Discovering another 10 o'clock in the day

Friday morning's always a shock - we have to be out of the villa at 10, which is usually the time we're just thinking about getting up. We managed to stagger out of bed, and made several trips to the recycling bins - not sure where all the empty bottles had come from. Certainly wasn't much to take home.

We were out bang on time, and went to the village for breakfast - everything from a full english to croque madame to eggs benedict was consumed. With lots of strong coffee.

Then went for a last walk round the lake, where a heron landed right in front of us. It had been really cold, and the small lakes and streams were frozen over, but no snow. We'd been quite looking forward to snow - last time we'd been here we'd sat in the hot tub in snow, and the forest does look magical when it's white. Ended up in the bird hide again - I seem to have spent a lot of this week either handling, watching or photographing birds.  It's a very peaceful and pleasant way to spend time, and good to see so many species being encouraged.

Got a picture of two woodpeckers together, and a whole stack of siskins on the nyjer feeder. Apparently only a small number of species are attracted to nyjer feeders including goldfinches, redpolls and siskins. Bought one for the garden as we think we've seen a goldfinch so want to try and attract it back. A final coffee together in the country club and a group shot by the lake and it was time to leave. A great week with some good friends - can't wait to come again soon.

Woodpeckers, rabbits and saunas

Ever so slightly hung over this morning, and a lie in for many of us. Some are off on a walk, and some of are going to have a relaxing session in the spa - Aqua Sana. Before the spa session we had a look round the shops in the village square, and went for another walk round the lake to the bird hide. This time there was lots of wildlife and I finally got some good pictures of a woodpecker. the forest has a lot of very tame wildlife in - even the rabbits come right up to you when you're walking round - and they're much cuter than squirrels.

 Then to the spa. I love it - an outdoor heated pool, and lots of different steam rooms and saunas. My favourites are the Indian blossom steam room and the Greek herbal sauna. And then you can go and sit in the Zen garden and wrap yourself in a huge fur rug. Lots of relaxation areas, cooling face towels and foot spas. Bliss. And Annie and I even manage to get a free mini facial. Not everyone's cup of tea but after three hours in there you're certainly relaxed. it was only a couple of minutes walk back to the villa and an Indian meal, delivered to the door.  Evening followed the same pattern as the others - music and hot tubs. No daquiris this time though!

Hawks, bowls and late night hot tub

Good meal last night at Cafe Rouge, and some live jazz.  Back to the villa for a few nightcaps and some more music.

Got up a bit earlier this morning as it was my special birthday treat - something I did last time we were her as well - a falconry session. It's run by Darren who's based at Rosliston Forestry Centre. He brings an assortment of birds, and as there was only three of us in the session we got to do a lot of flying.  Started with a barn owl.

Very noisy little bird - hand reared, so constantly cries to get fed. Very sweet, but with very poor eyesight. It landed on one of the pieces of food and couldn't find it.
Next a female kestrel, which was very light - only weighed about 6oz. The birds have to have their weight very carefully controlled, down to about half an ounce. then we had a male kestrel which was still being trained to fly to the hand - lovely bird.

A couple of buzzards next - a standard one (if that's the right name for it) which was a lot bigger than the kestrels, - heavier when they hit your hand. With all the birds you have to keep your hand up - if you let it drop they'll fly off and aim for the nearest high point - often your head. One of them tried to land on Stuart's camera lens.

This one took the food from your hand and then jumped on to the floor. Each bird had different characteristics and personality. Then a very pretty, but still being trained, bird - a red tailed buzzard.

Darren was very good with us and the birds, telling us all about them, their history, habits etc. After the buzzards we had a Harris Hawk, and finally, my favourite - a Golden Eagle. Called Shadow, I remembered her from last time. Huge - Darren had to support my arm as I held her. She also had an unnerving habit of staring you in the eyes  - I wouldn't argue with her. her talons were huge, and it was difficult to get her off my glove.

A great session, and something I'd recommend to anyone - I plan to go to Rosliston and do a whole day at some point in the future.

Then we all met up, and walked round the lake to the Nature Centre in the hope of seeing more wildlife than on Monday. We were lucky, and saw some redpolls, siskins, goldfinches. No woodpeckers though - hopefully another day.  Back to the villa for lunch, and we met a couple of friends on the way from Sheffield who had booked the same week as us, so invited them back. Got back to a nice surprise - the housekeeping staff had spotted my birthday cards and left me a card, a bottle of wine and some chocolates. Bit of a music session in the villa, and then off for some bowling.

We'd booked two lanes so split into boys on one, girls on the other. A mixed ability group I think it's fair to say - from some who'd never done it before to some who were much better! The lanes are neon lit, and we had great fun. Some high scores - some not so. But the turn up of the evening was Donald deciding to bowl left handed, and winning! And on the girls lane, the final game was won by Andrea - who I think had only played a couple of times.

