Adnams Brewery and more (Day 2 - Minsmere)

Our room and the lovely bird wallpaper

Following a good night's sleep and after a hearty breakfast at Copperbeeches we were packed up and ready to leave.  The journey home was to be via RSPB Minsmere, It is just a few miles north of Yoxford.  It's one of those places that you arrive at, but you're not there yet.  That's probably because it is so large.  After apparently entering the site 3 times, we parked reasonably close to the Visitor centre, put our boots on and began our journey.  As far as bird watching goes, for us, it is an enjoyable pass time, not a competitive sport!  On arrival, we showed our membership cards and were waved through to the expert, who told us excitedly of the unusual visitors they had on the edge of the reserve.  It was a lovely warm day, but very gusty.

We followed his directions (badly) and ended up in completely the wrong place, having seen almost nothing. Just possibly a Marsh Harrier at the very end of the binocular's range. As it twisted and turned, trying to catch thermals, there were flashes of white and bronze, then it was stationary for a few seconds, until it was disturbed by the next gust and had to start again.  We were looking almost straight into the sun for much of the time, so it was easy to lose track of it altogether.  It did make the occasional dive, but I don't think it ever caught anything.

It was on the way back to the visitor centre that I got my best picture of the day.

Robins are pretty common, in fact they are everywhere, but few will stay perched on a finger post long enough for me to get a decent picture.

By now it was lunchtime, so we went to the restaurant for a snack.  Still too full from breakfast really, but knowing the next meal is at home and 6-7 hours away.

The afternoon took us out to the coast where the gulls were struggling with the strong winds, then back past the wetland scrapes, where life was more interesting. Here there is a good selection of birds and ducks, we watched for quite a while.  There was a book in the hide that helped us identify some, but others had to wait until we got home to the bigger, more detailed book.

Eventually, mindful of traffic around Chelmsford, we left the hide and the reserve and made our way home.  There were a few jams, the worst at the A14-A12 junction.  Arriving home as rush hour was getting underway, we were diverted around the outskirts of Billericay by Google to avoid road closures.  By then, it was raining and much colder, so I left unloading the car until the following morning.

Adnams Brewery and more (Day 1 - The Brewery)

When I 'retired' last year, the company very kindly gave me vouchers for an Adnams Brewery trip.  It's half-term, so our current child care responsibilities gave us a little break.  So, off to Southwold and around the Adnams Brewery we went.  Weather-wise, it was a horrible day and raining quite hard when we got there.  I don't know Southwold that well, the nearest parking space I could find was 7-minutes walk from the Brewery, plenty of time to get soaked.  The hotel, though, is 30 seconds walk from the Brewery and provides some very nice lunches. We had plenty of time and enjoyed a leisurely lunch, then darted across to the Brewery about half an hour early. 

	Here I am sitting next to a pink pig, whose specific significance I'm not sure that I heard about, you can see the Adnams history and historic bottles in the background.  The plan had been to drink from the Tankard, I was also given, when we got to the tastings, but in the rush to get out of the rain, it was left in the car.  Plans get changed by circumstances all the time. Next to the pink pig is a blue crocodile.  The significance of the blue crocodile is that it ate the younger of the two brothers that founded Adnams, while he was visiting the Zambezi.  Well, I'm not swearing that it was a blue crocodile, perhaps someone has sampled too much of the Broadside, or the forerunner to Ghostship (8% ABV)
	Here's Jo, she's not asleep, just looking at her phone.

I've been on brewery tours before, not Adnams though, which is about as up to date as it gets.  No trays of grain scattered across floors and swept down through hoppers to the floor below. Everything is shining stainless steel, fully automated. We saw the control room, and I saw the cables (Ethernet)  in the ducting, very nice job they had done too. When product needs to be moved, it is pumped from one place to the next.  The operation is as energy efficient as they can make it, and they are very proud of their leading edge methods. They can run multiple brews per day. Nothing is wasted, the by-products are used to feed local cattle, who generate less methane when they're eating brewery by-product.

The brewing process, drawn by the same man who created the clock on Southwold pier.

So to the tasting room, where there is a wide selection of beers to try.  It was no surprise to me that I didn't like the lager, and I already knew that I like the ales. Even Jo, who is not a bear drinker, enjoyed the Ghostship.  Then there was the inevitable voucher, so we headed up the road to the Brewery shop, and stocked up a little.

Only having drunk a few 1/4 pints and a few mouthfuls, I was still OK to drive.  By now the rain had stopped, so we took a short stroll past the pier and back before driving to Yoxford for the night.

Our B&B - Copperbeeches - is on a tight bend on the A12.  I thought it was going to be a noisy disturbed night.  I was wrong, the house has secondary glazing throughout, and we were in a room at the back of the house.  We were the first guests in the newly refurbished room.  

Just down the road, less than five minutes walk away, is the King's Head.  A pub we visited in 2016, the last time we stayed in Yoxford (see: https://3cephas.blogspot.com/search/label/Yoxford).  It was as lovely that night as it was today.