Going bats

Windmill Gardens is only ten minutes' walk from where I live, but it really isn't somewhere I go very often, these days.  Last time I went was to the Bread and Beer festival in May 2018.  But tonight there was a bat walk!

It's been on my bucket list for years, doing a bat walk, but somehow I never seem to be in the right place at the right time.  I've missed a couple in Windmill Gardens simply because we were away when they happened.  There was a last-minute panic when I was asked to do grandmother duty today instead of tomorrow (which I couldn't have done anyway, but the Swan Whisperer would have done it), but luckily the Boy had football training at 17:30, which meant I was able to be home by 18:15 in time to have a snack and go straight out again.

There were already a dozen or so people gathered in the Gardens when I arrived - it is only a very small park - but more arrived as time went on, and I think there were probably 40 people or so when the evening commenced.  Three of them were children, about the age of our grandsons, but these ones were all girls. The Swan Whisperer was there for the talk, but he had a meeting so couldn't stay.  It began with a talk by Dr Iain Boulton, who is Lambeth's Environmental Compliance Officer, which basically means he is responsible for knowing what wildlife exists in Lambeth, and making sure it is encouraged to stay there (I did want to ask him whether he could help with the foxes creating unwanted havoc in the garden here, but didn't get a chance).  He explained about bats.  Bats, of course, are the only truly flying mammal, with their hands adapted to make wings.  But they are really mammals - warm-blooded, and give birth to live young, which they suckle.  There are many species of bats in this country, but the ones they'd expected to see most often in Windmill Gardens are pipistrelles.  All British bats are insectivores, and they hibernate in winter.  September is a brilliant time to see them, since they are active at sunset and sunrise, rather than in the depths of the night.  Each bat eats about 1,000 insects a night, so a healthy bat population means a healthy insect population.

Dr Boulton then handed out bat detectors, and explained how to use them.  You pointed them at trees rather than into the sky or towards the ground.   All this time, the sun was setting, and although at first we pointed our detectors in vain, after about 5 minutes they burst into a cacophony of clicks and, when you knew where to look, you could follow the bats swooping round the park, between the trees.  As the evening wore on, they came more and more out into the open - I could swear one passed within inches of my face.  I've seen bats before, of course - they come over the lake in Sussex, and I've seen them around Villard-de-Lans - but in inner London?  I really hadn't expected we'd see so many, and of course it's not possible to tell whether these were the same  bats doing the rounds or several different ones, but there must have been a minimum of four or five. 

We are now wondering whether we can borrow a detector to see if there are any in the church gardens - bet there are! 

I didn't take any photos - the light was too poor, and anyway, the bats moved too fast - so here's a photo of the Oaks Bottom in Sussex, where we had tea yesterday.  Bet they have lots of bats there.....

Early Autumn Holiday, 16 September 2019

Brixton,

I hadn't really intended to post today, but we had a New Experience on our way home.  We were not able to get on an earlier shuttle, despite checking in early, so the customs people decided to inspect us.  I think it was a new machine, as we had heard it beeping all the previous evening.  You have to drive it into a sort of cattle-crush type thing, and then you get out and wait the other side, while the car or van or whatever is pulled forward and, presumably, x-rayed or CAT scanned or something, beeping loudly all the time.  Not a pleasant noise, especially as I can't put my fingers in my ears while wearing hearing aids! 

Apart from that, the M20 is basically 50 MPH the whole way northbound, largely due to 20 miles with 2 lanes cordoned off for Operation Brock, when they expect lorries to be delayed for days after Brexit.  Not sure whether they close the whole southbound section and send the traffic on the contraflow, or whether it's the lorries who go in the cordoned-off section.  Time will tell.

We got home about 13:15 UK time, very hungry, and then it was unpacking and so on until the next time!

(Photos of the Rhine, first at Cologne, second at Konigswinter).

Early autumn holiday, 15 September 2019

Cité de l'Europe

We didn't set off until noon, as the Swan Whisperer wanted a good walk (despite having had a run before breakfast) before the long drive. I didn't join him, as I'm too slow and it wouldn't have been a long walk, plus my knitting needed more attention than I could really give it in a moving vehicle.

The first hour, until we got to the motorway, was great fun - we passed a fire station having its Open Day, and loads of motorbikes passed us going in the opposite direction, then loads of sports cars, many from Belgium or the Netherlands. We passed a pub whose garden was so full of motorbikes that there was barely room for their riders.

And then we got to the motorway and after that it was pretty dreary. We stopped twice, once for lunch and once for a leg-stretch; we listened to podcasts and I dozed a bit and knitted a bit. And we finally got here about six, hot, tired and thirsty! Water first, then beer...

I finished the wrap

I've been working on all holiday and we ate fish, mashed potatoes and peas followed by yoghurt and compôte. And so to bed. Home tomorrow. 

Early autumn holiday, 14 September 2019

Nideggen, NRW

Of course, just as we set our faces homeward, the weather improves! Today had mostly been hot, hot, hot, such a contrast to two days ago. 

We were still in Wuppertal this morning, so we were able to use the services and left with the grey and the loo empty and the water tank not quite full (no point in taking more than you are going to use), always a good feeling even when homeward bound. 

