Another search for bluebells

 Last time we didn't have much luck looking for bluebells, it was very early in the year and it has been very cold for the time of year.  However, on Friday 9th April Freddy went for another look.

He started by going to the wooded paths behind the Lakeside Hotel.

He passed fields ...

and even an ancient ice house.

When he came across this sign he chose to sit on rather than read it and take the warning.

However, he did manage to cross the railway lines safely.

The first flowers he came across were white and yellow.

Well a few bluebells, not exactly the forest floor covered in them, as it will be, but he found some.

He found a stall selling eggs by a farm gate.  Baboons always love finding things for sale outside farms and houses.

These cows must have been scared of baboons, they ran away and you can only just see them in the distance.  They didn't realize that Freddy was more scared of them.

On the way back Freddy noticed this gate.  It shows that in 2011 it was the 40th anniversary of the steam railway. That means it will be 50 years this year.  Freddy is hoping for some exciting celebrations.

Spring flowers

We haven't blogged for quite a long time, that work thing and not being able to go anywhere has made blogging difficult.  However, Friday was Good Friday and a no work day, so we went for a walk and Ernest Baboon hunted down Spring flowers to be photographed with.

It didn't take long before we came across a lovely bank of primroses, which are really in season at this time of year.

It didn't take long again before we came across another seasonal flower, daffodils.

Ernest was very excited to come across these scooters, they are found around the town as a means of getting around, you can leave then at your destination and they will be used by somebody else.  Ernest had to give them a try.

That was fun, but we were on a walk so we carried on.

Near Holy Cross church in the village of Binstead, Ernest had to jump onto a hedge to get out of the way of the lorry that was emptying the dust bins.  He found this lovely tree covered in white blossom.

Outside the Fishbourne Inn in the village of Fishbourne, where the car ferry comes in, we found some late snowdrops, that was lucky as it is quite late for them. What was not so lucky was that, because of the lockdown, the Inn was not open.

On the way back Ernest found some pink blossom and he decided that this tree was a good one for some climbing and swinging.

It is a little bit early for bluebells, but Ernest did find a few early ones, that was lucky because last Tuesday we had walked in the bluebell wood and not found a single one.  We will be looking for more later when the come more into season.

Rocky, Rafiki, Roco, Gilberto and Richardson (left to right), were happy to find the Easter chocolates.

Spring flowers

We felt it was time to go out and look for some Spring flowers, so on Good Friday we walked down to Fishbourne.  Aboo is an energetic baboon so we thought it was be good for him to burn off some of the energy he has been building up during the lockdown.

He started with swinging over the last remaining snowdrops and being careful not to get stuck to the sticky buds, on the way.

When we got the 13th century church of Holy Cross at Binstead he wanted a rest in a tree.

Then he saw the blossoms and climbed up, to have a closer look.

He also saw primroses under the tree.

Walking on through the part of Binstead that is on the footpath we came to more flowers.

Lots more primroses and both yellow and pink and some narcissus.

On the other side of the road we found bluebells.

There were also these lovely white flowers.

At Quarr Abbey he found this apple blossom on a lot of young trees.  See the abbey in the background, the monks will have been praying there, but no congregation this year because of the lockdown.

At Fishbourne we knew the Fishbourne Inn would be closed, not only because of the lockdown, but also because it was 8.30 am!  Usually we would stop for coffee there.

At the port Aboo climbed one of his favourite trees.

Then had a swing!!

It was a bit misty out to sea and we don't see much shipping at the moment, but he caught site of this ship that is a regular visitor to Southampton, transporting cars.

He thought this boat looked fun.  It might not be in a very good state of repair for taking out to sea though!

Time to be photographed with one more lot of flowers, before heading back.  He did avoid the stinging nettles!!

Thank you for reading our blog.  I hope we will all be out and about more soon, and going a bit further than walking distance from home.

Lots of love and a happy Easter from Kolo and Aboo.

Amazon Adventure

There was one more adventure on our holiday.  Harry and Mini-Paddington went on an Amazon adventure.  The funny thing was that they didn't have to leave the island to do it.  Some of our Twitter pals did the same adventure a few years ago when they came to the island.

There are lots of fantastic animals there but we couldn't get many pictures as many of them are nocturnal and so it was dark.  Some others run around too much to catch them, but we got some important pictures anyway.

Paddington came from Darkest Peru so he was very at home in the jungle environment.  Even though it was hot and damp he did not see any reason to take his coat and hat off.  Here he is looking at some birds.

Harry found the large tortoises and some of the birds fascinating.

He particularly loved these fluffy chicks.

