Had a lovely day out with Tina today, most active day I have had since the surgery so feeling a bit pooped tonight, but in a good way, The weather wasn't great, but the rain held off for most of the day. Tina drove across country, beautiful drive and we stopped at Helmsley. We had been going to continue on to York, but in the end we stayed in Helmsley, a lovely market town and market day as well. Lots of tea rooms and crafty and very individual shops. We had a drink stop when we arrived then had a good wander around the market and in several lovely shops We didn't go in the castle, think it was closed anyway, but got a reasonable picture from the car park.

Passed this pretty unusual scarecrow, not sure how effective it would be but it made me smile!

Took this picture of a stream between the buildings on the way back to the car park.

We had noticed that there was a bird of prey centre nearby so we headed off there. The wind was pretty icy and a lot of the birds were in their cages. The ground was uneven in parts, but I managed the getting around fairly well today. This was fabulous wall art, we thought one like it would be good on the shed Darren, although this was probably a bit on the big side!

This fish eagle was a fabulous fellow.

Tina thought I should take a photo of the funky fungi.

One picture of Tina by a cage with another fish eagle in.

We then went to see a flying demonstration, which took place in a smaller area today due to the wind. I am ashamed to say I cannot remember what the first bird was, Tina might prompt me or I will check in the book later.

There were two young lasses doing the demonstrations and they were both absolutely lovely and obviously adored the birds.
Next came the tawny owl.

Then the barn owl.

The did fly one of the larger birds in the big flying area, but it was a steep walk down and I would have struggled getting back up again. We did watch from a distance for a while then it started to rain so we made out very chilly way back to the reception centre. I got some nice note cards and a paper mobile to make, always up for a challenge!!

They had quite a range of birds, so if I get on well with this one may try another. We headed home then and stopped for tea and cake at a nice farm cafe. Then we called into the new Lidl, my first visit there, before we came home in the rain by then. Like I said, pretty tiring day but I am not in a lot of pain, so all good. Tina and I would both love to get to Helmsley and the bird of prey centre again, preferably on a warmer, less windy day.