Dinner at the Cley windmill

Cley windmill
Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips
The windmill is in a superb position on the edge of the salt marshes in North Norfolk. You can stay there and it is also open for dinner so I couldn’t wait to book in.
When you arrive you are shown into the sitting room. It is a cosy room with a [...]

Snape Maltings

Then you go to Snape to visit the The Maltings. What a strange name and redolent of music and Radio broadcasts – “Welcome to the Aldeburgh Festival and tonight’s concert is broadcast live from The Snape Maltings…” From seeing no-one to being with everyone, that is the Zen of the place.

The Black Venus, Challacombe, Devon

River Barle on Exmoor
Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips
A delightful pub on Exmoor and ideally placed if you go walking up to Pinkery Pond. I went with D&J on a wet wintry night but there was a warm cosy welcome inside and we were soon drinking some ale and looking at the blackboard menu being careful not [...]

RememBird Digital Audio Recorder – Review

Pale Chanting Goshawk
Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips
The Ravenous Rambler is a keen bird watcher so I feel a review of this device fits into place here among the recipes and walks.
Have you been out walking and wondered what that bird song was? Maybe you have been looking for the first chiffchaff of the season but can’t [...]

British Bird Fair, Rutland Water, August 2008

eyeOriginally uploaded by Mr_Chips
“Excuse me, can you tell us why there are so many cars here”? The bewildered couple were getting out of their van expecting a quiet stroll around Rutland Water bird watching. But they had chosen the very weekend that thousands of exhibitors and people descend on the place for the British Bird [...]

Hand book journal

Hand book journal
Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

hand*book journal co.
The ravenous rambler was taking a ramble around Oxford today and of course I went into the ‘the little gallery’ (Broad Street) to stock up on some art supplies. At the counter I made an exciting discovery! There they were just sitting on the counter as though waiting [...]

Good reading for France

First, some recommendations:
Where to watch Birds, France; Philippe Dubons,
A useful guide to good spots for bird watching.
Travellers Nature Guides, France,; Bob Gibbons.
Interesting nature recommendations – geology, trees, birds and wildlife. A good buy.
Field Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe
Books Read
A guide to the Birds of East Africa, A novel by Nicholas Drayson
This is an [...]

The Ravenous Rambler goes en randonnée.

France Day 1.
All went well with a lovely drive down to Dover and a traditional P & O boat crossing on an azure sea and the white cliffs retreated into the distance over an awful tasting coffee from the on board costa coffee bar. Do they get everywhere?
The motorways opened up for a trouble free [...]

A guide to British Tea drinking etiquette for Americans and other foreigners…

Lion
Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

Two years service with the British Council in Botswana taught me a thing or two about tea drinking. It’s only when you go away from Britain that you appreciate some of the finer points of tea drinking habits and etiquette…
I was brought up on tea. My father brought a cup into my [...]

Hambleden shop Review

St Mary’s Church, Hambleden
Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

Out on one of my bike rides, the Ravenous Rambler stopped at the Hambleden shop for tea. The village is one of those quintessential English villages. A dog sleeps in the middle of the road, there is a an old well by the tree in the centre of the [...]