I just had the most excellent birthday. I chose to spend it watching Red Kites because I had seen one flying down our valley a couple of months ago and it had blown me away it was so spectacular.
A beautiful bird that has a wing span of 5 to 6 feet, they are huge. I believe that the conditions were perfect. It was overcast and slightly drizzly, which meant that they were flying low and we were wrapped up in light weight waterproofs so we could sit down on wet benches with no problem. We had driven to Watlington because I had read that this was where they had been reintroduced after their virtual extinction.
When we arrived in the car park and got out of the car there were five or six red kites circling over head. Because the weather was overcast the birds remained low flying and were so close I was buzzing all day. Every where I looked there were Red Kites looking like teredactals. We followed one of the walks outlined on the Watlington website which lead us through some lovely country side where we saw a black cap. The route was really easy to follow and at just before 1pm we arrived at the Fox and Hounds at Christmas Common. I had booked ahead because it was Easter Sunday and I wanted to make sure we would have somewhere to eat.
As a raw vegan I needed to be happy with the choices they were going to offer me especially as it was my birthday. They did very well for me especially as i had only told them that i am a Vegan I had not specified the raw side of it. I suppose I assumed that with it being Easter Sunday it was more extra work than necessary to cater for me if there was no prior knowledge which i felt was most likely.
I chose the Green and White Apsparagus with baby Cress. This was served with lemon mayonaise which was felt might contain egg so it was left out and an interesting green light flavourful oil was drizzled over them. This was really tasty and it had evidently been steamed which is a good alternative to raw.
Then next course was fussli and toasted pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes, although the fussuli was white instead of whole wheat the flavours were excellent and the service was friendly and courteous and we were made to feel special as it appeared was everyone else, which was nice.
We rejected all of the puddings because they were either based on dairy or sugar or both, I had packed a raspberry sheeze cake and a chocolate Galleta each and so David and I walked down the hill back into Watlingon, where the nutrient filled mind expanding super food goodies had perfectly defrosted to be in just the perfect mouth watering state to thrillingly wash through and revitalise us. This is a picture of them the raspberry one being the red one.
(If you would like to taste these rather than just drool over them then go to my website and I will tell you how you can.)
As we sat in the car park so many of the red kites flew around over head my memories are filled with amazing images that I will hold forever..
I will write more as the coming weeks go by because there are some really exciting things that I will tell you about that will enable you to sample for free some amazing drinks and foods that will transform your life. They have transformed mine, come and see for yourself.