Holiday Wildlife

I promised you holiday snaps, but things keep delaying me. Here are a few creatures we met on our latest visit to the Lakes...

A family of swans. The young cygnet must be almost fully grown but has yet to develop its adult feathers.

We set out most days to feed the ducks and swans we'd met on previous holidays. Being earlier in the season, many of these were further down the shore in Bowness where the crowds could keep them in bread crumbs all day long. Apart from the family of swans seen in the first picture, we had to settle for feeding cheeky seagulls like the one above.

You can see understand meerkats have become so embraced by the Evil World of Advertising. They are exceedingly cute.

As are these chaps, the ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar. Another red-ruffed lemur lived with them. Amazingly acrobatic creatures.

A family of zebras had just given birth to a new foal. Sadly they wouldn't let us close enough to the baby for a picture.

Emus in action.

And a brawny bison. OK, I'll come clean. Most of these critters aren't living wild in the Lake District - imagine if they were. We encountered them instead at Trotters World Of Animals in Bassenthwaite. Well worth a visit. While there, I held a python and a blue-tongued skink (no photos, sadly - worried the flash might piss them off!). I declined the chance to hold a tarantula though.

A dancing crane. This fella was a real show-off. We missed the falconry display at Trotters, but were lucky enough to stop off at the Yorkshire Dales Falconry Centre on our way home where met met some very entertaining owls... that's me in the bottom picture with a friendly little barn owl on my arm.

Holiday Catch-Up

Honestly, I take a few days off and everything happens! Lost finishes. Denis Hopper and Gary Coleman die. Jack Bauer goes off the deep end. So much to blog about, so little time...

I did consider adding to the morass that's doubtless already been scrawled in online blood and viscera about the last Lost, but in the end I prefer to let it stand. As far as I'm concerned, they delivered. I found it was a hugely satisfying conclusion both in terms of narrative and emotion. I can't imagine a more rewarding wrap-up, taking into account everything that's gone before. Yes, I could pick. I could niggle that this character or that didn't get the attention they deserved. I could wonder where Mr. Eko was (he wanted too much money?) but where would it get me? More than any other show, the Lost finale could so easily have fallen flat or failed to perform. It didn't. It made the whole journey feel worthwhile.

(See? That's me not saying anything and letting it stand.)



On from that, a few more highlights... and lowlights... from our holiday. Let's start with the underwhelming: Aira Force. Billed as the most famous of the Lake District waterfalls, a 20 minute hike led us through a pleasant forest of pine till we reached...

This.



I've seen a fair few waterfalls in my day, in all parts of the country. I love a good waterfall. But generally I expect a little more than a giant wee. For an area as breathtakingly impressive as the Lakes, I expected more from Aira Force. Maybe we just caught it on a bad day.

Far more impressive were the quartet of ducklings we encountered getting swimming lessons from their mum in Dovedale, Derbyshire. It's not that clear from the pictures, but they had to work their way upstream - a mini-waterfall that was in its own way far less disappointing than Aira Force - yet despite their tiny size and the speed of the river, they all managed... to cheers from the gathered spectators.




One curiosity we encountered both in the Peaks and the Lakes was the Log O' Coins. A large tree trunk at the side of the path with loads of 10 and 2p coins hammered into it... for no reason I could divine. If you've ever encountered such a spectacle, perhaps you know the why. Is it a good luck thing (a wooden wishing well)? Or something far more sinister...? Where's Mulder and Scully when you need them?



The guest house we stayed at in the Peaks was truly idyllic. The weather helped, of course, but taking afternoon tea and scones in the garden was like something from a dream... or Alice In Wonderland, minus the insanity.



But the real highlight of our week away was a little furry blighter called Dinky. Last time we visited this particular part of the Lakes, we met some very tame and friendly deer. On popping down to visit them again (they eat grass out of your hand), we found something even cuter. A newborn donkey. Again, the photos just don't do him justice - but sadly, this is as close as we could get.

Pictures Don't Do It Justice

So yes, we've had a holiday. A couple of days in the Peak District followed by a couple of days in the Lake District. Gorgeous weather in the former, not so gorgeous in the latter, but stunning views both times. We really are fortunate to live in such a beautiful country.