Family visit
More trips. . .
We had to go to the brewery and share the wonders of the beer making history of Speights. The copper was amazing to see and will always be so. Though you are not allowed to touch it, you can take photos, so here is what we saw, in addition to that which is on the section dedicated to Speights!
I wanted to get a picture of the huge brewing vats, called gyles, last time, but was unable to, so here goes! The exit for this room is actually down inside a disused gyle, so you get to see the true size as you climb down into it.
The copper speaks for itself!
This is Captain Cook. The narration in this museum sector states how he insisted the crew of the Endeavour had their quota of beer every day, to help reduce the illnesses that being at sea with limited fresh food could cause. He even looked at brewing a type of beer from native grasses, just to ensure his men didnt suffer from rickets and scurvy.
We took them to the Botanical Gardens and showed them all around the aviaries. Here we saw birds that were familiar to us as well as some native parrots. The rocky floors in some of the pens had extra inhabitants mice. The birds were quite unfazed at sharing their food and shelter with this invasion of rodents, but measures were being taken to eradicate them, purely to ensure that the less common birds didnt succumb to disease or find their breeding abilities compromised.
The trees were wearing their autumn mantles and looked totally amazing. Flowers were still in bloom and faint hints of perfume could still be detected from some.
This is one of the native parrots we were able to see and get a picture of. The Kaka is cheeky and can be quite aggressive, so it was with trepidation that I ventured to put the tip of a finger through the wire and scratch this ones ear. It allowed the contact for a moment, then screeched and ran off, seeking something to tear up! It settled on a log and did a good impersonation of an overgrown termite!
The view, across the lower reaches of the gardens, were lovely. Under the trees it was dark and cool, but beyond them the sun was touching the ground and everywhere was remarkably warm and bright.
When he saw this van, my brother stopped and laughed, reading the slogan aloud. It made him look twice, then he looked at the side of the vehicle and realised exactly what the van was advertising. It is for a local curtain and blind maker/cleaner/repair company, and the fleet can be seen, darting around, with indeed, blind men driving!
