Bedford 3

Down by the river - River Ouse that is.
Lovely day.
Why is Bedford looked after so much better than other local towns?
Maybe this is Bedfordshire, and we are Hertfordshire?
Before the concert we had a superb meal at Eat Fish on the embankment.

Bedford 2

The BBC used to broadcast the Christian Message from here during the war.














Carving on the underside of the choir seats.
Choir members can perch on the tilted seat and still appear standing.

Bedford 1

We recently went to Bedford to go to a concert in the Corn Exchange, by the Philharmonia Orchestra.
As I didn't think I'd been there before(!), and SWMBO hadn't been for quite a while, we made a day of it.
Firstly we went to St.Paul's Church in the centre as a previous Redbourn vicar was now the canon there.

Port of Berkhamsted - Part 2

The famous totem pole in the Port of Berkhamsted.















Don't forget the Crystal Palace - actually they do very good Chinese food there and we had a very good takeaway from there last year.














Another sad photo of the former Bridgewater Boats hire base.

Port of Berkhamsted

Next along the towpath is "The Boat" (no, we didn't go in).
Note the Port of Berkhamsted sign on the bridge.














NB Berkhamsted














One of the excellent information boards.














Opposite used to be the very busy Bridgewater Boats hire base.

Berkhamsted

The lock above this one had just been emptied, hence the deluge of water pouring over the bottom gates - it's quite a short pound between these locks, and the water level was very high anyway.














This is NB Apsley.














And this is The Rising Sun where we had never been - so we had to put that to rights. Very nice old traditional pub, serving excellent beer as well!

Going back a bit - Winkwell

On Bank Holiday Monday (I said we were going back a bit) some fool (OK me) decided that around lunchtime might be a quiet time to visit B&Q. Well, we had to queue to get in the car park, queue to get round the car park and queue to get back out again. Not a good idea. The Hemel B&Q is in a very awkward place and once you are in the queue that's it really. We came away without setting foot in the place.
So, we went to The Three Horseshoes in Winkwell for a shandy and then walked along the canal to Berkhamsted

Couple of birds

One of the Redbourn Red Kites who seems to fly very low over the house around 5:30pm each day - no really!















Busy Robin feeding its young. Fuzzy picture as it's taken through the window.

A rest from the planters - for now...

Hyacinths














And...Lowacinths

New career ahead?

All nicely lined now with weed-suppressing membrane - not to keep the weeds out, but to stop the soil being washed through the slats.
I feel a new career coming on with the local funeral director, making coffins for tall thin Goths.

Quality control check

Who had to be first to investigate the new planters?
Poppy, of course!