A Medley of Animals, Part 3.

We found a very nice berth at the end of the Garden moorings at York, despite the main area was under water. We then had a few days exploring York.

We walked into town through the Museum Gardens and Helen was drawn to the display of owls from the Owls Trusts. This one seemed to be just losing its young feathers. They were charging £5 to have your photo taken with them to raise money.

I think this is a little owl and they do look bad tempered and what Disney would draw as a cartoon owl!

Also in the Gardens was this. Without seeing the bushy tail you can see how mousey/rodenty the squirrel looks. I have always been struck by the name squirrel. Apparently they used to be called aquernes until replaced by squirrel in around 1320's. This was from the Anglo Norman word esquirel, which was from the Old French escurel. This itself came from the Latin sciurus, and the Latin word was borrowed from the Ancient Greek skioros! The long and short of it is that it means 

SHADOW TAIL.

There is a nice trail around York that gets you out and about called the Cat Trail. You have to search for all sorts of cats on buildings, like the above. The idea started in 1920 when Sir Stephen Aitcheson put two cats on his buildings in Ousegate, and others continued the fashion. In 1979 Tom Adams, a local architect who used a cat as a signature, started putting them on buildings he designed and the idea has been carried on by local sculptor Jonathon Newdick. look out for them as you walk around. You can download the guide, get them from the Cat gallery or Tourist Information.

The heron in the sun was snapped on the bank in Doncaster. It is a crossroads between heading east to Selby, York and Ripon. Also the South Sheffield Navigations, Hull and points south via the Trent. You can also follow the Leeds Liverpool via Leeds or the Calder and Hebble for the Huddersfield or Rochdale canals to cross the Pennines.

We chose to use the Leeds and Liverpool to cross to the west and when we stopped on Potato Wharf/Clarence Dock we called in to the free Royal Armouries. There was a lot of lovely displays, but I was overcome by all the guns. Their sort of worship made me queezy. Mind you some of the old ones were really beautiful. I don't think I would fancy this running after me, but at least you could see it coming, unlike these days!

I'm not really sure who put this here, but I am thinking it may be to stop people skateboarding cycling down the bridge wall, but what ever it is for it is quite cute. Not the sort of thing you expect to see in Saltaire.