Dazzling yellow daffodils were everywhere, mostly growing healthily from bulbs planted by the gardening team—a rich investment with years of beauty ahead.    A couple of grey squirrels raced up the trunks of trees as I approached; they are numerous around here, feeding from the large ancient oaks, beech, and chestnut trees growing around the lake. As I neared the water, I noticed a couple of moorhens racing across the grass as fast as possible on their short legs.

  I snapped a couple of nice photographs of a large clump of the beautiful yellow daffodils growing near the lake. A pair of gulls was perched on a floating log in the centre of the lake, while several mallard ducks, both males and females, floated on the surface.

  I took a beautiful photograph of the lake and crossed a small bridge to the far side. A few moorhens were swimming around close to the edge of the lakeside. Two majestic swans were floating on the surface, and I managed to take a couple of good pictures of them.

   Along the bankside, many wild primroses were just coming into flower. Many mallard ducks, mostly males—conspicuous by the almost luminescent green sheen of their feathers—were soaking up the early afternoon sunshine. I captured a couple of beautiful photographs of one of the males before it slid down the bank into the water.

  A grey squirrel raced up a tree trunk as I approached, and several small birds flew into the safety of a thick bramble patch.  

  The wildlife here is prolific; later, I noticed a couple of rabbits scampering around the edges of a large evergreen rhododendron shrub growing at the side of the lake.

Today I walked for 2.72 miles in 58 minutes.

Google Fit awarded me 24 heart points.

Copyright ©️ Text, photographs and videos Written by John Yeo – All rights reserved.