It was our first weekend in Bristol (Friday and Saturday nights in our own bed) for a long time and so we enjoyed sleeping in and I enjoyed breakfast in bed both days (lucky me). After being away most of the week as well it felt good not to have to hurry down for breakfast and then off to another place to visit. Even so, after the lazy start and a bit of housework we took off for Berkeley Castle (which we found doesn't open on Saturday's so we went back Sunday) and to Slimbridge Wetland Centre. Both are close to each other and both took a lot longer to see than we expected. One of the most memorable bits of the weekend was the sky line - the changes in cloud formation and the occassional shower and warm sunshine that came intermittently with them. Even though there are birds and castles in most of the photos the sky is probably the most dramatic part of the photos. Slimbridge is the home for many birds (they can come and go as they please but given they are fed well - by children with little bags of pellets and by staff - I can't imagine why they would leave). Some of the birds are probably unwanted like the crows, but there are many that have either been extinct at some time in England and bought from other countries to try and repopulate the country. There are others that have no link to England but are probably there as protection against their native country having a disease that would wipe them out (eg why our little kea is in Bristol Zoo). The Crane is an example - apparently now nesting in the wild again - they only lay 2 eggs and year, and the first one is more dominant with the second unlikely to survive. So, World Wildlife staff go around and collects the second one and brings them to the centre to hatch. So, they don't become attached to humans, the birds are brought up by people dressed all in white carrying a stick with a Crane's head on it. They are fed by this head and the birds come to know and love this as Mum. As they get older, fox look a likes are introduced (eg dogs not people on all fours) and the human dressed up runs away squawking and flapping. The youngsters follow and learn that foxes aren't much fun and something to stay away from!! There were a number of flamingos - nearly white to bright orange in colour - and a variety of ducks. Seeing them all together made us realise the variety - some looked as though nature had splashed them with paint, while others had been dabbed and others meticulously painted in lines with a small paint brush. The other bird we will remember is the Bewick Swan. It is quite small (well smaller than the ones that try and steal our lunch from picnic areas) with a black and yellow beak. All the beaks have different patterns, they mate for life and are migratory. One such swan continued to return to Bewick for 23 years. When they are 14 weeks or so, they will follow their parents from the Arctic Winter and fly about 4000 kilometres to Slimbridge for the winter. We also found out that a fungi causes the clusters of twigs (witches broom it is called) that we have seen in many trees - since the trees lose their leaves it is quite noticeable. We drove back definitely knowing it was spring time having seen lambs, ducklings and spring bulbs. After all that wandering around we decided we would try our local cafe down the road for dinner (cooking on a Saturday night seems quite foreign to us considering we are away so much - could it be we are getting a bit lazy??).
Sunday dawned wet and then cleared up and so we took off for Berkeley Castle (it was Sunday so we knew it would be open!!). We arrived ready for lunch and it rained - what is it about picnics, us and rain?? We had a guided tour around the castle. It is still the home of the Berkeleys since it was built in the 1200's and is set on a hilltop overlooking the longest river in England - the Severn. What's more it is the oldest castle in England (Wales has older ones I think). We heard about its history since it was built which included the meeting of barons prior to the signing of Magna Carta; the murder of King Edward II in 1327 (we saw the room where the King had his last moments), a visit from Queen Elizabeth I (if you wanted to you could buy a silk scarf in the same pattern as the bedspread she slept under). During the Civil War one of the walls were knocked down. It can not be rebuilt as then it would be classed as a fortress and would be anti-royal (we were told that you would need an Act of Parliament to rebuild the wall). Anyway, Harry is pictured with the gap that led to the Berkeleys losing their castle for a few years. One of the Berkeleys fell in love with a butchers daughter. She refused to live with him as his mistress so he fooled her and arranged a marriage service that wasn't legal. After having 7 kids he finally decided to marry her (I think she found out) and had another 6 children. When he died the oldest son did not inherit the title as he was illegitimate - I think it went to number 8. Alongside the grounds is a butterfly house and having never been in one before we decided to see - quite small - but relaxing watching them flutter around. We then went to the museum. Dr Jenner - can't say I had heard of him before - possibly at a school lesson. Besides being the first person to