Mum and Ian are gradually recovering from their flight back from Kenya and the 3-hour jet lag.
The weather has gone from cold, frosty and bright to milder - well about 9 degrees - and quite grey. I wanted to gat a breath of fresh air so we headed over to the Crane Park Nature reserve in an attempt to spot kingfishers and any other possible interesting wildlife! After an slight detour as I forgot the way, we made it to the Shot Tower. This is site of the Gunpowder Works which opened in the late 1760s. Crane Park Island was created to provide a mill pond for the water to drive the machinery. There were many explosions although the Shot Tower is now thought to have been a windmill for recirculating water to power the mills, rather than a shot tower for making lead shot - I like to imagine it is still the place where shot was made!
In the event we did not see any kingfishers, just a couple of dodgy characters on bikes. We heard what we thought was a water vole plopping into the water and a kestrel so a fairly good spot for the birders.
Afterwards we headed back to Squires and were forced to stop for tea and cake to warm us all up.
