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!