Sir Peter Scott Living Legacy Project

Today I took a day off and we went to a workshop at Slimbridge for their 2020 Heritage Lottery Fund project.  There were quite a few people there and the day started with an overview of the overall project and the three main projects - opening up Sir Peter Scott's cottage (and including an arts area), a living theatre inside an aviary and a revamp of the Holden Tower.  

We were split into three groups and our morning task was the living theatre.  They had prepared presentations but kept getting side tracked by the views and discussions we raised.  We managed some fresh air at lunchtime (not too many birds around as it's still quite mild) but the swans were unusually active.

In the afternoon we were on the Holden Tower tour, and they had two reserve wardens with spotting scopes (and saw a peregrine falcon sitting in a tree so far away it was invisible to the naked eye)!  Also the lapwings on the scrape and flying around as they came in to land.  We then went to another meeting room with a view over the rushy pen and had a chance to share our thoughts.  This became "Twitcher Wars Episode II:  The Return of the Dark Twitcher" as there was a bloke there who thought the Holden Tower was a birders hide and should not be open to children.  Slimbridge want to improve the diversity of people they appeal to and had invited some minority groups.  I told the bloke that view was not the same as Slimbridge were aiming for, and no one should be excluded from any part of the centre, especially as we all pay the same entry money.  That got some nods from others (and the minorities especially) and he said that children would make too much noise, so I said no, no one should dictate who can and can't go where, or intimidate people as they'd done to me earlier in the year.  He didn't get any support, started to backtrack, and then went quiet (sulked)!

From there we went to the gym, and did the exercise bikes tonight, and I did some weights before home for tea.

Oh, and my sunset photo from yesterday has been made the BBC Points West cover photo!  Then someone who saw it said they had to steal it and have used it as their cover photo too! 

See extras for pictures to match the day!