POP UPS AND POPPED OUT

First I must say how sorry I am that some of you are getting pop ups when you visit my blog. I don't have any idea why this is happening and can assure you that it is nothing that I've knowingly done. It never happens to me and I know it doesn't happen to all of you...if anyone has any bright (simple) ideas as to what I can do to prevent it please let me know as my own virus and spyware detectors have picked nothing up even though I do a full system scan every week.

Now some good news I've had an email from BLOGGER saying that my blog has been checked and it isn't spam! Yippee no more verification!!!!!

Yesterday had been quite a stressful day due to my numerous pc problems and life in general so yesterday afternoon I thought I'd take myself out for a walk. Last year the River Stour Trust opened the new "Millennium Lock" in Great Cornard but try as we might Manda and I have never managed to find it. We know approximately where it's supposed to be but the way always seems to be blocked off due to the building of a new Riverside Housing Complex........having always looked at the weekend the building site is locked up and so knowing that there would have to be someone on site on a weekday I thought I'd see if any of the builders knew where the lock was.

Sure enough the site gates were open and I could see this sign

so I walked straight through the site (even got wolf whistled!!!!) and found the visitors centre.

There were a couple of chaps outside working and they said they were part of the volunteer workforce. It seems that the centre is still a work in progress but they are hoping that once the Housing Complex is finished it will be possible for them to run a pathway all the way into Sudbury; it would appear that at the moment there may be some issues with a "no man's land" area. There was a young lady in the main building who explained that they also hope to start a tea rooms there and happily showed me round inside. It is hoped that schools and other interested groups will visit the centre and that it will also become a base for canoeing and youth groups.

The Millennium Lock

Of course being by the river I had to take an obligatory dragonfly photo or twoThere were loads of small fish swimming around......a pond dipper's dream!I was surprised to see a clump of Himalayan Balsam....this is part of the Impatiens family and is becoming quite a problem in the wild; a shame as it's a lovely plant... sadly it's preventing the growth of some of our natural riverside plants.

There was also plenty of other wildlife around the area............

and now I've found the centre I'll definitely be dragging the grandchildren down there during the school holidays!

Although the weather forecast is rather foreboding today the last few evenings have seen some wonderful sunsets and coloured skies so I'll finish this post with a couple I took last night.....