Four Boys and a NL Girl: Visiting the UK: Part Five

The next lovely day in the UK dawned with a bit of rain. It was the only rain I saw during my trip (!) so I didn't mind hauling out my rain coat for the day. It was also my last full day in England and I was fast losing time to take pictures around A's property. So, I started by taking a picture of one of the resident squirrels (A told me not to photograph him!) kept in line by the cool bird feeder cones at the top of the picture.

Next a few pictures of her flowers that I took just before we headed off for our routine day trip with the dogs.

Hydrangeas in any form are still one of my favourites.

Our first port of call for the day was to the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. Having been married to an Air Force guy for twenty years, I've learned to appreciate an airplane or two. A is also a veteran of the RAF herself so this place certainly holds a special importance. It was really neat to walk around the different aircraft and for A to describe what particular airplanes were for like loading and unloading cargo and I got to hear some funny stories about working in cramped spaces and health and safety codes or lack thereof.

I tried to keep my pictures strictly to details of the museum that I hadn't seen before. I've seen a few air craft in my time and have attended a few air shows, one of which being the Paris Air Show, so I was fairly picky. My FIL (Father In Law) is likely reading this right now wishing I hadn't been as picky:)!

I loved the history of flight information as you enter the museum, especially the 'first women to do...' segments scattered throughout.

Very well done indeed.

This folding motorcycle was a surprise to me. They were actually dropped in parachute containers from aircrafts for use by the Allied invasion forces because they could be unfolded and made ready for use very quickly!

Isn't this aircraft amazing?

A picture from the Cold War section of the museum which was extensive and very well done.

I hope I didn't walk through the museum too quickly. It was first class and I would highly recommend any flight buff having a look but it was also very overwhelming. I think you could easily spend a day reading each placard and oh and ah-ing over the displays. However, A and I had some important business to attend to in another village she wanted to show me - lunch.

Off we pootled to Ironbridge so named for the fantastic iron bridge located there. Please click on the following picture to read about the bridge in detail. A fascinating history and it has been really well kept. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.

View while standing in the middle of the bridge looking upstream.

Click on this one to enlarge. I found it really funny.

The village of Ironbridge is charming as well. Quaint little houses and cottages built up the sides of the valley. Cobble stone streets and some construction on the buildings in keeping with the town looking gorgeous and well kept.

This is the best view of the bridge that I could get just after A, the dogs and I left a fish and chips shop with our take away. Sadly, I didn't get more photographs of the town as I had a camera and fish and chips in one hand and a dog on a leash in the other hand. Trust me when I say you want to visit Ironbridge though. Simply gorgeous though I think I've said that a lot throughout this whole trip, haven't I?

As I'd mentioned, time was running short so after our return home, I headed up in the back of A's property to take some pastoral pictures of her part of the world to keep my memory alive. Isn't she and her family lucky, lucky, lucky?

If you click on the picture above, you'll see a pheasant. Not the best picture of a pheasant but a pheasant none the less. The first time I saw one at A's place when I arrived was to exclaim "Oh look! Is that a peacock?" to which A laughingly replied, 'No, that's a pheasant.' I called them English Peacocks for the rest of the trip.

Isn't this gorgeous?