52 Walks in 2010 - Walk 36 - Skegness Seafront, Lincs (24th October 2010)

Todays walk was a bit of a trip down memory lane. A blast from the past. A bit of nostalgia.

When I was a young girl in the 1960s/70s my family spent a week every summer at Skegness.

As we were staying only 5 or 6 miles from 'Skeggy' we decided to go and have a look. I ahve to say I was rather disappointed. It was as if I were somewhere I had never been before. I could remember hardly anything about the town and most fo what I could remember was no longre there.

We walked along the beach. The beach chalet (one of many) that we used to hire each year was no longer there. The dunes had encroached on the beach and I'm told the chalets were demolished some years ago. A new addition though were the wind turbines. I know they are a bit like Marmite - you either love them or hate them, but I find them rather enchanting and mesmorising.

The pier was still standing - well some of it. There has been much damage to the pier over the last 30 years and just a small part of it now remains.

We walked along the open deck being the original victorian part of the pier. The weather by this time was getting a bit bleak. My photos of the pier aren't brilliant - I converted this next one to black and white to try and make it a bit more interesting.

Just past the pier is the Pleasure Beach. A favourite place we used to visit at leats on one evening when I was a child on holiday at Skeggy. Today the place was almost deserted and I was quite pleased with this next dramatic photo of the big wheel.

The town's best known icon is the cheerful and irrepressible 'Jolly Fisherman'. Created in 1908 by artist John Hassall for an advertising poster at the request of the Great Northern Railway Company he is still seen all around Skeggy.

This statue was erected in the Tower Garden in 2008 to mark his 100th birthday.

52 Walks in 2010 - Walk 35 - Riverside Walk, Wainfleet, Lincs (24th October 2010)

We have just returned from a very relaxing weeks holiday in Lincolnshire. We stayed in a lovely cottage in the small market town of Wainfleet, about 5 miles inland from the east coast. The weather was good (for this time of the year) and we managed to get out and about quite a bit.

The cottage was in a quiet area on a 2,000 acre farm which grew wheat, potatoes, calabrese and cabbages. On the first morning of our stay we went for a walk on the farm alongside the river.

We left the cottage ........



.... and walked along the riverbank beside the fields of crops. It was a lovely sunny morning although a bit wet on the ground.



It was very picturesque and so peaceful.









As we returned to the cottage for lunch, it started it rain for a short time and a rainbow appeared above the Magdalen College School on the opposite side of the river.

52 Walks in 2010 - Walk 34 - Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire (17th October 2010)

Yesterday we paid our fourth and probably final visit to Wrest Park, Silsoe this year. In a few weeks time Wrest Park will close for the winter and apart from a couple of weekends when there are special events being held, it will be closed until next spring. When the park reopens next year it will be interesting as earlier this year Wrest Park was awarded a major grant of £1.14-million by the Heritage Lottery Fund and is due to undergo major improvements over the next year.

The gardens and park were certainly looking very autumnal with leaves turning brown and lying on the ground.





The Horse Chestnut trees were all looking very sorry for themselves. On the BBC Autumnwatch show last week they were saying that unless the leaf miner insect can be stopped the Horse Chestnut tree may become extinct in England. I hope that never happens.



We had fun crunching through the leaves........



....... and saw huge piles of rotting fallen apples gathered in the orchard. There were some very large wasp like insects on them but I wasn't brave enough to get close enough to them to take their photo.

There were lots of cones on the fir trees......

..... and we found some toadstools / mushrooms.

I had a little photo shoot with Lara .......

Whilst Wayne photographed me photographing Lara.