left car park with less than 7 cars! We heard thunder, didn't see lightning, but it was cool in the rain. When we finished our lunch, we were ready to explore to the beach!

This was how grey the sky was, sunny Norfolk, England! Yippppppie!!!

Look! Empty car park

 

Hunstanton beach was awesome! We found all sorts of little and big creatures! 

This is an jumbo oyster! It was huge. Marcus got big hands, and the oyster was bigger than his hand. It was moving inside and splashing water! I hope no-one finds him and selling him to near by Michelin star restaurant....✿

Cute cheeky crab, he was trying to scare me with his scissors! Bless, I was poking my fingers to him, I didn't think he liked it. (By the way, Marcus told me to do it!!! ☺☺☺)

Then we saw lots of starfish. They seemed to like to be pair, the most of them were together. I saw some kids picking them up and playing with them. I bet those starfish were screaming at those kids to "get your chubby hands off!!!" Arrrr, bless.☺

Then finally, Marcus found...... dinosaur foot print!!!???

Looks like that, so, leave it like that....at moment.........

Oh, we enjoyed Hunstanton. Now, we were back on the road to Bury.

We found some sign "Sedgeford", so, popped in. We found: Sedgeford historical and archaeological research project(S.H.A.R.P). Wow, it was exciting to see some important English archaeology going on. The site contained Iron Age, Anglo Saxon findings. One day, I'd like to volunteer to help digging. I always wanted to do that! I think very romantic/fascinating to learn and find out about our human history. I love it. At moment, I'm into aliens and ancient civilizations. all interesting stuffs, feels like my little brain's expanding learning all that. 

Anyway, one last finding of the day... We thought it was cute. ☺☺☺

Isn't it cute? We saw it as we we drove past. apparently, the person, who built/made it, made it to order. Wonder how long it would take to make one of those? It was quite small one. I looked a tiny big in the wagon. 

It even had little chine cups and saucers on the wall. there was a little bed too. well cute!!!

Thanks to Marcus for all driving for us today, look forward next adventure! Our big holiday is close!!!! ☺☺☺☺