A Morning Walk

It was such a lovely morning that we decided to have a walk at Greenway Country Park which is just up in the north of the city. We parked the car in the car park which was very quiet; just us and a few anglers taking advantage of the calm and bright but sun free morning. We walked down to one of the lakes and it was absolutely blissful. We saw many birds just flittering amongst the branches and peering inquisitively down at us from the trees above. There was a colourful display of bright robins, the yellow and blue of the little tits, and the warm colours of the nuthatch. We also saw a couple of jays and a woodpecker after we had been invited to find him by his hollow tip tapping in a nearby tree.

All around us were happy and contented birds gearing themselves up for the spring that I'm sure they can feel just around the corner. The grebes below went through their courtship ritual for us, I wish I could have recorded the sound of their calls.

The squirrel below was delighted to see us, he stopped and watched us, then danced across the little bridge parapet towards us, finally settling at the base of a tree right by my feet.

I held out my hand and the squirrel came towards me, I just wish I'd had a nut in my fingers because I'm sure he or she would have taken it from me, as it was my lavender coloured Thinsulate gloves just didn't cut the mustard and the squirrel eventually moved away from us and scampered down towards the lake. Paul managed to get the photo below whilst the squirrel was eying up my fingers to see if I had anything tasty for him.

After our walk we set off towards Bagnall and one of our favourite places for coffee, Jackson's Garden Centre. Here we had a mug of coffee and scone close to the wonderful, warm log fire.

The smoke from the chimney goes up through the glass roof and the lovely smell of woodsmoke drifts over the garden centre as you walk round. I was pleased to bag a bargain of five potted tulips for just two pounds.