We stopped off at a Rewe/Lidl/DM complex for the SW to have coffee and, more importantly, for me to do A Last Shop in Germany.

We decided, because we had the whole day, to go slightly out of our way to Königswinter and cross the Rhine by the ferry there, which we duly did,

stopping at a motorway services en route to have much in the shade of a couple of lorries. We had rather an argument with the Satnav, which didn't believe we could cross there, and then wanted us to go practically back to Köln before heading south!

We could, of course, have stopped at Düren in, wave in fact we went past the end of the road where the aire is, but the SW saw this place and thought it might be nice. There were an awful lot of hairpin bend to get there, though.

The sight is called "Schöner Aussicht (beautiful view), and we thought at first it was an offence against the Trades Description Act, as all you can see is trees, but the actual viewpoint is not far away and is, indeed, lovely.

The poor SW thought he was going to be parking by the lake, not 200 feet above it, but he went down to the dam and back up again. I contented myself with a much shorter walk!

More pictures on Facebook. 

Early autumn holiday, 13 September 2019

Wuppertal, NRW.

The Swan Whisperer wanted to go for a run this morning, but as it was nearly 08:00 when he finally headed out the door, he only had a short one. I, meanwhile, washed, dressed, tidied up and got breakfast, and then we headed out.

We were on our way to the Neanderthal museum in nearby Mettman, which was about an hour away by public transport (bus, S-Bahn and bus). The bus dropped us just outside the museum and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours looking round, learning not only about the Neanderthals and their culture (not that they know much about the latter) but also about human evolution in general, and the evolution of culture, science, etc. Good stuff!

We finished our museum visit with a light lunch in the café, and then headed back to Wuppertal to have a ride on the Schwebebahn

We have been here before, but there have been improvements and renovations since we were last there. All the fleet is the same model

and I think the ride is smoother. It was closed for much of the past year, following an accident, but they took the opportunity for some serious renovation.

We got off at the far end and walked (via a wool shop where I got some cotton for Christmas face - flannels and resisted some seriously reduced stuff. Almost rude not to, but I have such a queue of projects....). 

Anyway, we then walked back to the previous station via an Aldi as the SW needed milk, and then got back on the Schwebebahn to the terminus at this end of the line. We had just missed a bus so had a very greedy (and rather too sweet) ice cream

before catching the next one back to the aire. 

Early autumn holiday, 12 September 2019

Wuppertal. 

It was a much warmer night last night. For - er - digestive reasons - I had  to open the window in the middle of the night and it was really very pleasant.  Today has been much milder, too. 

The Swan Whisperer decided not to go for a run this morning because he had got so lost last night. We were not away very early, as we had to use services and so on, but once that was done we headed to Altena via the nearest shopping centre.

Altena was lovely, an industrial town on the Lenne river. It has a huge castle above the town

which you reach by means of a lift at the end of a tunnel with an exhibition in it. I don't do tunnels, and the SW, who doesn't mind them, said the exhibition was wasted on him, anyway. He did go up in the lift, but I gather it was just a lift not a funicular or anything fun like that, so I didn't bother, but after lunch we went for a walk along the street that takes you to it, which surprised us by all the shops being shut for lunch, as if it were France (just as well, in the case of the wool shop which looked lovely!). I think there had been a street market earlier but this had now finished for the day.

We walked back along the river, admiring the hanging baskets sponsored by local businesses and families,

and then it was time to move on to Wuppertal.

It was the first time for several days that we had used the motorway. I must remember to take my hearing aids out when we do this as otherwise it is very noisy and echoes through your head in a very tiring way.

We arrived in Wuppertal, to the aire we stayed in last time we were here, in nice time to have a cup of tea and have spent the rest of the time planning what we are doing tomorrow.  We  know what we're going to do but it's a question of logistics. We are going to spend two nights here and then start heading home on Saturday. 

Early autumn holiday, 11 September 2019

Balve, NRW, Germany

Didn't stir until 08:45 this morning, which meant it was quite late when we set off. Our first port of call was the town of Arnsberg, where we had originally been going to spend tomorrow night, but as it was, we only stopped for a quick shop.

Then we drive to the Sorpe dam

- the third and last of the Dam-busters little efforts, and one that did not work as it was an earthen dam, so all they succeeded in doing was to take a bite out of it.

Then we had a lovely drive, first along the lake

and then cross-country, to the town of Balve, where first we stopped by a swimming-pool to have lunch and a nap, and then we drove up here, which is just out of town but in a hotel car park where you don't have to pay if you eat in the restaurant. So we did - this time of year it's all mushrooms, so I had those with dumplings, and the SW had pork schnitzel. One item on the menu I had to use Google translate for, as it was Kaninchen, which turned out to be rabbit (I could only think puppies!), but they didn't have any. 

The SW had been out for a walk between our arrival and dinner, but I don't think it was very nice as it was raining and he got a bit lost.

I am totally confused about where we are supposed to be, as the SW keeps changing his mind, so the "laminated sheet" we usually use to tell us where we are going next is worse than useless!