Then into the swimming dome for a few of us - some to sit in the warm climate, some (like me) to swim in the outdoor pool and sit in the hot tub, and some to go down the rapids and flumes. I love the outdoor area - especially in January when it's so cold outside the water is steaming and it's all misty and lit with colour changing lights. I don't do the rapids - but Pete and Stuart had a good time going down them, and the raft flume. Too soon  it was time to get back and get the meal ready. A success  for our slowcookers which had produced a wonderful lamb stew.

After the meal our friends came round and we had a few songs, some music and a late night session in the hot tub with champagne! Very successful.

And later we got strawberry daquiris courtesy of Stuart and his unique way of crushing ice - this time using a bottle of garlic oil. A very late night was had by all!

Birthday treat at Center Parcs

Ever since it opened I've loved going to Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest. I took my first son when he was only 2, and my second son's been going since before he was born, as I went when I was 6 months pregnant and famously got stuck going down one of the water flumes. They don't let you down when you're pregnant now but in those days, no-one bothered.

I try and go back as often as I can, and prefer to go in the middle of winter, usually around my birthday. So, as my birthday fell on a Sunday this year, it seemed an ideal time for a midweek, Monday to Friday break. Arrived yesterday and had lunch - a very nice fish stew- in Strada in the Village Square. Picked up a couple of bikes- normally I hate cycling, but always do it here. There's no cars and it's relatively flat, and it's a bit of a novelty. Got to our "exclusive" villa about 2pm and unpacked.




Then a walk round the park, all the way round the lake with a quick stop off at the Country Club for a drink. We called in to the Nature Centre where's there's a bird hide, but it was either too late, or something had spooked them, because there was barely a feather there!

Then back for a session in the hot tub, sauna and steam room, a great way to spend a couple of hours. The villas are lovely:



And all look out over the forest and water



We always try and make the most of the facilities, and last night we cooked a great 3 course meal,



did a quiz, sang and played instruments, and Stuart made banana daquiris by crushing ice, bananas and white rum together with a potato masher in a jug!




This morning we woke very late (not surprisingly), had a big cooked breakfast, and walked to Rufford Park. It's a lovely park, but we couldn't get to the formal gardens and sculptures because they were closed. so, we walked round the lake.





And went in the camera obscura where we saw an upside down picture of the trees outside.




We walked back through the park, past the Broad Walk



and the Ice House where they used to store ice harvested from the lake




Back to the villa for lunch,and were impressed that the housekeeping team had spotted my birthday cards, and left me a bottle of wine and some chocolates. Then some of us cycled to the Nature Centre, where some of us proved that we weren't used to cycling




Unfortunately there weren't many birds at the wildlife hide, but we saw a few, including a woodpecker and a heron.

Back for more hot tub action, this time it was raining and diluting our drinks, but still good fun




Now we're off to Cafe Rouge for dinner and some live Jazz.

Investigating the Impossible

When I started this blog, I put at the top that you could expect to see, amongst other things, science and skepticism. Not been much of either so far - much more of a what I did on my holidays sort of blog! Will try and rectify.

Tonight I went to a Sheffield Skeptics in the Pub meeting - I try and go whenever I can, and every one I've been to so far has been entertaining. It was packed - 30 mins before the start it was standing room only - everyone coming to see Richard Wiseman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Herfordshire. I've been reading his blog, and following him on Twitter for some time, and a few weeks ago was lucky to see him in the Godless show in London. But, it was great seeing him here in Sheffield, and sitting almost on the front row.

Richard's talk was entitled Investigating the Impossible, and as used to be a magician, started with some magic tricks. He then moved on to visual illusions - all designed to show how our brains make sense of things, sometimes making quite incorrect assumptions. As well as visual perceptions, there's some good audio ones as well - I challenge anyone to listen to Carmina Burana and hear the right lyrics again after listening to this.


Ytmnd -- Carmina Burana, alternate lyrics
Uploaded by Hot564231. - Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.

He took us through a lot of his research, on the psychology of luck, on perception, on why people believe in the paranormal and how it can be explained. His latest book, Paranormality, starts with the assumption that the paranormal doesn't exist, and then looks at what's interesting about it.

My favourite bit was his story about a Tomorrow's World episode, on firewalking. Richard believes that firewalking can be explained by the poor conductivity of wood, and over the 10 to 15 feet of most firewalks the heat does not get transfered to the feet. Firewalkers believe that they can harness their inner energy to protect their feet. So, Tomorrow's World constructed a 60 foot long firewalk, and as Richard says, the firewalkers will either burn their feet, or disprove the laws of physics. You can see what happened here.