July 31 Ellesmere

One of the reasons, maybe the main reason, I wanted an extra day in Ellesmere was to see the sculpture trail because Ellesmere, a shabby and depressed town is not where you would come to for hanging out purposes, although that I did not know at the time of making arrangements.  I also did not know that the sculpture trail is not a trail at all (the mapping sites lie).  A few pieces are clustered within a viewable area but others are sho knows where.  So that was kind of a bummer.  However, I took a perfectly lovely walk anyway:  a combination of canal, lake, meadow, and field.

Whether these "things" on the tree are bad for it, I have no idea but are mighty interesting to look at, what with all that secondary growth sprouting from the protrusions!

I will be seeing a lot of these tomorrow when I walk on the Ellesmere Canal en route to Llanymynech:

This Hallowe'en like couple were the weirdest.  The were programmed to shake their hands up and down:

¡Qué raro! 

I was quite concerned about walking into this next area:

So I pulled down the sleeves of my raincoat and zipped it all the way up.  Did not see one bee.  Just what they were after:

There were other warnings:

Shooting?  Like in hunting?

Of course there were cows:

And food for cows:

And fields of flowers:

Do you know what kind of bird this is?

Would you believe a robin?

Who is the fairest of them all:

Utterly charming house with a thatched roof:

 

Down in the park near the lake was a sitting duck:

This is one of the sculptures I did see:

It is is so begging for political commentary that I shudder to think what some curator would wax on about.  And, frankly, it, along with the few others I did see, made me feel less bad for not seeing all of them!