A very different Valentine’s Day

Jon and I spent a very special Valentine’s Day yesterday. I had got him a “Haf-Day Experience” at the English School of Falconry in Bedfordshire. I originally tried to get the Experience through the Tesco’s Clubcard Points for his birthday, but they were full for that weekend, and when the lady told me that they had the 14th of February free I didn’t think twice and booked it.

The actual place was not very easy to find and it was about an hour and half drive, but it was definetely worth it. The surroundings of the school were gorgeous. I was amazed to find out that the school was located inside Shuttleworth College which is basically a college to become a farmer! The whole concept is so weird to me… I always thought that farming is a skill/knowledge that is passed from parents to children and so on. I never thought you could go to college to learn all those things! That college has, for example, courses on Crop Production, Fish Husbandry and Countryside Management. Weird.

But going back to the Experience Day… We got there just with enough time to say hello and have a cup of tea. There was 6 of us, although another couple were only there for two hours and didn’t do the final Eagle Flying. Firstly we went to see the owls, from very small ones to really big and heave ones.

The little fella above on top is Louie, the smallest and cutest owl I’ve ever seen in my life. He was so quiet and at peace with people around him. And he was so light, you could easily forget you were holding him at all! Not like the following one (I forgot the name) who was so heavy I had to give him back to the carer earlier than I would have liked!

After visiting all different types and sizes of owls we went to fly them. Basically they stand on a pole and from a distance you kind of call them and they come and sit on your arm and then you can feed them (they eat almost anything, the carer said. We were giving them dead chicks. Apparently, some baby roosters get thrown away anyway so they are given to Bird Farms to feed the birds)

I must say that we enjoyed the day a lot, but it was freezing cold and we got tired very soon. After the Experience day we went to the nearest pub to have lunch (we were starving!), and it happened to be a Michellin-starred pub. I was called The Hare and Hounds and it had delicious food (although I enjoyed my scallops but my stomach was a bit dodgy later on in the evening).

Jon and I loved the place, the surroundings, the nature, the peace and quite of the countryside… We have kind of decided (although we already knew) that at some point in the future we will HAVE TO move to the countryside and live in a cottage. We will definetely have several dogs and a massive log fire.