So we (me, Clare, Mauser, and L) went off in the car. Mauser had put the post-code of the place into the GPS, but unfortunately, with it being out in the country, the postcode covered quite a wide area, and the GPS brought us to a farm.
We went along the road a bit more, and then turned round and went back down some other roads, but didn't find it. We did find something like the 'Rutland Railway Museum', but that was closed. Anyway, we stopped at the side of the road opposite the railway place, and had our lunch there.
We drove back to Oakham, and had a walk round the town. We saw an art exhibition in the town hall, which was kind of a mix of abstract and landscape painting (can't remember the artist's name though). We also went to see Oakham Castle.
Oakham Castle doesn't seem much like a castle as the fortified walls and moat have all disappeared, and all that's left is the Great Hall, which was building inside the castle grounds. Inside the Great Hall, it looks a bit like a Church. I think this is because it was last used as a Court room, which has a similar seating arrangement and wooden 'pews', like a Church.
On the walls of the Great Hall are loads of 'horseshoes'.
Photo by Simon Garbutt
There was a law passed that any peer who stepped foot in Oakham had to present a horseshoe, and many royals have presented special presentation horseshoes to the town.
We then resumed our search for the falconry centre, and found a road with a sign pointing up it that said something like 'falconry Centre'. So we went up there, but after a while we hadn't seen any sign of the Falconry centre, and were back on the piece of road we'd already been along a few times when we were looking for the place in the morning.
So we went into a bakery shop, and Clare asked there if they knew where it was, and they said it was back down the way we'd came. So we went back the way we'd come, and we did see the sign this time - it was just a home-made sign with a bit of paper stuck on it.
So we got to the place, and there was only about 2 other cars there. It wasn't near the lake, and was £5 each to get in. It was mainly falcons, owls, and similar birds in cages, so you couldn't really get good photos of them (since you couldn't get right up to the cages to put your lens up against/near the wire). There were also quite a few though that weren't in cages, and were on perches with a rope tied round one foot to allow them to move about a bit, but not enough to attack visitors, and of course, it prevented them from flying off.
The ones that weren't in cages weren't that great for photographing either, since they were in the shade, and there was bright sun on the ground behind them. Anyway, it was nice to just look at the different birds and admire their spectacular plumage (none of the birds looked dirty or tatty at all). I did take a few photos, but most of the time kept the camera in my backpack.
We also went for a walk through the woods that are part of the place, and saw quite a few deer in the woods.
After this we went back down the road, and went to a bit of Rutland Water, but it cost £3 for parking, and I had only wanted to go there to look around for 5 minutes, so we just went straight back home instead.
When we got home I went in the garden for a bit, but there didn't seem to be any insects around (other than the normal midge swarms). I did a bit more work on a photo I'd started processing in the morning, then it was dinner time.
After dinner I watched Star Trek with Mauser and L, then finished processing the photo. I read the lastest news on dpreview, canonrumors.com, and nikonrumors.com. I watched a video about various DSLRs compared to each and film for shooting video, which was quite interesting. Film had a considerable advantage over the DSLRs in terms of dynamic range.
Food
Breakfast: Blackcurrant Jam Toast Sandwich; Cup o' Tea.
Lunch: Turkey meat with Mayonnaise and Salad Sandwich; Packet of Barbeque Flavour Crisps; (not very) Jammy Wagon Wheel; Cup o' (weird tasting) Tea.
Afternoon Snack: Bowl of Mackies Ice Cream; Cup o' Tea.
Dinner: 2x Sausage Rolls; Mashed Potato; Baked Beans. Pudding was Home-made Fruit Salad. Coffee.
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