Spotted in Early September

 My birthday flowers from last Friday are still looking good a week later.

Below a few photos from this week.  Mostly animals, birds and signs.

Red Panda at Peak Wildlife Park.  This is the new panda, a male called Nilay.  When the pandas first arrived at the wildlife park there were two sisters Esha and Riya. Now Esha  has been moved to another wildlife park and the male introduced.  They are part of an international captive breeding programme for endangered species.

Red Squirrel at Peak Wildlife Park.  He was more a conker brown than red.  We noticed a few years ago that the red squirrels at Formby in Lancashire were a nut brown colour whereas the ones we saw in Scotland were a definite gingery red colour.

Little Egret on the River Trent at Trentham.  Little Egrets have a black bill.  The Great white and cattle Egrets have yellow bills.

Young Herring Gull at Westport Lake.

A ghost sign in Buxton.  I remember Maypole shops and also Home and Colonial shops from my childhood.  I also remember the first small supermarkets, Fine Fare and  Macfisheries.  Also the small Co-op shops with separate butchers, grocers and electrical goods.  One of my Uncles was manager of a Co-op grocery shop and a cousin worked in a small electrical shop.

I've never seen a warning sign for badgers before.  This one is in the city close to the A50.  I know both urban badgers and foxes are increasing, we have three badgers and a couple of foxes regularly visit our garden.  I guess there is a Badger sett somewhere close to the slip road at Heron Cross.

I'm having problems commenting both on my own blog and others.  Things seem to freeze on publishing, not sure what the problem is or how long it will last.

All for now.

Hares in the Churchyard

I'd read about the hare sculptures that could be found during the last week of August in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Ellastone, Staffordshire.

We often pass through the village on the way to Ashbourne but had never stopped there.  We were able to park quite easily at the village hall and walk across the road to the church.

You can spot the little hare by the WWI soldier.  We counted twenty three hares as we walked around, all painted by local community organisations or businesses.

 My photos aren't great as it was raining, the air was misty and I was trying to hold up an umbrella as well.  I've chosen a few of the entries to show you. the last one was in the church porch.  The church itself was closed when we visited but it looks an interesting building and the views across the countryside from where it stands on a hill are lovely.

The village has an interesting history, standing as it does, on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border.  It has a literary connection with the Evans family.  Mary Ann Evans visited family here and when she wrote her first novel, as George Eliot, she used the village as a setting.  In Adam Bede, published in 1859, the village of Hayslope is based on Ellastone.

St Peter's Church is a Grade 2* listed building which dates from about 1163.  The church tower was added in 1582 but two of the church bells sited in the tower are earlier in date.  It is believed they may have come from nearby Calwich Priory.