A visit north of the Thames!

I've just spent a great couple of days up on the northern side of the Dartford Crossing! (For those of you not living in the UK, it's a tunnel (for vehicles) going North and a high bridge when travelling south which get you across the River Thames! Basically I was in Essex and other counties with two friends.

Pete took Diane and I out and about around some spots well known to him. I'm only posting the Friday's activities in this post and the remaining post will follow over the next couple of days.

So we headed off to Lyndford Arboretum. The route took us via Walkers roadside cafe where we stopped for the usual bacon/sausage/egg rolls and a cuppa for a welcome breakfast. We headed off and I drove at 30 mph through the dreaded speed camera which had obligingly taken a photo of my car on a previous occasion. We were hoping for Crossbills and Hawfinches but dipped on the first. Seven Hawfinches occupied the top of a very distant tree and it was thanks to Pete's knowledge of their likely location and the view through his scope that I had a view of them. The weather was dull, cold, wet and windy and birds far to far away for pictures!

From there we headed off to Anglesey Abbey - somewhere I wanted to visit for some while now. The attraction was the huge quantities of snowdrops but I was thrilled with the amount of colour in the plants - some clever winter planting!

We were eating out later that day, so we had a light lunch (well a cream tea is light :D ) which was excellent.

This really is a wonderful garden and well worth another visit.

Back to Pete's to change and head out for our dinner! This we had at the Starr Restaurant which I can highly recommend. Thanks Pete.

Diane had goats cheese whilst scallops were enjoyed by Pete and I. My main course was sea bass, Diane had venison and Pete, rabbit. An amazing cheese board was on offer which we all had. And I wasn't driving which was great :D so