Thursday, October 14, 2010

October 14, 2010 - What we have been up to.

Hi Ya All,

A typical scouser  greeting as I am sure some of you know.  With the arrival of October I decided that we had to get out and do more.  I was getting bored after having such a great trip in September and afraid we were getting into a rut of playing computer games, watching TV and generally being lazy.  So on good weather days we are getting out to walk and visit local sites.                                                        

Our first trip was to Formby, where there is a National Trust forest and beach by the Irish Sea, about a hours drive away.  The tide was out as you can see from the picture on the right and we had a good walk along the beach. You can walk on up to 21 miles of trails here or as little as a 1/3 of a mile.  We walked about a mile in total covering the beach, dunes and a small forest trail.  The forest in Formby is an important refuge of the Red Squirrel which is an endangered species in the UK.



Our next little trip was to Rufford Old Hall about a hours drive from home and it is another National Trust site.  This is a 16th century Tudor building were it is believed a young William Shakespeare performed with his company for the owner Thomas Hesketh.  We had lunch here before touring the buildings and grounds.  While at lunch a bus load of wrinklies arrived.  In the Great Hall we were informed that the estate is basically a farm.  The screen  as seen in the picture is made of Iron wood and is supposedly movable.  Fred and I were standing in front of it and were asked to push it back by the commentator.  Needless to say it was an impossible task as it weighs well over a ton but it did give all the old folk a good laugh.  The home and land has been in the Hesketh family right up to 1936 when the family could not sell it so they handed it over to the National Trust.  It is called Rufford Old Hall as the family built a new hall a little further down the road.

Our next walk was right along our own promenade.  Indian Summer had finally arrived  and we were continuing to enjoy the great weather.  The breeze off the river was good and we saw cows flying. LOL
Actually there were a number of kites out ranging from bees, horses and just ordinary large ones.

For our next walk we took a 20 minute drive to Crosby and visited Antony Gormley's Another Place.  The Crosby Promenade has been transformed into an art gallery of sorts.  Iron Men formed in the likeness of the artist  Antony Gormley have been embedded in the sand along  a 3 kilometer stretch of the beach and out into the bay.  The tide was out so I was able to walk along the sand and get up close and personal to one of the men.  As you can see he is for the most part anatomically correct . We enjoyed a nice ice-cream cone with a flake while walking the promenade and get in 6 kms with this walk.


Our last outing on October 13th was further afield.  We headed off to Wales and Holyhead on Anglesey for a full day outing.  We had lunch in Holyhead, but it is basically a little port town (car ferries to Ireland).  We traveled back along the coast of Anglesey, but unfortunately, we missed some of the more scenic sites according to Fred's cousin Mark who just loves this area.  We will have to return to this area but in warmer weather to see if it is as good as Mark suggests.     
We have also been to a couple of concerts.  Well one already The John Lennon Songbook a celebration of Johns life on the anniversary of his 70th Birthday on the 9th.  The man portraying John had a uncanny resemblance to him  and the Philharmonic Orchestra was amazing.  This Saturday we return again to the Philharmonic Hall for the Japanese Kodo Drummers.                                     

Well that updates us for now.  If you have access to my Facebook page there are additional pictures posted there.

Ta Ra,

Sandy & Fred