Weather: Mono turning to colour, with strong winds

The time for my car's annual service and MOT seems to have arrived quickly this year. I take it to a garage in Silsden and, rather than wait around for hours in the dealership, I usually go for a walk. It was lovely to be 'somewhere different'. (Lockdown has eased a little now but we're still supposed to stay local for our exercise and outdoor socialising.) Not a great day for a walk really, though the rain held off. My walk started - definitely - in mono, along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal towpath. All the Silsden hire boats are moored here until they can start hiring them out again for holidays.... not long now. 

A little further on I passed some allotments. Someone has created their own private pub on the canal bank. Skies were still grey, there was a strong headwind and lots of mud, so I wasn't enjoying the walk a great deal at this point, but the splashes of colour and the swans gliding by lifted my mood. 

Spring is definitely late this year - in previous years the butterbur has been in full flower at the end of March along the canal banks. It's such a strange plant! It has these weird flowers and then the leaves grow and grow to a gigantic size. 

As I approached Kildwick, the skies ahead were glowering but behind me faint hints of sunlight started to show through the cloud. The River Aire was quite full after heavy rain overnight. The day was turning a little more colourful, though the headwind made walking very hard work!