Fighting Ducks

A pleasant view of the Museum and Art Gallery across the River Anker flowing through Riversley Park in Nuneaton, through a fringe of trailing willow. Look closely, and you might be able to spot the two mallard ducks fighting it out on the water. I've noticed this aggressive behaviour of the males at Nanpantan too. Fighting for mates I guess.

Everything has suddenly begun to green. I feel this is a time when I should head off to the woods to find views that won't be obscured by greenery within a matter of weeks.

I was in Nuneaton to visit the photography exhibition at the art gallery. Gerald Sanders, who I met on my trip to Glencoe in January, had a first place in landscape and 2nd place in the winter classes. Both photographs were taken on the trip. There were over 200 photos in the exhibition which included classes for young people under 18. There was little evidence of far flung travelling, so Gerald's photos stood out. He's an excellent photographer anyway. To put things into context, he's Paul Sanders' father. You may have come across Paul in photo magazines and with Fujiholics establishing a name for himself.

Music was drifting from the next door gallery. The museum had arranged for a Tudor event during the school holidays. Richard York and his wife Elizabeth were playing instruments from the Tudor period: harps, a hurdygurdy, bagpipes, pipe and tabor for starters. In the intervals between the pieces, Richard explained how the instruments had evolved, and how it had been necessary sometimes to reconstruct them from paintings of the period when no existing instruments could be traced. Since the era of Gove, he has had to change the work that he offers to schools. History has become a list of facts and figures and experiential workshops are infra dig.


He is still able to offer story telling. 

An excellent pot of tea in the museum cafe, which didn't stint, and then I made my way back towards the car via the Ropewalk shopping centre. Since Muffin Break was there, I just 'had to' pop in for a gluten free muffin.

Then I went to Schuh thinking that I might find a pair of reasonably fashionable flats for summer. The shop is full of trainers, and I love how they are all (or mostly) colourful. Of course, most of them are for people with narrow feet, and suffer from lack of support around the ankle. Why on earth do shoe designers not realise that older people with mild foot issues want to wear swanky shoes as well?

I did find a suitable pair of Skechers.