For my birthday we went for a walk round the assorted attractions/historic monuments of Runnymede. We visited the Air Force Memorial first (after accidentally interrupting doggers in the car park). The memorial is a beautiful work of architecture and incredibly peaceful and moving. We managed to not destroy the peace. Didn’t manage to see the other monuments as got a little caught up with the logistics of the day and failed to get a cream tea as the cafe was packed. Had a look round the gallery opposite the tea rooms which I absolutely love.

Big thanks to those that came along.

Some pics of the Air Forces Memorial.

Full set of the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial.

Having another massive camera clearout. Here’s the first set.

Sometime last year we went on a big hike around Bledlow Ridge with Emily and Katie, while walking we kept hearing weird loud noises which we couldn’t place, eventually worked out it was a steam train on the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway. Emily found an ad for a Nature journey so we planned a picnic and a trip along with Max, Fi and Caden. Unfortunately Emily and Katie couldn’t make it in the end.

Slightly disappointed to find out it was a diesel train rather than a steam train when we showed up (none of us had actually read the advert properly) but it was good fun. It was very different to our expectations, we had expected a planned tour with items of specific interest pointed out, what actually happened was the train moved very slowly for an hour or so and we were all told to yell if we saw anything exciting. We saw a deer and a shedload of red kites. Good fun really. Bit of a walk down the road to find somewhere for our picnic then we went home.

Full set of Chinnor & Princes Risborough picnic day here.

Our train

Got back into the bad habit of leaving weeks worth of photos on the camera, also not really had much of a chance to take too many photos recently. Work has been a shit. Processed a load today, some more to come when I next get a chance.

Went for probably the last proper expedition of the year with Scott a few weeks back. Torn between doing a tour of London or Salisbury Plain we decided it was far too hot to go into the city so escaped to the plain again. Tried out a couple of places we hadn’t been before, including the best pub-restaurant I’ve ever been to – The Boot Inn in Berwick St. James, the food, the service and the setting were all pretty much perfect. Didn’t take many photos on the firing ranges as covered them in enough detail in the past.

Crofton Beam Engines

One of those places we had seen tourist signs for ever since we’ve been visiting the plain. Stopped to have a look for the first time. Pretty interesting piece of engineering, as far as I can ascertain it’s a big steam powered engine in a building that was used to push loads of water uphill. I could be wrong, I did take a brochure/guide but it’s somewhere in my mess of an office. Lots of shiny machinery mixed with a picturesque landscape. Full set of Crofton Beam Engine photos here…

Scott interfering with the machinery

Berwick St. James

Pretty awesome little village. Could happily live there. Asked the nice lady who runs the Boot if she ever misses the noise of city/town life (she used to live near me), she looked at me like I was mental. We explored the church a bit then moved on.

The Boot Inn

St. Alban the Martyr

Another location we’ve driven past many times but never been inside. St. Alban the Martyr is a military chuch in Larkhill. Nice lady showed us around and pointed at items of specific interest, slightly awkward moment when she asked if we were military and what our interest in churches was (no & they look nice). Very impressive inside with some great windows. Full set of St. Alban the Martyr photos.

And finally…

Look at the size of this fish we spotted off a bridge in Marlow. Any idea what it is?