fly a hot air balloon in England, the first to discover some type of dinosaur bones, the first to explain that birds migrate rather than hibernate like hedgehogs and the first to explain that cuckoos nest in other birds nests (the little cuckoo hatches, throws all the other eggs out of the nest -has a special bend in his back for rolling the other eggs up the side of the nest and over the side which disappears after about 12 weeks) he was also the first to invent vaccinations and one for small pox which eradicated the disease finally in the 1970's. What a variety of interests he must have had - never a dull moment if you knew him. One of the quotes in the museum was 'He was below the middle stature, his hair dark and a little inclined to curl, he was rather near sighted but he changed the world'. Dr Jenner was a country doctor trainined in London and then moved back to his home town Berkeley. There he married, continued his interests as a naturalist, geologist, doctor and medical scientist. A young girl in the town contracted 'cow pox' from Blossom the cow (the museum has a painting of Blossom standing in a field in 1749). As the pox looked similar to small pox but was not dangerous he took some of the pox from her and scratched it onto his gardeners 8 year old son (hhmm as a parent I thought - bit of a risk). After a slight fever and a few days he then scratched small pox pus into the young boys arm and waited and waited and waited for 19 days, before coming to the conclusion that he perhaps was immune and would actually live (I think that Mr Phipps, the gardener, would have been pleased). He then proceded to vaccinate the local village children for free. ... Now its back to work.
Sunday dawned wet and then cleared up and so we took off for Berkeley Castle (it was Sunday so we knew it would be open!!). We arrived ready for lunch and it rained - what is it about picnics, us and rain?? We had a guided tour around the castle. It is still the home of the Berkeleys since it was built in the 1200's and is set on a hilltop overlooking the longest river in England - the Severn. What's more it is the oldest castle in England (Wales has older ones I think). We heard about its history since it was built which included the meeting of barons prior to the signing of Magna Carta; the murder of King Edward II in 1327 (we saw the room where the King had his last moments), a visit from Queen Elizabeth I (if you wanted to you could buy a silk scarf in the same pattern as the bedspread she slept under). During the Civil War one of the walls were knocked down. It can not be rebuilt as then it would be classed as a fortress and would be anti-royal (we were told that you would need an Act of Parliament to rebuild the wall). Anyway, Harry is pictured with the gap that led to the Berkeleys losing their castle for a few years. One of the Berkeleys fell in love with a butchers daughter. She refused to live with him as his mistress so he fooled her and arranged a marriage service that wasn't legal. After having 7 kids he finally decided to marry her (I think she found out) and had another 6 children. When he died the oldest son did not inherit the title as he was illegitimate - I think it went to number 8. Alongside the grounds is a butterfly house and having never been in one before we decided to see - quite small - but relaxing watching them flutter around. We then went to the museum. Dr Jenner - can't say I had heard of him before - possibly at a school lesson. Besides being the first person to fly a hot air balloon in England, the first to discover some type of dinosaur bones, the first to explain that birds migrate rather than hibernate like hedgehogs and the first to explain that cuckoos nest in other birds nests (the little cuckoo hatches, throws all the other eggs out of the nest -has a special bend in his back for rolling the other eggs up the side of the nest and over the side which disappears after about 12 weeks) he was also the first to invent vaccinations and one for small pox which eradicated the disease finally in the 1970's. What a variety of interests he must have had - never a dull moment if you knew him. One of the quotes in the museum was 'He was below the middle stature, his hair dark and a little inclined to curl, he was rather near sighted but he changed the world'. Dr Jenner was a country doctor trainined in London and then moved back to his home town Berkeley. There he married, continued his interests as a naturalist, geologist, doctor and medical scientist. A young girl in the town contracted 'cow pox' from Blossom the cow (the museum has a painting of Blossom standing in a field in 1749). As the pox looked similar to small pox but was not dangerous he took some of the pox from her and scratched it onto his gardeners 8 year old son (hhmm as a parent I thought - bit of a risk). After a slight fever and a few days he then scratched small pox pus into the young boys arm and waited and waited and waited for 19 days, before coming to the conclusion that he perhaps was immune and would actually live (I think that Mr Phipps, the gardener, would have been pleased). He then proceded to vaccinate the local village children for free. ... Now its back to work.
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