The Boys Are Back In Town

The male Marbled Whites have arrived in Toft Wood to mark out their turf before the females arrive, but they seem happy enough to share the same stems to roost on.  Some lovely cirrus clouds way up high.

Warm Enough for Butterflies

At last flamin' June is hot enough to bring out the butterflies:  a Ringlet and a Small Heath, and a bee in Toft Wood today. 

Long Melford

A visit to Melford Hall, which was very dark.  The Banqueting Hall (top) was interesting.  The church was enormous and had a Lady Chapel tacked onto the end - 'the only church in England that was not an abbey to have a lady chapel' said the notice.  

Fleet Air Arm Museum 5

Concorde and a Bristol Scout, built in the south-west.  A Buccaneer with its nose-cone folded and the flight deck of Concorde G-BSST (002, the first British Concorde to fly) which is well laid-out by the standards of some 1960's cockpits.  

Fleet Air Arm Museum 4

The Fairey Delta 2 is a mini-Concorde.  With a completely triangular wing, it was the first aircraft to exceed 1000 mph, doing 1132 mph on 10th March 1956.  Then it was fitted with Concorde's 'ogival' (wine glass) wing shape, narrow with sharp edges, and a droop snoot.  It also had the tall undercarriage Concorde used. 

Fleet Air Arm Museum 3

Research for the future Supersonic Transport (Concorde) in the 1950s was done in two halves: slow speed flight with a delta wing was explored with the Handley Page 115, so no one bothered to file down the rivets!  The black things on the wing leading edges are smoke machines, so that airflow can be studied.  The fast bit was done by the Fairey Delta 2, which is very smooth.

Fleet Air Arm Museum 2

Engines.  Bristol Centaurus 18 cyl. two-row radial with sleeve valves; production Bristol Siddeley Pegasus Harrier engine; chromed oil tank on this engine and a prototype Pegasus, which was tested upside down, as displayed. 

Fleet Air Arm Museum 1

Some unique aircraft in this excellent museum.  MiG 15 (top); Fairey Delta 2; Handley Page HP.115 and Blackburn Buccaneer.

Boscombe Down Aviation Collection

With Martin, Lionel and Trevor to the West Country, the BDAC in a hangar at Old Sarum Airfield, two miles from Salisbury.  They have more than a dozen cockpits into which twelve year-old boys of any age may climb.  From top: Hawker Hunter F.6; Bristol Sycamore helicopter; Westland Wasp helicopter and BAC 1-11 airliner.

Salisbury

In the evening we walked into the city along the Avon (which had swans in it) and saw the Magna Carta barons (with attendant parking ticket machines) and the statue of The Walking Madonna in front  of the cathedral, which took only 38 years to build.  

Soft Day at Home

You get home from a hard day's work and sit down with a cup of tea.  You nod off, and when you wake you're covered in soft toys.  

More Racers

A red Alfa Romeo and an Austin Healey 100, the 2660cc engined model.

Snetterton

The middle of June and the circuit is still the coldest place in England.  The facilities are much more civilised than they used to be, and that makes a difference. 

Lakenheath Fen

An RPS visit to the Fen.  It was a misty day with rain and drizzle and not much avian action.  We had good views of the kingfishers at New Fen and the gull about to catch a fly.