Tag Archives: Vane Farm

London Wetlands – Revisited

From one nature reserve to another. Our previous post was from Vane Farm in Scotland and this one is London Wetlands – Revisited. We have reviewed its scones before but that was back in 2016, just a few weeks after the EU referendum. Back then we reported that London, like Scotland, voted overwhelmingly to remain and that feelings were running pretty high. A nation divided! This time we can report that nothing has changed in the two intervening years except that now we have only a few months to go before having to apply for a visa to visit France … arrgghh!. There is an air of disbelief that, even though the vote was won on the basis of momentous lies and Mr Brexit’s, (Arron Banks), colossal and suspicious funding  of the Leave campaign, we are still no nearer knowing what the consequences of leaving will be.

Brexit scones

Enough! … what about the scones, will they be affected by Brexit? We are here at the Wetlands because we had to deliver a certain mini-person back to her home which is just a short walk away from here. Nothing stands still here and we found many new additions to the already superb attractions on offer. It is still the only wildlife reserve we know of that has a three story bird-hide with a lift. Lego animals at London Wetland Centre

At Vane Farm we had to take part in a Halloween based competition but this time our task was to find all the animals in the reserve made from Lego. We had to find the animal then mark down the number of lego bricks it took to build it e.g. do you know how many lego bricks it takes to build a life sized flamingo? Thought not! We had added a four year old to go with our five year old mini-person so, with two mini-people, we had lots of valuable assistance. Interior view of London Wetlands Café

Extra health

Assistance also came in the form of a scone when we took a break for lunch from the beautiful but bitterly cold weather outside. The self-service cafe had also undergone a makeover with a brand new colour scheme and seating arrangement. It’s always busy, busy! A scone at London Wetlands CaféThey have a counter where kiddies can fill a small plastic bucket with anything they want, mostly healthy options, for £5. Good fun for them and simplicity for grown ups. Talking of healthy options, the scones were blueberry with a little pot of strawberry jam … lots of fruit in both. We passed on the Rhoddas Cornish clotted cream. The blueberries made the scones wonderfully moist so that they hardly needed jam. However, we used it anyway … just for extra health! Not quite topscone material but very enjoyable nevertheless.

Interior view of London Wetlands Café
even the birds come in to eat!

 

We covered almost the entire reserve and the flamingo was the only one we couldn’t find. Eventually after much to-ing and fro-ing we discovered it. It was in the middle of the shop that you have to go through on the way out. A bit sneeky! Interior view of London Wetlands CaféAnyway, for your information, it takes 3100 lego bricks and 80 hours to build a life sized flamingo. Remember, you only get this sort of essential information on allaboutthescones.com! No lollipops this time for completing the competition … boo! Just the chance to win a place on a lego animal building course.

Abominations

Suffice to say that the Conservative and Labour parties may well be better employed going on one of these Lego courses for all the good they are doing elsewhere. Goodness knows what sort of horrific monsters they would produce though! In answer to the other burning question, we think scones will benefit from Brexit. And we say that as staunch Remainers. Logic dictates that once we have stopped all foreigners coming into the country and selling their rubbish food (croissants and the like) in cafés across the land, we will only have quaint little chintzy tea-shops selling scones and other civilized British food. An added bonus will be the removal of the acute accent from the word café … and all other such abominations! Hurrah …  ‘Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

SW13 9WT      tel: 020 8409 4400        London Wetland Centre

Vane Farm Café

.As relatively keen birdwatchers we have been to this RSPB Reserve and Vane Farm Café at Loch Leven many times before however it’s been a couple of years since our last visit. The same cannot be said of around 30,000 geese that fly in from Greenland, Siberia and Iceland at this time every year.

Birdwatchers at Vane Farm Nature Reserve Café at Loch Leven
looking for Egbert
Egbert

It is amazing to think that these large birds can undertake such lengthy and arduous journeys. When they all take flight together, it’s an awsome sight.  Vane Farm is a great place to see all sorts of birds and we had a great time, with our mini-person from the Grand Café post visiting all three hides down near the water’s edge. Lots of ducks, moorhens, coots and pheasants but the star of the show was Egbert. He’s a little egret who has made his home here for the past few years. Interior view of Vane Farm Nature Reserve Café at Loch Leven

Skeleton’s heads

Most of our time however was spent looking for skeleton’s heads and scary spiders in a kiddie’s event which meant that we had to cover the entire reserve ticking off ‘finds’ on a sheet of paper. Great fun but it’s not too long, on a fairly brisk day, before rumbling tums are calling us back to the café area.

Exterior view of Vane Farm Nature Reserve at Loch Leven
Engineering works

 

Currently there is major engineering works going on around the shop and café area to make the hides wheelchair accessible. It is causing a few temporary problems for traffic on the main road as well as walkers and cyclists. By the looks of things it will soon be finished. The café above the shop is kitted out with several telescopes at a large observation window.

View from Vane Farm Nature Reserve Café at Loch Leven
They’re too far away!!!

