18 – 23 October 2010
Devizers
Have spent the past five days with my friends Carolyn and Derek in Devizers. On Monday after I arrived at Chippenham on the train, Carolyn took me to the Westonbirt Arboratum where the autumn colours of the trees especially the many varieties of maples were just fantastic. Of course, went mad with my camera and got lots of shots of the different shades of the leaves.
On Tuesday, we visited one of the historical market towns, Marlborough. It also has a huge school and it seems that it occupies half the town. From there we re-visited Avebury. It is a massive Henge monument that is over 5000 years old. It was once encircled by a huge ditch that was cut to the depth of the chalk. Unfortunately the ditch is still there but has been filled in over the years. In it’s time it would have been more spectacular than Stonehenge.
Wednesday saw us off again. This time we headed to Bristol where we visited the SS Great Britain. The night before, Derek showed me a video of the process that was used to bring it home from the Falkland Islands where it was a wreck. Amazing what they have done with it to restore it and showcase it. Brunel was the engineer who designed and built it. We then went to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge that he also designed.
We read in the paper about the Arctic Swans that had arrived from Siberia to winter in England. Apparently they have arrived early again this year so the belief is that it will be a really cold winter. So we went to the wetland centre at Slimbridge to see them. We were very lucky as there were several there. Managed to get a couple of photos of them as well as lots of flamingos.
Tomorrow we are off to Norfolk for a week as it is the children’s half term break. They are excited about being able to show me how to catch crabs.
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