Mount Grace Priory is in North Yorkshire, the best preserved Carthusian monastery in Britain. We popped in there for a look on our way from Northallerton.

Just before the car park there was a pond on the left hand side. I spotted a heron:-

There were some geese too:-

We made a further stop on the first day on the way down to the Holland ferry. At Wetherby.

There’s a nicely situated car park hard by the River Wharfe.

There were geese on the river.

About a week ago in the Beveridge Park I took these two photos of 6 cygnets and an army of goslings. You can see trailing from her mouth the weed the pen has pulled up from the bottom of the pond to feed the cygnets.

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Two days ago we were in the Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy (without the camera) and for the first time this year saw the local swans’ new brood of cygnets. We counted 7 young ones – good going we thought: previously the pair have only ever managed two offspring!

The geese beat them to it. Last week we had seen about 12 goslings on the water.

Today – with camera – there were sadly only 6 cygnets. You can see them here:-

The cob was off in the background chasing the geese on the path which surrounds the pond.

Slightly earlier three of the cygnets were on their own a bit.

The other three had stuck close to mum.

While we were going round the path some more-newly hatched goslings crossed in front of us.

The cob had left the water to chase the other geese well away and was displaying fiercely.

While our main purpose in travelling to Derbyshire was to go round Chatsworth House, it’s only a few miles from Bakewell and I couldn’t resist the urge to visit there.

It’s a lovely small town with a beautiful tree-lined river, the Wye, and made nicer for most of the buildings being constructed from stone rather than, as is mostly the case in England, brick.

This is a view from very close to the town centre. Plenty of geese as you can see, but there were also ducks and swans.

There was a second hand book shop at the edge of the town centre but it wasn’t up to much. The antiques centre off a square had prices which were off-putting.

However, you cannot go to Bakewell without being reminded of its contribution to the culinary world.

I present the Original Bakewell Pudding shop.

I had to cross the road to get the whole shop in.

On the left is a crop of the above photo to show the lettering.

The puddings themselves were displayed in the window on the left of the shop but that’s obscured by the blue car. It has to be said they looked a bit misshapen and amateurish.

That may be to enhance their “home-baked” charm.

But in Bakewell you are spoiled for choice. Trawling further round the town centre I came upon this.

That doesn’t claim to be the original pudding shop.

But just across the street from it is this:-

The first and only original Bakewell Pudding Shop.

Well! Someone’s telling porkies. (Which reminds me. Must get to Melton Mowbray sometime.)

The do all share a green colour scheme though, for some reason.

In the end we didn’t sample a pudding from any of those three.

The Bakewell deli features this placard in its window. Spot the huge meringues on the right of the photo.

Are you a pudding or a tart person?

We opted for a slice each of pudding from here.

Be warned. That stuff is calorific.

We took a walk around a bit of the park on Saturday. Unlike last January when there was all sorts going on on the frozen pond the place was almost deserted apart from the seagulls and geese.

Even the play park, normally well used, was empty.

Here’s where the only evidence of free water was in January.

No convocation of birds this time. They were all (well some of them) up the other end.

Beveridge Park’s two resident swans are in this one. There has been a third swan on the pond for most of this year; we don’t know whether it’s the offspring of these two or a blow-in.

This is the fountain I pictured all iced up last year. It’s not quite so picturesque at the moment but from this angle you can see the building that used to be a park keeper’s house in the background.