A lovely warm evening by the river avon where we sat and listened to some live music by lamplighter the group, at coxs yard. It was full of people all having fun, enjoying the outdoors on a warm summers night, we will look back on this on a dark december evening and enjoy it all over again on our video clip and photos.
 |
| Anne Hathaways Cottage, which we saw on my Birthday |
The photos below are all taken by the river Avon, from wild water paddling! three of us anyway. Rowing on the river, well one of us was good at rowing(guess who) A ferry ride across the river Avon which is a chain ferry, a handle is turned and the boat glides across as if by magic on the chain beneath it.Martin and laura went across first, then we went on it , someones little dog stood on the prow of the boat, a wire haired terrier he was lovley.
We paddled our tootsies in the river Avon, so cooling and refreshing.Lots of messing about by the river
Martin and Laura take the chain fery across the river Avon, while we slope off for a pint in the Dirty Duck!
Laura and i were taking some evening photos by the Avon, these are all named after women characters in the plays that were written by william shakespeare, who was born in Stratford upon avon .
Row row row the boat gently down the stream. Gary best rower award!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Drifting down the river, nearly hit the chain boat, nearly hit a canal boat, but a good finish by young Mr &Mrs Stanyer
A view of St Mary the virgin Church taken from the rowing boat, shakespeare is buried here and also his family.
.............................................................................................................................................................
A good couple of evenings around the local hostelries were good fun. Some we visited were in no particular order.
The Olde Thatch....The Garrick....The windmill....Thedirty duck/Black Swan....Ye olde Rose and Crown....
Coxs Yard where we watched live music in the evening.
We played Just a minute, its from a radio programme on radio4, . The rules are one minute is given to talk about a subject, there is to be no repetition, no deviation, no hesitation, if so another member takes over and gets the remaining seconds to talk until they win, unless they um and err, in which case someone elses go. Great fun, harder to do than you know till you have tried it.. Laura and I won two rounds. Thererwas a lot of erming and umming going on , oh and a good deal of laughter. We really had some good evenings together.
 |
| Outside the Windmill. good times Dad and son |
 |
| Inside the Dirty Duck |
 |
| Outside the Windmill , same night as before |
 |
| Out for dinner at The Garrick, Halumi night |
 |
| Taken at dusk The Dirty Duck |
...................................................................................................................................................
We visited the Butterfly farm which was brilliant, lots of the biggest butterflies flitting about, every colour, it was hot and humid inside, there was a pond and waterfall, with huge koi carp. A reptile and insect centre, . The pictures below show the butterflies, well worth a visit.
 |
| Loved these two frogs |
 |
| waterfall |
 |
| Morning glories |
 |
| Baby coot chicks |
Finally a picture of some baby Coot chicks which we watched being fed and leaving the nest to take a tentative swim in the river, we watched from clopton bridge along with others, who also found it interesting.
A little moment among the business to enjoy a little bit of nature, I can say it was a lovely time away.