Flora, fauna and stone

Although the canal towpath is a flat and easy route, by the time I reached East Riddlesden Hall, a walk of about two and a half miles, I was ready for a drink and a rest. There is a nice café there but it was packed so I took a coffee outside and sat and watched the ducks, and then I had a wander around the gardens. I've been inside the hall before so I didn't do that this time. 

Unfortunately by this time the sun had gone behind clouds, so the light was poor. It did brighten up a bit again as I walked back to my car. 

Our gardens are coming to the end of the season and took a battering from Storm Babet too, so they were looking a little bedraggled. 

There are plenty of ducks on the lake, all mallard at this time of year. The males are just beginning to regain their colourful plumage after a month or two spent moulting. It was a long time (in my life) before I realised that ducks eat grass (among other things) and these were chomping away quite happily around my feet. It was similarly a long time before I realised that some of the the medium-sized black birds that you often see on lawns and in parks were jackdaws. I suppose I had lumped them under 'crows'. They are, of course, members of the crow family but smaller and paler with blue-grey plumage and a black crown and wings. They are very social birds, highly intelligent problem-solvers, often amassing collections of shiny objects in their nests.