WALNEY POND - A FEW PHOTOS FROM 3-12-25

We park our car on the right-hand side... 

and walk across a wooden boardwalk to get to the other side of the pond. This is another place I have shared many times over the lifetime of this blog.

If you carry on and go over a small bridge, there is a trail that will eventually take you to the visitor center. Normally we turn left and enjoy our walk next to the water. There are new shoots of Yellow flag iris showing in the shallows.We took the photo of the beaver lodge below our little friend here as we were making our way back to the car, which looks a bit torn apart, and is actually a dozen or so feet away from the previous location. There was also a wire fence preventing access to a water pipe I noticed. You can see this delightful animal below, a photo taken from a previous post. 

I wonder if the park people are trying to discourage them from damaging any of the trees, but that's what I thought last year? And then we saw beaver swimming into the middle of the waterlilies. Hopefully we will be seeing the same later on. We were a bit too early today I think. Fingers crossed! If you would like to see that post of our North American Beaver, click at this link.

We were welcomed by a pair of ducks. They started swimming towards the center of the pond when we appeared, and there were several tortoises resting on a platform nearby.I liked the patterns in the water that the ducks were causing. The sun was shining in the wrong direction and reflecting off the lens but I was happy to get these.They and the tortoises seemed to be enjoying the sunny and warm weather, as we were.We sat down on a couple of the benches and always like to read the plaques put there. There were new places to sit I noticed.

Some of the messages are very touching. There are donations you can make to the "Honor or Memorial Park Bench Program." The price of each 6-foot bench is $1,500, all made of recycled materials. You can get a personalized plaque installed up to 3 lines, 42 characters per line, I read. More information about this program is here.

This is one of the two overlooks. I see people who enjoy looking into the water, some with fishing poles. I didn't see any fish today though. We usually look when all the waterlilies are blooming and there are many here, but not yet.

I will leave you with a couple of photos of "ducks, beautiful, comical things." 

F. W. Harvey was so very correct. I have his poem which you can read here, but you can see all three verses at this link. I didn't realize there were others, only having seen the first.

I was so very happy to see the ducks today, and the tortoises of course. I am hoping we will see the North American Beaver next time.

Thanks for taking a look, always appreciated. 

Have a great day.

DUCKS AND TORTOISE AND A POEM

A duck with a dream and a makeshift raft,  

Set off on a journey that made others laugh.  

"Tortoises aboard!" the duck did declare,  

"Across this grand pond, I’ll get you there!"  

The tortoises climbed, with patience galore,  

Each slower than the one just before.  

"Can we go yet?" quacked the duck in dismay,  

"At this rate, we’ll leave by the end of the day!"  

With a flap of her wings, she gave the raft a pull,  

While the tortoises chuckled, their shells looking full.  

"This is quite nice," said one with a yawn,  

"I could sit here till the break of dawn!"  

The duck rolled her eyes but kept pulling strong,  

While the tortoises hummed their own little song.  

Across the pond, through ripples and weeds,  

She tugged her slow crew with admirable speed.  

When they reached the far bank, the tortoises beamed,  

"A duck with such grit, we never dreamed!"  

But the duck just sighed, her feathers askew,  

"Next time, I’ll stick to just paddling for two!"  

Have a great day!