Biting off more than can be chewed

The heavy rain has brought some interesting things onto the shore of the River Thames. F and I walked down the North Bank from London Bridge to Embankment and soon after we'd spotted the skeletal remains of a dog on the beach, we saw this lesser black-backed gull trying to swallow a dead rat, whole. He didn't manage, but there was a morbid fascination in watching it try.

We quickly turned back to our mission - a trip to Stanfords to buy maps for our Jura trip. We are thinking a plan B (i.e. not going to Jura) if a bad weather front hits the west coast, but in the meantime, we're quite excited about the map purchases. For me, one of the best things about holiday planning is going to Stanfords to buy the holiday map!

PS F thinks I shouldn't have blipped this...