Boy And His Bird

Some of you may remember reading a book, or seeing a film called Kes. It was about a small boy that was bullied at home and in school, so his only friend was a young kestrel he captured and trained.

This photo that I took today at an open day at a local allotments. Besides showing off their allotments, they also had invited a group called Falconry Experience, with some of their birds including this rather splendid barn owl.

Quite a few people were keen to make friends with the owl, as it flew back and forth between different people, who were all wearing a gauntlet on their hand. The guys who brought the birds along kept giving them titbits as a reward for performing so well.

Clog Dancing Can Help You Fly

Beeston's heritage has been on display today in many forms; vehicles, talks, photographs and clog & morris dancing.

The sun has shined for most of the day and so it helped to make it a nice time for everyone who visited the events.

We're Walking In The Air

An unbelievable thirty years ago, Channel Four first screened a cartoon based around the story of a snowman that comes to life and takes a little boy to see Father Christmas. Written by Raymond Briggs, it has been shown on TV every Christmas since then.

This year a new story debuted on Channel Four. It was a similar story, but this time the little boy makes a dog out of snow as a friend for the snowman that he has built. The boy had a dog himself but it died earlier in the year. He sends a letter to Santa asking for a new dog for Christmas.

It was a lovely story and used the same line drawing animation as the previous tale. No CGI, just old style animation. It's worth watching and hopefully will be on again next Christmas.

I noticed that my local branch of the Nationwide building society had a poster in their window of a scene from the film, so I just had to take a photo.

High Flyers

As it was my teams' Christmas dinner tonight, I took the bus into town, instead of cycling in, as I usually do.

While I was walking up by the castle, I heard the squark of a lot of birds. Looking up, I saw a big trail of Canada geese flying overhead.

I thought the birds had flown south ages ago, but they must be just as confused about the weather and the seasons as we are. Maybe now that they have gone, they know that really bad weather is on its way. It was very foggy coming home tonight, and temperatures are expected to drop to minus five tonight. So perhaps the birds know what it is going to be like during the next few days.

Preparing For Take Off

It's getting towards autumn and the mornings are a little colder now. These geese at Highfields are preparing themselves for the long flight south. I'm not sure what they are eating. I don't think it's grass. But I wouldn't have thought there's that many worms around. We should start to see the well known "V" shapes in the sky shortly, as they all fly to warmer climes.
I'd like to fly south for the winter too. Sydney would be my choice. And we could meet up with Sally and sip a glass of wine next to the harbour bridge.

Airbourne Dummy

Here's what a pilot has to wear when they take to the air, and whizz round the skies at 600mph. Personally I prefer to go a bit slower and enjoy watching a film and sip a drink as I'm flying through the air, on the way to some foreign destination.