These tortoises were incubating, as they were quite young.  Their mother was making sure they were safe from roaming baboons and bears!!

Paddington really wishes @thepalmoil2 had been there to see this.  They have become very keen on the campaign for sustainable palm oil, as they have come to see it as the best way of protecting the interests of orangutans. He had this picture taken specially for them.  He had to hang on tight as there was no real place for him to sit.

There were other conservation exhibits, involving the Rain Forest Alliance.  Paddington was relieved to see chocolate bars could be OK!!

There were lovely armadillos, but they ran about so much you couldn't catch them in a photo.  Harry thought they didn't want to be recognized.  There was also a sloth with a baby, but it was very dark in their enclose and we couldn't get a picture.

The boys didn't want to spend a lot of time with the snakes and spiders.  Baboons and bears like Paddington are not keen on those creatures, they find them scary!!

It was a very interesting adventure and we saw lots of animals, it is a pity we could not get better pictures, but it is important to keep them in their natural habitat, even if that does mean we cannot photograph them.

The conservation message was important to us and we must make sure we back @thepalmoil2 in their campaign.

Thank you for reading.

A trip to Wareham

During our holiday from work we had another little trip, this time we did not go very far, we visited Wareham, in Dorset, on the mainland.  We wanted to go there because we had stopped there for lunch, on the way to somewhere else, last year, and felt there was more to see there.

Ernest Baboon has never led a trip before, so this was his first time.

We arrived in Wareham too early to book into our hotel, so we went for a walk.  Ernest consulted an information post to see where we were going.

We walked along the river and Ernest was fascinated by the big reeds, you couldn't see the water because the reeds were so tall.

Ernest was fascinated by this steamer.

After a long walk and some lunch we booked into our hotel.

The Priory Hotel, Wareham is a very old building, that used to be a monastery.  However, it was very comfortable.

I don't think the monks lived like this!!

Ernest checked out the views from the two windows in the room.  He hardly needed to go out to see the countryside.

Baboons love fruit so Ernest was really happy to find a bowl of fruit in the room.

He was less certain about what this fruit, in the lounge was.  We did not identify them.

The other thing of interest, to Ernest was this expensive bottle of wine.  However, he did not drink it. There was lots more wine in the fridge, but he decided to leave it there.

The hotel has the most beautiful grounds, there were lots of areas to explore.  Ernest was surprised to find this pod in the grounds.  It was very comfortable and he thought it might be a good place for a nap!!

In the evening we went for fish and chips in a very good local pub, the Old Granary, highly recommended!! It was delicious.  They also did some very nice puddings, but that got eaten before it could be photographed!!

In the morning, after breakfast we decided to walk around the old town walls, before leaving.  We seem to have gone in the wrong direction, as we came across Point 5 first.

This was the site of the old Elizabethan bowling green.  We know that Elizabethans loved playing bowls (more like crown green bowls than 10 pin bowling).  After all we could have missed the Spanish Armada because Francis Drake was bowling in Plymouth.  However, this was also the site of the market place.

Next we came to this old church in the walls.  Ernest was particularly interested as it is St Martin's and we Baboon HQ baboons have the name of Martin.

OK we were going the right way, even if it was backwards, because this is Point 4.  This showed more history, including Henry VIII's involvement with Wareham, the death of Lawrence of Arabia near by and St Martin's church.

At this stage we got great views over the area.  Wareham used to be a port, but it has silted up and now it is pretty much an inland town, but you can see where the sea used to come up to the town.

Point 3 on the walls came next, as indeed it should, given that we were walking backwards along the route.  This told about archaeological findings in Wareham that showed that the Vikings had quite a lot of involvement with the town when it was a port.

This is where things went a bit wrong, as we came to Point 1 next.  This told of the original inhabitants of Wareham and about how the civil war affected Wareham, as well as a fire in the area.

We went back and found Point 2.  This told more about the Vikings and also about the horrible Judge Jeffries from the Dorchester Assizes, who order many people hanged in that area and worse.  He is quite famous in England as a vicious judge.

This was a really interesting short trip in a very interesting town, staying in a great hotel and eating fish and chips in a great pub.  However, we had to go home, so we drove back to Southampton to get our ferry home.  On the way we stopped, very briefly, at an interesting place that had some walks and natural history exhibitions.  Ernest like the varieties of heather they were growing.

He noticed that there were lots of climbing opportunities, so if only he could remember where it was and what it was called, it could be a baboon visit for the future.  We got home safely on the Red Funnel ferry from Southampton.

Thank you for reading.  We would recommend a short trip to Wareham for anyone who is in the area.  Dorset apple cake, fish and chips and an interesting town should be enough for anyone.