Bumble Bees at work my little visitor

Whilst at work I had myself a little visitor or should I say two!

These little fellows were helping me weigh up some seed. It was so nice seeing these majestic creatures flying around me and then landing on my seed.

I believe this species is Psithyrus Vestalis otherwise known as the Cuckoo bumblebee.

I had this little guy land on the sleeve of my jumper where he must have sat relaxing for almost an hour where he landed.

I read somewhere that these little fella's can be quite a nasty little thing to other bee species and will work their magic at wiping out other queen bees.

There are only 6 cuckoo bumblebee species in the UK. The 2 main features that these bees have that set them apart from other bumblebees include: Back legs that are covered in hair, with no pollen baskets – you will never see a cuckoo bumblebee with pollen lumps on its legs. The wings that appear dusky or dark.

The Grand Canyon tour by papillon helicopter

I loved visiting the Grand Canyon, boarding the helicopter was one of the most memorable days of my holiday. From the speed 140 knots to the  height that we flew at what takes in the car over 4 hours to get to the sky walk we flew past it in 20 minutes.
The view from the sky was incredible on the cloud free day. The soundtrack played through the headphones fitted the flight perfectly.
As we flew across the hoover dam, we were told that the water levels were at 35% capacity due to the draughts in California.  When looking at the water  I could see where the water was at one stage and where it is now due to the white walls which is caused by the water washing the dirt away from the walls of the Lake Mead and the Colorado river.

To see the canyon in person is beyond wonderful and to describe the sights is hard, because no matter how hard  anyone describes it you can not imagine the colors or the hidden depths of the canyons. The Canyon where we flew in was 35 miles wide. 

The Papillon flight pilot was lovely and answered every single question that was asked by the 5 other tourists in the helicopter.
I was lucky to sit in a window seat  whilst my dad had one of the middle seats in the row. The other tourists on board the flight were Australian and Spanish.  The pilot put on a Spanish tape after he explained pieces for the rest of the people onboard.

The company Pappilion provided transport to and from an airfield about 45 minutes away from the Luxor hotel that was included in the price of the flight.

I hope to go back to Las Vegas again in about  10 years time and I will  be going on this flight again when I go back.
I would recommend this to anyone that visits Las Vegas to go  on the tour with Pappilion at half the cost of the other tour operators  it's worth the 5 star score from me.

Viva las vegas!

After a long and very stressful 2 weeks I'm finally off to Las Vegas.
The trip to the airport and check in went really quickly as for the plane journey 10 hours without much leg room (and I'm short) and the middle seat of three.
Have to hand it to virgin staff they were lovely throughout the flight. Very friendly, helpful and up for a quick talk whenever they could.
The inflight programmes were very good and it just so happened the book I've been reading the last few months was one of the inflight movies. So of course I finished my book off and watched the movie. Every second of the movie had me enthralled. And I fell in love again with the main rodeo rider. The movie by the way was "the last ride".
The flight continued and I watched "Spy" which while I found Jason Statham to be hilarious the rest of the movie wasn't that good.
On the descent to Las Vegas airport the sights of the Grand Canyon were fenominal and I could see it out of both windows. The views definitely made up for the boredom on the flight.

Thorpe park

Out of all the theme parks and places I've visited over the last few months, I have to admit that thorpe park has by far been the best.

From the rides to the (although rather quiet) atmosphere from other visitors. Our day was perfect, we got to the park when it opened and managed to get on several bigger roller coasters without any queue's.

That was until there was a power cut although I'm glad I was waiting in the queue for a ride. I'm glad I was not on it.

Colossus has got to be one of the most mind boggling rides with all the corkscrews near the end making the day and ride one of my favourite roller coasters.

I won't give to much away but yes definitely worth the money and yes I will be going back to thorpe park unlike Chessington, fun was had by all the family!

Warwick castle

An almost 3 hour journey from home took my mom, TJ and myself to many adventures in Warwick yesterday.
From amazing countryside (not that I don't see it everyday) to tudor houses.
For myself I love architecture and how over the years it evolved.
Warwick Castle in itself full of pleasant surprises with various collections of furniture dating 100's of years. One of my favourite pieces being the child's suit of armour although this would not have been used on the battlefield, it was amazing to see how tiny the 6 yr old suit was.

Whilst one half of the castle was decorated for medieval times , the other half was decorated early 1800's with models in each room displaying the various clothing that would have been worn. 

I found whilst walking around the castle there were very few notices about the building or information to read about who, why, what, and when it was made. Although there was a time tower which was a little informative on how the castle was passed down from person to person and for what purpose it was made.

I love bumble bees !

In our garden we have 8 rather large lavender bushes, that play a role in keeping the bumbles that I love so busy. I know I've posted pictures of them before so dont judge its just for a dying breed that is so necessary in our day and age ( if you don't know what they do then look it up).

The happy little buzzing that I hear all day from the garden and the zipping little bodies in a rush to get somewhere and yet nowhere.

After what seemed to be forever of me trying to convince TJ that the bees will not hurt us we ended up saving one from drowning in the paddling pool.

I asked him to hold it on the peg not just for pictures but to build his confidence up and help him to understand that bees are not built to hurt us,that they are just busy working their butts off to make their Queen bee happy.

Half drowned blonde bumble bee

Honey bee

It's been a while .... I'm sorry!

