Kenilworth Jousting 25th June

It's that time of the year again, so we picked Maddy up from work and headed into Kenilworth for the Grand Medieval Joust. We knew where to park, where to get the bus from and what would be there when we arrived. The only thing that made the day slightly unpredictable was the British weather. As we wandered the site looking at the blacksmith and piles of armour waiting for their knights we reached the English Heritage gift tent when the heavens opened. It was a short sharp shower and everything was quickly back on track with an ice cream as we wandered across to watch the falconry display.

 

From there it was time for the highlight of my day at least as we made our way to the field at the back of the castle for the jousting. There were changes this year, no longer were we supporting knights from the North, South, East and West instead we had named competitors from as far afield as Russia and for the first time a woman! All was going well, the individual bouts were finished and it was time for the grand final when first the ground was declared unsafe and then the heavens opened again. Luckily the lady jouster, in red, had won her bouts and was declared champion for the day before we all sought shelter.

 

 
It was time to move on and Maddy's first big purchase with her own money. We were after a PS4 from Argos but much to her disappointment there were none available so she very bravely came home and bought it from another supplier. Perfect end to a very damp day.

Fathers Day Weekend

A busy weekend for Geoff. I took him for a walk around Lemington on Saturday through the parks, along the heritage trail and down the side of the canal, we even found time to divert around the shops!

 Geoff on a bridge.


On Sunday it was Wings and Wheels at Wellesbourne airfield. Old cars, vintage cars and the Vulcan taxied down the runway with a wheely (the nose lifted from the ground). A model Vulcan flew, it is quite a large model just 5 lbs short of the maximum weight, so I took a few snaps of that as well.

 

 modelreal one

A walk around Upton Hall 11-6-16

Despite a pulled  tendon Geoff manfully walked the 5.5 miles around the fields near Upton Hall a National Trust property. England's green and pleasant land around the site of the battle of Edgehill  . . .

 
  a pub!

 the gate to Upton Hall.
 

Half Term Sunday

There is a Cold War Jets Museum at Lutterworth near Leicester and on Sunday they were having taxi runs so we headed north to see what was going on. This time Geoff got to sit in a Sea Vixen and we explored the inside of an air bus.

 the noise of the jets was very impressive and we saw/heard Buccaneers and Lightenings amongst others and at one point a spitfire flew overhead.

  

 

May Half Term 2016

Busyish sort of week. We started off on the Saturday by driving down the M40 to London and RAF Hendon to sit in a spitfire from midday to 12:30 pm, after wandering around the museum. This was followed by lunch, a specially prepared picnic as getting gluten free, dairy free food in a restaurant is not easy unless you want salad.

                                               

We drove back via the M1 and Bletchly Park to see the Enigma machine and the code breakers. A really fascinating museum.