Kids get the chance to see some of the wildlife, up close, without having to brave the elements. Typically the café is populated by folks with massive lenses on their cameras or mega telescopes slung over their shoulders. We only had our little binoculars …. amateurs! A scone at Vane Farm Nature Reserve Café at Loch LevenAfter an excellent light lunch we eventually got to our fruit scones. There was no cream but they did come with plenty butter and jam. We thoroughly enjoyed everything we had but no topscone today.

Errant nobility

Munching a scone and looking out from the cafe across Loch Leven you can clearly see Castle Island. The castle dates from 1257 and over the years has functioned as a home, a garden ornament ( a recent owner designed his entire garden on the shores of Loch Leven around the view of the castle) and on many occasions as a prison for errant nobility. It’s most illustrious prisoner was, of course, Mary Queen of Scots.  In 1565 the 21 year old Mary visited the castle as a guest of Sir William Douglas, little knowing that within two years she would be incarcerated there.

View from Vane Farm Nature Reserve Café at Loch Leven
Castle island in middle distance
Beheadings

She had already been Queen of France and her relatively short stay on this island was to be no less eventful. She recovered from a suspected poisoning attempt, miscarried twins, made several escape bids and was forced to abdicate her throne. Not much time for scones then? She escaped with the assistance of her jailers only to spend the rest of her life imprisoned in other castles. Eventually her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, on Trumped up charges (couldn’t resist the capital T) ordered her to be beheaded at the tender age of forty four. If Theresa May had the powers Elizabeth had back then how many headless politicians would be lying around today? She would be knee deep! Sorry, forgot that most of them are acting like headless chickens anyway without Theresa having any such powers.

Wizard’s wand

More importantly we found all the items in the game except the witches wand. We had to backtrack almost the whole way to find it! Won a lollipop though!

KY13 9LX      tel: 01577 862355        Vane Farm Nature Reserve

The Green Hotel

This day was one of those brilliant sunny winter days where you feel invigorated by the clear crispness of the air. Some readers may not realise that one of our many talents, besides looking for scones, is looking for birds. Today we were at Vane Farm, near Kinross, in a cold bird hide watching amongst other things, slavonian grebes and a white-tailed eagle. Now if any of you have even a passing interest in oisseaus you will be well aware that watching these relatively rare birds is a little bit special. You tend to feel vaguely honoured and a trifle pleased with yourself just for having been in the presence of such rare and magnificent specimens. No, not us, the birds!

Like them though it is never long before you feel the urge to feed and hence we find ourselves here in Kinross at the Green Hotel. A place that holds many fond memories for us. For a number of years this place hosted our work’s Christmas parties. One abiding memory is of us all doing a conga round the grounds in the falling snow. And being completely impervious to the cold. Perhaps the less said the better.

Fruity fruit scones

Anyway, it was nice to be back and nice to get into a big comfy armchair after our bottoms had endured a cold hard bench all afternoon. Service was perfect and before you could say “white-tailed eagle” we had our coffee and scones. Green 03Coffee was fine, although we have had better, but the scones were very good .. lovely and warm and probably the most fruit we have had in a fruit scone for ages . And they came with a nice pot of jam and lashings of cream. It was really difficult but eventually it was decided that they just missed out on a topscone award .. but it was very very close. Phew! The anguish and stress we have to endure for your reading pleasure and scone enlightenment!

We wish there was more enlightenment in the ongoing Paris situation. The media must bear a lot of the blame for us all feeling utter despair at the world being such a horrid and despicable place. Some of the Murdoch press headlines in particular have been truly awful.

Green 02 Of course, it isn’t, the world is a wonderful place full of absolutely wonderful people. Even the perpetrators of these atrocities are not religious fanatics nor immigrants, as the media would have you believe. They are mostly French and Belgian lapsed Muslims who have scant knowledge their own religion. They are disaffected people who have found a way to express their anger at the futility of their own lives. Not an excuse in any way shape or form, but perhaps our governments should be paying more heed to that aspect of things rather than taking the easy option of air strikes.

Cycle of Stupidity

In times like these we are made to feel that we should not scrutinise our government’s actions too closely, when surely we should be doing exactly the opposite. Does anyone honestly feel safer in the knowledge that we can completely flatten a town in a country thousands of miles away? Technology now allows us to wage a war with the potential for hundreds of thousands of dead on one side and absolutely none on the other. That’s not war as we know it. It is illusory because it’s also absolutely certain that the war will not be won, if it can be won, until we send in our sons and daughters. That doesn’t get reported?

Inter stupidityDoes it get reported that the cause of the original trouble in Syria was the weather? Does it get reported that the trouble in Ukraine was caused by the US, not Russia … no! Journalists should start doing their job properly rather than simply repeating what they are fed. Otherwise this cycle of stupidity will continue. Because we will be seen to be supporting it. Journalists are guilty as much for what they don’t say as much as for what they do. When they ignore the truth the silence becomes a lie.

Enough we hear you say! Just don’t expect fair reporting any day soon but also don’t forget the birds at Vane Farm. In the midst of all this mess, they are still fabulous … but no more so than our fellow human beings. Don’t let the media tell you anything different.

KY13 8AS         tel: 01577 863467            The Green Hotel

Useful link: things to do in Kinross