Out again!

Now that the leaves are coming off the trees, we can see the hills beyond the valley. I do love being able to look at the hillls - they are so beautiful, especially when the sun is on them, or when they are snowy. At night I can see the street lights across the valley, which is somehow magical! The photo is taken from the bedroom, through glass, so not of my best!




There are nearly always two crows sitting in the birch tree. They tend to look rather ominous, and are terrors at breeding time, when they eat nestlings, and duckling on the lake, if they can.




The stream in the park feeds the lake. It has been culverted now, but my friend can remember taking her children when small to play on its grassy banks. Knowing how much damage can be done to grass and mud banks, being culverted is probably a good thing, but it doesn't look so pretty!



There are always fishermen using the lake in the season, and it is very popular - on the side you can see you can sometimes find it hard to reach the water for rods, cans of bait, tents, etc.! The lake is also a favourite place for small children to come and feed the ducks from the two concrete 'piers'. Wintertime isn't quite so favourite a time for them, so the ducks look hungry, and often there are 'visitors' to the lake. We have seen grey herons, and gooseanders (loons) visit regularly in the winter. We've seen our first ones this winter already!




The hungry ducks! I love the way the light reflects off the water.




There are also doves and pigeons. The white ones are doves, more or less living in the park now, though I believe they used at one time to belong to a man who bred them. They seem to get on with life on their own now! The darker ones are feral pigeons, not so graceful, very greedy, and always keen to eat the duck bread! They love sitting on the roof of the old bandstand.




The larches this year are not so orange as they were last year, and the needles are falling rapidly, but they still look lovely against the sky.

After the recent high winds and lashing rains, we have had a bit of quiet weather, and my camera has been out with me. Hopefully, when circumstances permit, we will get out into the real country! You must be getting bored with pictures of our park!