Over the past few months I've been stuck in a rut. Missing certain elements from my past and that's all it is memories playing in the back of my mind constantly.
I am truly grateful for these memories as without them I would not be the person I am today.
Who better to bring me out of this rut but one of my oldest and dearest friends. Distance is now an issue as she lives 5 hours away with her husband and 2 absolutely fantastic little girls.
Today we met up for the first time in about a year took Tj and the girls to the local park. We talked the kids ran around playing and the dog well, she ended up in the algae filled lake :/ .
Whilst the kids fed the ducks and met a puppy labrador in training to be a guide dog, my friend and I slowly wandered behind chatting about the kids and how much things have changed since she was here almost 10 years ago.

Between running around waving at the passengers in the park train a strange thought suddenly came to me, Tj is no longer a child but a young man.

I was so glad to see my friend after so long and I wish it could be more often.
I had an amazing time and such a good catch up.

Tj and her eldest J. Are so cute together holding hands and walking the dog. They both looked beyond a doubt like a couple on a date.

Corfe Castle falconry display

This weekend TJ and I attended a local falconry display at corfe castle.

Walking from the National Trust car park, we entered a small shop that sells rocks and fossils. The lady behind the desk, was lovely as we were looking around it started to rain. Me being me I forgot to pack the rain jackets in the car. The lovely lady offered to lend us her umbrella. which I graciously accepted.

The site itself is breathtaking and to be able to walk around in the history and imagine what happened inside the walls is incredible. 
If you'd like to read more then have a look on the webiste  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/corfe-castle/history/ . 

. The falconry display was amazing. Watching the birds flying around listening to the man tell the audience how they train the birds so they don't fly away was interesting.

The birds flew around in front of crowds with such grace and with what seemed very little effort.

Once the hawk had its prey in sight, it homed in and dived in at such a speed if you blinked you would have missed it! 

Canoeing down Wareham river

Tranquility at its best.

I don't often take TJ Near the sea. It's only 5 minutes down the road, lately I never seem to have time to do anything. My days are filled with silly tasks that take up so much time.
Today I just took the time with Tj and went canoeing although the tide was out when we arrived, we popped into the Saturday market and brought a net and bucket to fish with while the tide was low and waiting till it came in.
We payed for an hour to canoe up and down the river. I was so proud of Tj getting the hang of paddling together as a team.

The Wareham canoeing hut on the Quay provides life jackets for everyone of all shapes and sizes.

There are many types of boats available with engines and others without. 

I would recommend if you haven't already rented a boat to do so.
It was so tranquil and such beautiful scenery up and down the river. I for one was so glad I took the time to go today.

Halfords

After almost 10 years I decided it was time I got myself a bike, luckily my dad's ones collecting dust in the shed so I've burrowed his for now.
I went to halfords to get a bike rack for my car and arrived home and tried to fit said rack.
It was then that the problems started....

1. The settings were correct as per instructions given from manufacturer.
2. Was not happy as it Was obviously not gonna fit and left scratch marks in my car ( rather big ones!)

Took the rack back to get a refund. A little annoyed I spoke to a guy called jake about what it had done to my car.
I received a full refund and the customer service went way beyond my expectations.

Jake then proceeded to have a look at my car got some t-cut and tried to polish it out, when that didn't work he went to the paint machine to try and make me a top up pen. The machine couldn't do it due to a color not being available any more, so a lady who's name I didn't see stepped in. The lady and I were talking for a short while when she told me to take my car to abacus in Poole. If I got them to make a touch up pen for my car then they'd reimburse me for the pen.
By this time I was blown away with the customer service.
Then lady then offered me a free bike rack and Jake offered to fit it for me to ensure that it was set up correctly.
For this all these reason I am grateful for the customer service at halfords. The staff couldn't of been more friendly and helpful. Which is the way every store should be.

Upton Country Park

Taking the dogs for a walk is generally a chore when it comes to doing it with TJ. Today was no different TJ rode his bike off into the distance, leaving me and my oldest dog for dust.

It's days like this that I love living where I do only minutes from the beaches and moments from Upton Park and it's breath taking trails. Where the children and dogs can run around like lunatics and there's still plenty of room to play football.

A visit to Bucklers Hard

I decided that our day out would be to Bucklers Hard. An 18th century village where warships for Nelsons navy were built. Set in an idealistic village, surrounded by Beautiful scenery on the Beaulieu river.

The Maritime museum has items dating back to Admiral Nelson and his crew members, as well as many other boats that were made at Beaulieu. 

Ships built at Beaulieu

With open houses to wonder around life in 18th century was definitely hard. Reading the information provided and listening to the guided tour. I can imagine how hard life was back in the 18th century when listening to the historian.

Guided tour 

  To look around the little village and the museum it took us around 2 hours.

Outside the museum

Costing £6.50 an adult and £4.50 a child.
There's is an option to upgrade the ticket to an unlimited yearly pass which was only £10 a person.
This did not include the additional price of the river boat cruise.

Shipwrights cottage and St. Mary's Church 

Along the houses on the left there are two houses in which you can look around. the shipwrights cottage and St. Mary's Chapel which holds a hidden room.
As you progress down the hill towards the waterfront there is a pub and grill area. with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating.

Shipwrights School

The building in the background at the waters edge has just been re- built with 150 year old oak wood. Provided by the Beaulieu forest.