A tale of two Mallards

My neighbour beckoned me into his garden this morning see the female mallard currently nesting in a quite corner. I am rather glad that she has chose his patch rather than mine. Last year we hosted a family of 13 ducklings who quietly ate most things in the garden!

The blue flash on her wing reminded me that the steam locomotive Mallard has been in the news of late. Mallard is of course famous as the holder of the world speed record (125 mph plus) for a steam locomotive, and she is painted blue. Built in 1938 she was retired in 1963. I just happened to see her in her final days when she was pulling a line of coal trucks through Huddersfield Station - oh, the ignominy of it! 

Anyway, Mallard  is in the news again because of a statue. A statue to rail engineer Sir Nigel Gresley, who designed the Mallard locomotive as well as the Flying Scotsman, is due to be unveiled at King's Cross station in London on April 5 2016 - the 75th anniversary of Sir Nigel's death. Sir Nigel was fond of ducks and the statue was to have featured a mallard duck next to the eminent engineer. Sadly, Sir Nigel's family, and others, were not keen on the idea and the Gresley Society Trust, which has commissioned sculptor Hazel Reeves to create the statue, has now announced that the duck will not appear. Many steam-buffs are disappointed!


On a much more sombre note, the news today is that ISIS have started blowing up some of the ancient tombs on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra in Syria. Let us hope that the destruction of that important and beautiful site goes no further. The destruction of ancient remains is nothing new of course but with modern equipment and explosives the destruction can be complete. The "extra" photograph shows much older damage to the Temple of Bel in Palmyra. In the 11th century Arab invaders fortified the temple to make it into a defensive citadel. The photograph shows how they cut ancient Roman columns into sections and then used them to build the fortifications.