Monday 26 September 2016

Here be Dragons


Back in August we stopped by Doddington Hall on our way to Lincoln with Ian, our Ex-Pat friend from Spain. There's a decent coffee shop and farm shop that sells good local produce.  There is also an incredible cycle shop (the biggest in Lincolnshire) which has its own coffee shop as well.   During the summer it also staged a sculpture exhibition.  The dragon stands outside the hall, and visitors are invited to hang strips of brightly coloured cloth on the sculpture.

Ian and the Dragon

Behind the hall is a small lake complete with arched bridge.


There was also a very elegant sculpture on the water.




Of course, if you have a decent sized body of water, then you'll also have ducks and the Doddington ducklings seemed to have learnt very quickly that humans can be a great source of food.







There are also several walks around the local area that you can follow. There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours.





Monday 12 September 2016

Yorkshire Coast


This post is the second from our trip to Bempton Cliffs near Bridlington.  Cliffhangers focused mainly on the cliffs and the birds that chose to raise their young there.

There are other points of interest in the locale, including the squat abandoned  structure that sits a short distance from the cliff edge.  From what information I can find (hat tip to Wargames and Walking) it used to be an RAF radar station during the war and also had an underground bunker.  The site was decomissioned in the 1980s and became derelict (in fact we saw cows wandering through the ruin).  As to what the monoliths purpose were is anyone's guess.





We were also afforded the site of a small cruise ship making its way along the coast.  It was one of those days when the sunny weather transformed the usually dull looking north sea into something more Mediterranean.

























From our vantage point at Bempton, I was able to take a shot of Filey a few miles north.



This Jackdaw caught my eye on the way back from the cliffs and I thought it would make a good subject with the waving grass. The distance and the movement of the bird and the background conspired to ruin a number of shots and alas these two were the best of the bunch.



























I'd never been to Bridlington before so we decided to stop off for an hour and have a look around,  It was a glorious day and very busy with tourists and fellow daytrippers which was surprising for a Monday before the schools broke up for summer.