a weekend with family

We travelled to just south of Gloucester on Friday night to meet up with family. The plan was to visit the Aquarium in Bristol on Saturday morning and Slimbridge WWT on Sunday morning. The bits inbetween were to be determined.

Saturday started gloriously. The Harbour area in Bristol is much invested in and improved. There is a local off-shoot of the Science Museum:



Together with a lot of water based architecture. I was genuinely impressed with what has been created, it's a fun and involving space. You could almost sit on those benches:



The Aquarium was great. Lots of good fish and good for kids, being interactive rather than remote displays. The Sharks 3D on the IMAX was good too, although a depressing reminder of the effect of humans on every other species and how we're busy eliminating all other life forms on this rock.

From the Aquarium and after a light lunch we tried the Zoo Gardens but it was heaving. Even at 2pm the queue looked an hour long or so, just to get in, so we headed for Plan C, Westonbirt National Arboretum.

Well it turns out we chose well. I expected the foliage to be mostly green with some gold and rust, but some of the maple trees are already 'on fire:



This taken from under the foliage:

The view to what we presume was the house for which the arboretum was originally developed:

Pastels:

Lime tree avenue:

More pastels:

Catching fire:

burning:

And it's only just the second half of September. Looks like every forest will be a worth a visit this Autumn!

Sunday morning we did indeed visit Slimbridge and fed the ducks, geese and swans. We had a great time, somewhat tempered by the rain, which got progressively heavier as a number of thunderstorms passed. Late morning we decided to head to our various homes to recover after what had been a great weekend!