Monday, 2nd Visit to Gigrin Farm, Rhayader

Well it had been touch and go whether we went due to the horrendous weather on Sunday where it rained virtually non-stop. However, the forecast was promising, so Irene and I (and Emma) set off to meet up with Pete for lunch in the village before going onto the farm to see the Red Kites. We got there a bit early and popped into a coffee shop to kill half an hour. We'd arranged to meet Pete at the Triangle Inn, I saw it had been recommended, and phoned last week to confirm that they did lunchtime food, explained we'd be coming on a Monday, and had a dog and was told it was okay to take a dog inside. Great. So we met Pete and took Emma for a walk round a large park first to give her a bit of exercise, walked up to the pub, and it was shut! Shut on a Monday, and a notice on the door to say that dogs were only allowed inside during the winter months! So we backtracked into the main bit of the town and went in The Bear. Oooh yes, you can bring the dog in, ooooh no, we don't do food on a Monday! This was turning into a farce! Luckily there was a customer who pointed us in the right direction, just round the corner, and we found another nice pub, where we could sit outside with Emma in an enclosed courtyard, so eventually got something to eat and a drink!

We went onto the Red Kite farm in good time, had a wander around for a while then made our way into one of the hides and waited for 3pm when the tractor comes with the food. The owner told us that the day before, the rain had been torrential there too, and lots of people had come long distances to see the kites, and only four had come to feed. How awful, what a terrible disappointment for those poor people. Anyhow, we weren't disappointed, there was upwards of a hundred or more this time, lots more than when we went a month ago. I took some video footage this time, as well as lots of shots with my other camera. Poor Irene had taken her camcorder especially to do some video but it played her up and wouldn't work. Pete got loads of lovely shots with his camera. A big bonus yesterday was the appearance of several ravens.

We got a cup of tea and sat at a picnic table with Emma and we played with one of the farm dogs, a lovely Springer, who kept fetching his toy for us to throw. Also chatted to some other people with another Cavalier, who were from Essex.

Had a lovely day, we were so lucky with the weather, and I just love the scenery in that area.

Lots of photos to post, I will only pick the best though, but you can view a short video of the feeding on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb56ytaNFjY

and you can now see the album of some of the photos I took yesterday, so I will just post my favourite others here and some scenery ones.









Kites? What Kites???