Outdoors A weekend outside and how nice it was too. Saturday walking the disused Railway Trail from Shelly Bay in Hamilton Parish down to the Flatts Inlet walking past the ruins of old shipbuilding chimneys where some of Bermuda's Clippers were made in the 19th century. And then past the Bermuda Railway Museum museum, tiny and privately owned and unfortunately not open.

The walk took us along the North Shore coastline and the most startling thing was the huge amount of Portuguese Man o' War lying on the beaches. They are known to swarm in their thousands and the warmer waters followed by the recent strong north-easterly winds had washed these deceptively innocuous bag like creatures given their paralysing sting, up on to the sand. I prodded one with my trainer and then I was off.

The Bermuda Railway Trail is deserving of a lot more attention and I will get back to it soon.

Yesterday the sun was blazing in the afternoon and with friends we headed out in the other direction, west from our house to the Parish of Somerset, and across the smallest drawbridge in the world to two beautiful spots.

Fort Scaur (the link does it no justice at all) was part of a ring of fortifications constructed in the 19th century, during a period of troubled relations between Britain and the United States and has been beautifully restored with subterranean passages, but the best bit is on top of the hill as the panoramic views were stunning.

Then just a mile up the road was just one of the tiniest and prettiest little chapels I have even seen. Part of a blissfully peaceful 43-acre tract of land known as the Heydon Trust, the chapel dates back to before 1620 and is still fully active. With lovely gardens and bluebird nest boxes strategically situated, I could have sat there for hours. The great outdoors.  ¶ 17:58