Black-tailed Skimmer

A bit of a rushing around day which is quite unusual for me at the moment. I did our food shop first thing. 

Next I visited a garden centre to buy a few plants for my Aunt. I then went to see her and deliver the plants. We sat in her garden and just chatted about the world and his wife.....

I was planning on enjoying the last warm and sunny day for a while pottering around in the garden. But I ended up at Trentham Gardens!

it hasn't been open since the end of March but has now started tentatively opening. Currently only open to members, and with certain restrictions, as you'd expect. You have to book a slot and they advise you to limit your stay to 2 hours. There's only one way round the lake and gardens and certain areas are off-limits. I had booked myself a slot for Wednesday morning. The first day of the weather changing. But on a whim, I tried to see if there were any spots for this afternoon, and had no trouble booking.

When I arrived at about 4.30pm there were no queues, and in fact I saw no more than around 10 folks during my stay. It was perfect.

And I got to see my favourite critters, the damsel and dragonflies. What a welcome sight they were. I even heard a cuckoo in the nearby woods.

There could be many reasons why the place wasn't too busy. Some schools were open this week, more people are back at work, there are no day trippers, some folks might not want to visit especially with the restrictions, some may not be able to. It did have a very silent eerie feel, as there were no human voices.

The black swans were still there but no sign of a new family, just the grown-up young from last year.