August 2023 – Herrick Home Page

August 2023

Photos on GoDaddy
Index to main site
2021 photos
2022 Photos
Study of birds

Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Awaiting Hurricane Idalia, we have had two bands go by so far, just a short rainfall each time. I do not expect too much, some rain and a small surge. Hopefully not too much in my garage. I lifted everything up so if some water does get in nothing will be damaged.

I am in a High School opened as a shelter. Nice and Air Conditioned and good Internet. I have a nice teachers desk and chair – what more could I ask for!

It was such a nice sunrise this morning.

Sunday, August 27, 2023
The weather was awesome, lower humidity and slightly cooler. No manatees or dolphin today. I met up with three others on the water including one lady an a board, one lady in a kayak, and Nature John. Lots of birds though.

August 26, 2023
More manatees! Two dolphins and a pod of manatees today.

August 25, 2023
Back to America and kayaking. This morning Marian (freshly back from Vermont) rousted me out of bed to go kayaking, and we had a beautiful day to do it. 75° and low humidity ..full sun. Shortly we found that we were surrounded by manatees! At least six. Then up Bear Creek we spotted about six more! Manatee haven this morning!

August 23, 2023
We got up early and caught the first train from Bath to Reading, then another train from Reading to Gatwick. Every train we took (and we took 17) was on time or they notified us if it was going to be 2 minutes late. We only had one that we had planned to take, but it left early! Luckily we had planned to have two hours to spare at the airport, so waiting for an hour for the next train was ok. Next time I go to England I will save some money and go regular rather than First Class. The upgrade was not needed.

August 22, 2023
Our last full day we spent in Bath, England with a side trip to Stonehenge, Stonehenge was built at the same time as a Pyramids. An Englishman was showing his Egyptian girlfriend the Stonehenge. She said that his ancestors were rather puny and weak!

August 21, 2023
WE travelled by train from Glasgow to Oxford where we spent the afternoon at the University of Oxford.

Uploading Loch Ness photos, then today, August 20 photos.
So far sun every day, 70’s and very nice. Most days tee shirt weather.

August 19 2023
We spent the day in Edenburgh, they have the Fringe Festival going on and we stopped to se a lot of the events, we also walked down to Arthurs Seat, but did not climb it. It was a two hour walk (climbing almost 800 feet) but we had walked enough (three times my expected per my watch) so we passed.

August 18, 2023
Flash: NEWS: We did Not see the Loch Ness monster. 🙁
We did have fun on the boat and up to the castle though. No rain!! Just 19 degrees and nice. We have had exceptional weather – sun at least part of every day.

August 17, 2023
I got an email back from one of the swimmers in one of my photos in Dover, Lee wrote:
” I have swam the English Channel solo amongst other marathon swims UK & abroad. I have been involved with open water swimming at all levels for over 25 years; coaching, managing, regional development and organising races. I am currently coaching the young guy who was in the water with me to swim the English Channel. He is due to go on 22nd /23rd August and should complete the swim in under 11 hours which is considered fast. The average time is 15 hours and the world record is 6 hours 58 minutes.”
Amazing who you might meet traveling!

A very busy trip! August 15 we left Dover and went to Bradford where Eileen’s ancestors were from. We did a lot of hiking and went to a museum that was just like where her GGGrandfather may have worked. Then we took a train to Edinburgh (they pronounce it Edin-brh) and went to the castle there. The castle still has 400 soldiers living there!

August 14, 2023
We had a good flight over here to England, a long eight hours in the air but they fed us well. Then we got to Gatwick, found the train real quickly, hopped on the train down to Dover. We had found the bed and breakfast that we had reserved and just had to walk across the street to get there from the station so that was very convenient. We were really lucky when we arrived here in Dover that the lady who manages the bed and breakfast happened to be outside. She let us in and put our bags inside. We also were really lucky to have the beautiful sunshine, everything so far other than some bumps and bruises is going splendidly.

Then we climbed the mountain where the castle is and climbed up in the castle and checked out the King and Queen’s quarters and down in the basement checked out the kitchen. At the castle I was a little chilly so I bought a t-shirt and put it on over my shirt, two t-shirts, which was enough to keep me warm. The weather has been just wonderful sunshine for the most part we had a cloud come over and a few drips of precipitation but then it went away and there was a rainbow so we got to see beautiful sunshine. Both yesterday and this morning is sunny and about 59 degrees out there which is really refreshing and nice. and then hiked back down over the mountain and down to the beach where we found a seal had come ashore, he was still laying on the beach and took pictures of the three statues. The seal looked like it was fish out of water it was laying there and just moving its head a little bit it was waiting for the tide to come in apparently to pick it back up again and go back in the water.

We stopped in a bar and had that drinks but before then we stopped at a restaurant that was really good had a really good breakfast. A vegetarian breakfast no less, with vegetarian sausages that were absolutely delicious. The mushrooms that they use are delicious as well. best mushrooms I’ve had forever!

August 12, 2023
I am off to England starting tomorrow.
Today Noa came with me, and we met Nature John out there.
Noa and I saw a large dolphin, but no manatees.
We had a good time anyway and I got photos of birds.

August 11, 2023
Lots of manates! A pair of twins about a month old surfaced three feet from my kayak! The adults (I guess about three more) were having a good time thrashing about at times!
On the GoPro, I think I may be using the wrong SD cards. I have ordered a high speed card which should be here by the end of the month.

August 10, 2023
Mostly cloudy, but Allan and I saw a dolphin, and I saw two manatees up at the dam! The tide was high enough that I could go over the pipe and paddle to the dam. There were two manatees, taking turns with their noses over the dam taking in the cool fresh water.

August 9, 2023
Allan and I saw a mother and a calf manatee as they went by his place.
A very warm day toward the end.

August 7, 2023
Another BANNER day! A small herd of manatees were in front of Bob’s place! I played with then for 15 minutes and even got to pet one! At times there were three heads out of the water at a time! One came galloping toward me, up and down like a bucking horse, he went right under me!!
I met Java and family from Columbia and Jeff whose boat submerged but the electric motor seems to be OK.
I think tomorrow I will stop by where the mural is and ask who painted it. Scott has a nice mural of a pair of frogs on his wall. He was not around to ask who painted it though.
UPDATE on the murals:

St Pete’s finest… both were done by Vitale Bros. They have done most of the big commercial murals all over the city.

Vitale Brothers Art Studio

(727) 520-0969

https://g.co/kgs/Lb86wD

August 6, 2023
Another great day. Allan said he saw 3 dolphins, but 8 minutes before I got there

August 5, 2023
Another beautiful day like yesterday. Lots of birds.

August 4, 2023
A nice day, the lower humidity was nice, people were coming out on their back yards to enjoy the weather. I added two more videos.

August 3, 2023

A fine day, Noa went with me this morning. I saw one manatee surface, but we did not see him again. A nice breeze picked up which made it not so very hot. I added three videos to the video page.
Videos of Noa are on the NEW GoPro Videos

August 2, 2023
A beautiful day this morning, a day of Little Green Herons. They were out, young and old. No sense using the GoPro as it still has issues with the SD cards, and the Little Greens are too little to be seen on a video.