Lakeland exotica

A visit to Grange-Over-Sands during our few days in the Lakes, gave us the opportunity to have a look around the town's beautiful park. The lake in the park supports a wide range of rather exotic waterfowl. Among the most numerable of these are these Wood Ducks (sometimes called Carolina Ducks - Aix sponsa).

Wood Ducks originate from North America where they live in swampy regions and nest in holes in trees near to water.
Another colourful duck found in the park are Mandarins (Aix galericulata).

Natives of Eastern Asia, their numbers in the wild have slumped in recent years - as have so many animals.
Another rarity in the park is the Hawaiian Goose or Ne-ne (Branta sandvicensis). This is the world's rarest goose thanks to hunting and introduced predators in it's native Hawaiian Islands. Thanks to the work of Sir Peter Scott in the 1950's, the species was brought back from the brink of extinction.

Lancaster Canal

Going for a walk one evening while in the Lake District, Malcolm and I discovered the Lancaster Canal. Having stayed in the area several times before, we were amazed that we had not found it before.

Only about 42 miles of the canal are still navigable. The canal was first surveyed in 1772 but work on it's construction was not started until 1792.
Added to and extended over many years it was finished by about 1826. It eventually linked with the Leeds - Liverpool Canal. An act of Parliament authorised it's closure in 1955.

Easter

A movable feast commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The date was decided at the first Council of Nicaea. The Council, called by Emperor Constantine l in the year 325, was supposed to be a gathering of all 1800 Bishops of the Christian Church. In the end a much smaller number attended - although the exact numbers are unknown, it was reported that between 250 and 318 Bishops actually attended. The Bishops were allowed to bring with them, two priests and three deacons so the actual number of attendees could well have been in excess of 1500.
The agenda of the Council included the formalising of the Creed - still known to this day as the Nicaean Creed. The delicate subject of Easter, or at least it’s date, was also discussed. Formerly, the date of Easter had been linked to the Jewish Passover and so relied on the Jewish calendar. Christians argued that the Jews had the date all wrong and insisted on choosing their own date which was to be after the spring equinox.
After centuries of argument, the date of Easter was finally accepted as being the first Sunday after “Paschal Full Moon“, which is the first moon who’s 14th day is on or after March 21st. A complicated system which has little - if anything - to do with the actual date of the events it is supposed to represent…… But that’s religion for you!
Happy Easter.
The Salvador Dali masterpiece Christ of St John of the Cross.

Orrest Head

Back again from our short break in the Lake District. It's always good to get away before the main holiday starts, so you can avoid the worst of the crowds. Crowds are almost always the thing in 'The Lakes' so avoiding them is not easy. If we had listened to the weather forecasters' gloomy predictions, we would have been inclined to cancel the break altogether. We were supposed to have almost wall-to-wall rain, but in the end we had it rather good - if a little overcast.
We took our two mothers and Monday saw us all enjoying a 'freedom of the Lakes' boat/ferry ticket on Windermere. Malcolm and I headed off through Bowness, up to the town of Windermere and eventually up Orrest Head. Famous for being the first of the Lakeland fells climbed by Wainwright and which started him on his lifelong love of the fells, it is also famous in our family as the last resting place of Malcolm's father, Albert (affectionately known as "Moose").

Not a bad place to 'end up'!

Andromeda.

A rather 'galactic' name for a showy garden shrub, Andromeda - more properly known as Pieris is actually a member of the Ericaceae family which includes the heathers. Malcolm and I found a couple of these shrubs in full flower in the gardens around the old Shipley Hall this morning.

A closer look at the bell-shaped flowers shows the similarity to heathers.
Elsewhere this morning, we came across some Maple trees just bursting into flower.

The pale, lime-green flowers were covered with tiny droplets of moisture in this morning's chilly mist - quite a different feel to the last couple of days!

Horsetails

While walking around the reservoir yesterday, we found a few clumps of this, surprisingly odd-looking plant...

...Known as a Great Horse-tail (Equisetum telmateia). The plant has many uses throughout the world. It contains several chemicals which can be used medicinally. It is rich in the minerals silicon (10%), potassium, and calcium, which gives it diuretic properties. It is prescribed to care for conjunctive tissues (cartilage, tendons, and bones) and also polyps, epistasis, and bleeding. The buds are eaten as a vegetable in Japan in spring time.

It was also once used to polish pewter and wood (gaining the name pewterwort) and to strengthen fingernails. Also as an abrasive: it was used by Hurdy-Gurdy players to dress the wheels of their instruments by removing resin build up. In herbalism it is used to treat kidney and bladder problems, gastro-enteritis, and prostate and urinary infections. Externally it is used for chilblains and wounds. Quite a useful plant! In fact, Equisetum is the only surviving genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was very diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests. Some Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 30 meters tall; the genus Calamites of family Calamitaceae for example is abundant in coal deposits from the Carboniferous period.
As any gardener will tell you, Horsetails are very difficult to get rid of. This is mainly due to their extraordinarily deep root systems which have been recorded in mines, hundreds of feet down.

Spring Wildlife.

Another beautiful walk today as Malcolm and I headed round Mapperley Reservoir, a large lake of about 17 acres. While walking around, this little character crossed our path........ A Common Toad, Bufo bufo. Solitary, except during the breeding season, they excavate a shallow burrow, which they return to after foraging for prey. They are mostly nocturnal and shelter under tree roots, stones and vegetation during the day.
They shed their skin regularly, and often eat the sloughed skin. Contrary to popular belief, they tend to walk rather than hop. Common toads hibernate in October, typically under deep leaf litter, logs, timber piles, or in burrows and drainpipes. They will occasionally hibernate in mud at the bottom of a pond, but tend to live away from water except during the breeding season. They emerge from hibernation in spring and migrate to breeding sites, which is what this little chap must have been doing.
Further on and a clump of Wood Anemones, Anemone nemorosa, caught my eye.
Rather a pretty flower related to buttercups. The plant contains poisonous chemicals that are toxic to animals including humans, but it has also been used as a medicine. All parts of the plant contain protoanemonin, which can cause severe skin and gastrointestinal irritation.