The Watercress Festival (Sunday 17th May 2015)

Drove over to Hampshire to meet the Spotlight Kid for the Watercress Festival taking place in Alresford. The journey over there on back roads took me through beautiful countryside, but as soon as I reached Hampshire was marred by cyclists taking part in some mammoth event whose rules of the road seemed to involve pretending that other vehicles did not exist or should be lured onto oncoming traffic.

Also, the park and ride, on the heritage railway Watercress Line, was from Ropley station, which turned out not to be in Ropley but in Ropley Dean a couple of miles away, so I arrived late and flustered. I also had to borrow a memory card and then, after taking 30 pictures, the battery in my new superzoom suddenly gave out, leaving me without a camera.

Notwithstanding these hitches, the Watercress Festival was a big success and we arrived in Alresford behind Lord Nelson, pictured here at Ropley Station before we set off.

The roads were closed to traffic and full of stalls, not only food related but of all sorts. We were able to sample some first prize winning watercress and Cointreau fudge and I could have bought some pricey watercress gin but managed to resist.

The falconry displays had finished by the time we discovered their existence, but the birds were still on display and included a peri-saker hybrid falcon called Frank, two Harris hawks, a barn owl, a European eagle owl and a Bengalese eagle owl, a great horned owl called Punk and more, and we had a chat about each of them with the team of falconers (Falconhigh, based near Eastleigh at Brambridge Park Garden Centre).

The journey back was thankfully largely free of cyclists, and I stopped off at Great Bedwyn to stretch my legs in more tranquil surroundings, and took a few pictures with my iPad.

L.
27.5.2015 (1111hr)

Blip #1582 (#1832 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #003
Day #1880
LOTD #816 (#937 including archived blips)

Watercress Festival, Alresford, 17 May 2015 (Flickr album)

Great Bedwyn, 17 May 2015 (Flickr album)

Railways series
Hampshire series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Valet - Sunday (2015)
Valet features Honey Owens from Portland OR. Sunday opens the album Nature, which will play on in full if you don't stop it after the first track!

One year ago:
Tudor Falconry At Lacock Abbey 1