The things you find when you follow your nose

I drove down to visit Helena in Bath this morning and the weather was fine. Yay. We went to her local cafe to have coffee, but the promised Portuguese custard tart had disappeared from the day's menu, much to my chagrin. We decided to head around the southern outskirts of Bath to go to the point where the Kennett and Avon canal crosses the River Avon on the wonderful stone Dundas Aquaduct. Now fully restored the canal is very well used both for narrowboats to cruise along and for cyclists and pedestrian to enjoy the towpath.

To get there I chose to drive along some very small lanes which I found on a classic forty year old 1" Ordnance Survey map. We approached the beautiful wooded valley of the river Avon via Tucking Lane, which lead to Tucking Mill and its associated cottages, reservoir and some old derelict buildings. Passing Tucking cottage, I saw an elegant large stone plaque built into its wall engraved with the words that William Smith lived there from 1798 until 1810 while he worked on building the Somerset Coal canal.  I immediately knew that this was the same man who was the subject of the fascinating book, 'The Map that changed the world: a tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption', the story of the creation of the first geological map which he designed.

I immediately parked the car close by and told Helena about him and that I wanted to take a picture of the plaque.  As I prepared to open the car door, I saw a man and a woman walking towards us in the middle of the very quiet lane and spotted they had two birds of prey on their arms. I definitely had to get a picture of that too. I asked them as they neared us if we could take some pictures and they were very friendly and happy to oblige. In fact they give falconry walks which was where they were going, and so we may well visit them in future to see them fly the birds.

My blip is of the older and larger bird, a Harris Hawk, but I actually spoke to the man holding the younger one. We both love seeing birds of prey and hope to see some eagles in the wild on the Isle of Mull when we visit the West Highlands of Scotland in the next couple of weeks.  So this was a good warm up.

We eventually reached the aquaduct and walked across it as boats and walkers milled about very peacefully. The aquaduct actually takes the canal at right angles across the River Avon to maintain its level at about about fifty feet above the height of the river. I'm sure we will; go back there again, probably in the autumn and will take more pictures then. I knew I wanted to blip the hawk.

But Helena wanted me to take a picture of her on the bridge to match an old picture she has of her former visit there. I didn't manage to re-enact exactly what she had in mind, but I quite like this picture of her that I have added as an 'Extra photo' today.  It also gives a sense of the stone aquaduct but not its amazing setting in the lovely wooded valley.