I recently received an email from somebody called Ben, telling me about his new website about Coventry. It's called It's All About Coventry and aims to be an honest, realistic and useful guide to the city.
There are "What's On" listings as well as reviews of shops, bars and restaurants. You can also add comments to any of the articles and reviews. It looks like it is going to be a useful site for both visitors and residents.
Here are some more squirrel photos from the town centre. A lot of the squirrels have become quite fat - it looks like people have been feeding them a lot recently.
A Messy Eater
Squirrel busy hunting for peanuts.
Some photos from the firework display in Longford Park tonight.
Click on the thumbnail to view the image
Walking past Holy Trinity churchyard, I saw a squirrel up a tree 'flapping' its tail and making a screeching noise. I noticed that it had a nut in its mouth and at first thought it was stuck and couldn't get it out. The squirrel ran up and down the tree and across the grass before it finally buried the nut. The nut wasn't stuck, the squirrel was simply being over protective.
The Warwickshire Wildlife Trust held their first food and drink festival today. It was a fairly small affair but there was some good food available. We bought some local wine (from Leicestershire) and some locally made cheese. We also bought some chocolate fudge which tasted really good - almost like a soft chewy block of chocolate rather than fudge.
The Organic Garden at Ryton had free admission as part of the Heritage Open Days. We didn't have time to fully explore but we had a look around the shop and part of the gardens.
This afternoon we were at the Herbert Gallery and Museum for a brief tour ahead of the reopening, which included a visit to a medieval cellar which belonged to one of the buildings which was originally on site.
Feeding the squirrels in the city centre, near Holy Trinity Church.
The squirrel seemed more interested in the bag rather than the nut being offered.
I was trying to get a photo of the squirrel running towards me but it leapt out of the way at the last moment.
Some photographs taken from the top of the bell tower at the old cathedral.
Click on the thumbnail to view the image
Coventry's new Lidl opened last week but we were away at the Leeds Festival. We poppped round tonight to check out the store. They must have had a busy opening weekend because quite a few of the shelves were empty or only half-stocked.
Back in 2004 when I lived in Aberystwyth, I used to regularly shop at Lidl. The food is really cheap and it's possible to spend around £10 on a balanced weekly shop and have so much food it was a struggle to carry it home.
This morning's commute was a bit like something out of the film Duel. When I joined the ring road, a lorry flashed its headlights to let me on. We both left at the same junction and drove 3 miles down the same road, turning right at the crossroads.
I pulled into the car park to let Emma out, then turned around and drove back to the main road. The lorry had also pulled into the car park and turned around, and followed me back to the road.
At the next crossroads I turned left, with the lorry following me. I took the next turning left, but by now I had managed to get a bit ahead. I think the lorry also took the same turning but it was too far behind me so I can't be certain.
I'm sure this is just coincidence, and nothing sinister at all. There are roadworks in the area and some roads are closed. Otherwise the lorry wouldn't have had to turn around where it did. I think the driver might have found himself at the wrong end of the roadworks and the route to the other side happened to be the same route I was taking.
This morning we were joining the ring road when we saw a car parked on the side of road (where Gosford Street turns into Far Gosford Street) with a strange camera-like attachment on the roof. I wondered whether it was one of the Google cars - this was confirmed by the small 'Google' logo on the door.
A few years ago we went to an event organised by Lidl to drum up support for a store in Binley. The planning application failed but they recently bought the old Somerfield site on the Binley Road in Stoke.
The last time we drove past, a few weeks ago, the site was still looking empty. There didn't seem to be anything above ground level. We drove past this evening and the building work seemed to have progressed quite well. The brick shell was in place and it looked very 'shop shaped'.
It was a toss-up between the lunchtime buffet at China Red in Hertford Street, or the Handy Nasty (Han Dynasty) near West Orchards. We chose China Red simply because we were nearer to it at the time.
The buffet was fairly cheap at £5.90-ish. The selection was reasonable given the price. Starters included prawn toast, chicken satay sticks, ribs, spring rolls. Main courses included beef curry, sweet and sour chicken, noodles, rice.
The food was tasty, but the disadvantage of eating at lunchtime is that I can't eat as much as in the evenings, so I didn't get to have as many platesful as normal.
I mentioned the weather yesterday. While we were up north, we missed the worst of the rain. Driving to work this morning, part of the London Road were flooded and we passed a few fields which had turned into ponds. We were definitely in the right part of the country for the Bank Holiday.
Update
Driving home tonight (by a different route) there were branches on the side of the Kenilworth road, which must have been blown down by the wind.
The Langar on offer consisted of bread dipped in a spiced batter and deep fried, and what looked like some kind of bhaji with onion, potato and spinach. There was also the sweet spiced tea available.
Walking around the stalls, we noticed some strange orange coloured food. We were told it was a kind of sweet so we bought a bag. It turned out to be a sweet spiced batter which had been deep fried. We watched it being cooked and it went into the oil a normal batter colour but came out a brilliant orange colour. I can't remember what it was called but I'll certainly look out for it again.
