Rutland Revisit

The Rutland Birdfair is over for another year. It was as good as ever, better even than last year. Unlike the journey from Sussex to Uppingham. There is no other choice than to follow the route M23 on to M25. There are then choices: M40, M1 or A1M. But the M25 is a nightmare. Slow moving or stationary four lanes of traffic. In places overhead gantry signs instruct to use the hard-shoulder as well, increasing the queue to five lanes...

The journey of little more than 150 miles took five hours. Google's estimation was 2 hours 45 minutes! It was a joy to leave the motorway system and drive country roads through Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and finally Rutland. On arriving at The Crown Inn we dumped our luggage and patronised the bar, consuming pints of Everard's award winning Tiger ale. 

The evening was pleasantly mild so we wandered off to the market square and managed to get a table at the brasserie Don Paddy's where the ale was good and the food was excellent. The cask marque awarded Timothy Taylor's Landlord ale is a terrific pint. A great atmosphere here with friendly staff serving really excellent food.

Wandering around the Birdfair is always enjoyable, often bumping into old friends and wildlife celebrities like Simon King, who had his own marquee:

Essential visits included the optics marquee, the art marquee, the clothing stands of Rohan and Country Innovation and the Shetland stand where I bagged a load of information on these sceptred isles, which I plan to visit before I conk out.

It was another enjoyable weekend and I hope to visit next year again for my 5th visit. Will definitely go by train though as we faced the same horrendous traffic on our return journey...

Rutland's Hidden Gem

Uppingham is one of England's hidden gems - a delightful, historic market town with an attractive mix of honey-coloured stone buildings that represent a long architectural history. The Times recently named Uppingham as a really appealing small market town, well placed in Britain's smallest county. It is a friendly and welcoming place to visit and I have just completed my third visit to this delightful place.

typical architecture in Uppingham High Street, opposite my room at The Crown Inn

Rutland is the smallest county in mainland England, occupying 151.1 square miles of the East Midlands and extending only eighteen miles from north to south and seventeen miles from east to west and Rutland Water is the ornithological gem in the county's crown, with a shoreline in excess of 40 kilometres (24 miles).

One of the joys of Uppingham for me is the wonderful selection of individually owned shops, including several second hand book shops, crafts and gifts, old fashioned sweets, pre-loved clothes, jewellery, handmade shoes, two first class butchers and a superb traditional baker, Baines with its adjoining tea shop, a step back in time and a sheer delight. I enjoyed toasted teacakes with butter and strawberry jam and a pot of real leaf tea, whilst listening to music from the 40s and being fussed over by an attentive waitress.

Baines Bakers and Tea Shop

The Falcon Hotel is located on Uppingham's historic Market Place that dates back to the 13th century. From c1750 the Falcon was the coaching inn for the town. The main arched doorway into the hotel is the original coach entrance.

The Falcon Hotel, Uppingham

Uppingham  is famous for its public school founded in 1584. It spreads its impressive buildings throughout the town.

Uppingham School main building

My favourite spot in Uppingham is The Crown Inn in the High Street, Rutland CAMRA Pub of the Year 2011 and runner up in 2013. I always stay here to enjoy Alan's hospitality, Phillipe's cooking, the friendly locals and the Everard award winning ales. The accommodation is comfortable and spotlessly clean.

View from my room at The Crown Inn

There is much to see and enjoy in the Rutland area (known as the 'second Cotswolds') not forgetting the Ospreys that return in the summer months to Rutland Water. There are nature reserves, an RSPB bird centre at Egleton and plenty of good walks.

Time moves slowly here...

The Journey North

On Thursday 15th August I set off on my journey to Rutland with my best mate Graeme, to spend a long weekend in Rutland and a visit to the 25th annual Birdfair held at the Egleton Nature Reserve on Rutland water. Our journey started at Brighton station on a First Capital Connect service to St Pancras International. St Pancras is known for its Victorian architecture and is a marvel of engineering and construction, remarkable when you consider that it was opened in 1868. When it opened, the arched Barlow train shed was the largest single-span roof in the world.

St Pancras escaped planned demolition in the 1960s (thank goodness) and the complex was renovated and expanded during the 2000s at a cost of £800 million. This now includes a security-sealed terminal area for Eurostar services and domestic services operated by East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect and Southeastern High Speed. The travel writer Simon Calder  has described the redeveloped terminus as "the world's most wonderful railway station", a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.

For our onward journey we joined an East Midlands train service to Sheffield and alighted at the first stop - Leicester - where we transferred to a Cross Country train service to Oakham via Melton Mowbray.

A local bus took us to our final destination of the Crown Hotel in Uppingham where we thought it would be rude not to have a pint of Everard's Tiger ale before checking into our rooms.....

More to follow about Rutland and the Birdfair.

Somewhere in Rutland....

As I suspected when I left home on Thursday, the wi-fi signal here in Uppingham is either weak or non-existent. A pity, as I have been unable to post about my visit to the 25th Birdfair or indeed the delights of Rutland. I shall get up to date when I return home to Brighton. No point in trying to load some photos here.

Back soon....

The Woodpigeon

We have regular daily visits to the garden feeders by Woodpigeons Columba palumbus and these birds have become remarkably adept at accessing the smaller, hanging seed feeders. Of late, the parent birds have been joined by two juveniles who tend to feed on one of the platform feeders.

This photo of two juveniles, taken earlier today, is not particularly sharp - taken on a Nikon Coolpix P510 at full zoom, through the kitchen window and hand held at 1/60th! The juvenile lacks the white neck patches of the adult bird although they do already have the diagnostic white wing flashes. These two youngsters clapped their wings noisily as they took off in tandem.

I am now getting everything packed for my journey tomorrow to Rutland to visit the Birdfair 2013. I will be travelling by train: 1st leg on First Capital Connect from Brighton to St. Pancras International, then a change to East Midland trains to Leicester and the final leg on Cross Country trains to Oakham. The plan is then to take a bus for the 12 mile journey to Uppingham and the Crown Inn.

Meanwhile another photo of Bertie:

And some attractive flowers in my garden. Anyone know what they are?

I hope to post from Rutland if I can find a sufficiently strong Wi-fi signal.....

Celebrating 25 Years of Birdfair

The August edition of British Birds arrived yesterday, in the post, with a nice surprise. The 80 page Official Programme for Birdfair 2013 had been included. I usually purchase a copy when I visit the event and it is particularly useful to have a copy well in advance to be able to plan my visit.

This international wildlife event is celebrating 25 years 1989 - 2013 and this will be my third consecutive year of attending. The Fair runs from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th August and is held at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve. More information here www.birdfair.org.uk

For the third year I will be staying here: http://www.thecrownrutland.co.uk a fabulous pub with accommodation, quality real ales, a comprehensive selection of single malts, proper English food and a great atmosphere. The pub is located in Uppingham, a delightful market town in Rutland.