Ant flying day

Today is ant flying day though I suspect the ants do not adhere to specific dates, but it is one of those phenomena in the insect world.  It used to happen in the old house under the paving stones on the terrace and the other in our boiler cupboard.  This boiler was situated between the outer and inner front doors, so that the first thing to notice was the steady stream of ants down the wall, upon which the front door had to be opened sharply to let them out.  In the end I used to brush them up with a brush and pan and release them outside, marvelling at the flying ants.

Today also is my grandson's birthday he will be twelve today, and I shall miss the tea party in Whitby, the cake being brought in triumphantly at the end, it has to be chocolate of course.  The magpie is squawking outside distractingly, they have an ugly noise for such an intelligent bird, this is a young one that seems to haunt the garden for food.  He actually comes in for the food I put down for the little skinny cat, though of course other cats come as well for fish skins and the chicken bits.

Which brings me to food, The Cambrian Inn  in which we stayed has a pretty good menu, though they could do more vegetarian.  I don't consider myself a vegetarian, eat fish and chicken for a start! but mostly I will eat anything with lots of vegetables.  The management was new, and that is not to say that the old management was bad, but the young people running it are very good.  Breakfasts were enormous, and one favourite was french toast with honey and bacon, the eggs must have been beaten  with some honey in them and then the bread dunked, but you also had a little pot of honey to go with it alongside the bacon.

We did The 'Old Pharmacy' one night as well it being rather expensive, our friend had half a lobster, but no crab for my love who was looking forward to crab all week. I think you really have to be in love with lobster to go through all the teasing out and cracking of claws with various instruments to eat the creature, all I can remember of my meal was delicious dauphonise(spelling) potatoes, which I shall do one day, as also the spinach and ricotta stuffed cannellini at the Cambrian, just a hint of tomato sauce under the cheese sauce! 

Mysterious Wiltshire

Our one day round Avebury found us going to the Barge Inn, the home of crop circles, and UFOs probably, we had been to see what it was like for a meal and came away disappointed in the whole ambience of it.  For years it has been the meeting place for crop circle enthusiasts and as it lies near the canal, a whole load of way out hippies seem to live here on old barges, they are now sadly growing old with the passing of the years!  Well as you can see their barges line the canal and I took this expert barge dog leaping over two barges to the path. The inside of the pub is decorated with paintings of the Avebury stones and Silbury Hill, and the stone below dated 1990 at nearby Alton Barnes church is a reminder of the whole phenomena of crop circles.  Funnily enough there has not been so much crop circling this year, and the whole 'cult' seems to be at last disappearing....