Alex the Acorn and friends
Donations : Acorns
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/GaryPrescott2022
Many thanks to . . .
Moira, Jackie Griffiths, Bob, Keep U, Rosie, Jayne Grosvenor, Jane & Andy Revell, Louise, Stuart Griffiths, M & D Shaw, Dave & Sue White, Janette Lowndes, Bart, Lise Hanson, Maria Hill, Phil V, Chris Elmer, Sue Murphy, Nicky, John Hague, Mike, Kimberley Bills, Norma Hines, Rob Gilbert, Julia, Colin Graham, Sarah Moreton, Lizzy, Lisa Hillier, Rob Leech, &P.
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Donations : RSPB
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bikingbirdervii-2022
Many thanks to . . .
Moira, Jill from Dorking, Nicky M, Terri Akers, Anne Beckett, Maria Hill, Mark Carter, P.
24th January 2022 Long ride to Aqualate Mere
Post breakfast, I am off on the road once more and with Siri/Google Maps help I easily find my way.
A line of plastic gulls on a 5-bar gate stop me and the owner of them comes outside to explain why he has them. "Make 'em laugh, Make 'em laugh."
I told him that his Gulls, Penguin and Sheep remind me of a garden I saw when cycling around Northern Ireland back in 2015. That garden, on the west side of Loch Erne, had zombies coming out of the lawn. It had gravestones dotted around. It was FANTASTIC, as were the couple who's garden it was. I remember that they were from Middlesborough originally. Coffee, biscuits and explanations were enjoyed with this lovely couple. The kindness of strangers.
As I cycle mile after mile I sing. Actually I have a laugh making up new lyrics for old songs and all to concerning topical issues involving parties!
I stop occasionally to photograph the wind vanes I notice. The last one brings further memories from my childhood. Samantha!
In the mid-afternoon, after cycling for over thirty miles, I arrive at Aqualate Mere and after an interesting conversation with a Jehovah Witness who wanted to convert me, I loved how he left saying that he wasn't going to give me one of cards that he usually gives out, and have the rest of the daylight hour or so to myself in the bird hide there.
I may have managed to photograph this Great Spotted Woodpecker but I kissed the ultra-quick attack by a Sparrowhawk on a Blue Tit at the feeder two metres from me. Incredibly skilled, the Sparrowhawk left with his meal.
This photograph of a Sparrowhawk I took during the Biking Birder II adventure back in 2015.
A lovely couple came out from an adjacent bungalow and asked whether I required help. Hence I meet Jim Lawrence and his wife.
Maybe the evening crescendo was on the production of two World Cup Final 1966 tickets. A truly lovely couple, a fascinating man - the kindness of strangers, sad to say that when I visited the house to say thank you for 2010 last year, whilst driving around over 130 RSPB reserves last year, 2021, Jim had died.
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