Fish Species and how to catch them!
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2012 OPEN GOLF CHAMPONSHIP AT THE
ROYAL AND ANCIENT LYTHAM St. ANNES GOLF COURSE
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ELTON JOHN SIGNED FOR BLACKPOOL SEA FRONT CONCERT VENUE
WHAT A START to Blackpool North Piers Season!
SEE THE BLACKPOOL EYE
what a view of Blackpool North Pier WOW!
LOOK MUM NO FLOOR!! 
Before they removed the scaffolding
LOOK AT THOSE FEET GO!
100.4 FM smooth FM RADIO WAVE 96.5
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The new Trams Have Arrived
WHEN THE ILLUMINATIONS ARE ON YOU CAN RIDE THIS ONE
Welcome To Keith and Pauline's Lakeside Blog...
About a week after it finished freezing we had 3 water leaks, one fairly major, to sort out.
We are fairly busy getting all the dead branches up off the ground caused by the odd gale.
Meanwhile on the entrance to the caravan park a Leylandii (evergreen fir) blew over in the last gale and it is the last that will ever blow down again, because we have taken the chainsaw to the rest - so there!
Come to think of it, its been a bit of Root and Bough sort of time really,because we have also pollard-ed the Lombardy poplars on the caravan site, (No I can assure you officer we haven't run out of fire wood!).
We have resident Kestrels in the beech trees, and also during the last gale one of the young birds crashed into the house windows, and nearly knocked itself out, I ran out to see what the noise was and saw it on the floor, I picked it up very quickly (because we have a rampant pride of cats) and took a picture of it.
I took maybe 5 pictures, and Pauline said " It's getting a bit lively" so we decided to take it out and let it go,That's when it bit me! anyway it flew off at a great rate of knots, so apparently no lasting damage, about 4 years ago they were nesting up near the bridge, and one of the cats decided to climb the tree? the male was off the nest hunting,and came back to see the cat up near the nest and whithout further ado siezed it and dropped it in the lake! needlesss to say it would not approach the bridge from either direction.
THE FISHERY
Maintenance is ongoing with some of the pegs on the fishery,and the perch are Due to spawn April (the female lay eggs on submerged tree branches that blow in the water from time to time, and one of the time honoured methods of limiting the number of perch, is to pull the branches out before they hatch.
The wild bird population have been costing more to feed than us ! Only joking, but it does seem like it.
On one day we had five robins at the feeders as well as hordes of green finches, and the Blue tits are already in the nest boxes checking them out
This is the best time to see the wren,and hedge sparrow of which there are a surprising amount around .
Looking at the owl box I'm a little apprehensive as we have not heard the Barn owl yet this year, Rooks have also had a pretty disastrous year.
The fox had 2 of our Chinese ducks, when it snowed, I do hope thats over with. They're a sort of iridescent green on black colour if you were wondering.
This is the most wonderfull time of year though, that I know of, especially in this country, everything bouncing back in life, and it does sound like we may be getting double summertime after all,
Hey Ho, halcyon days.
We keep guinea fowl , which despite the name, are indigenous to England, and they lay eggs which are nearly all yoke, and the colour of which is the same as the famous Cadbury's Cream Eggs. as of APRIL THEY ARE IN FULL PRODUCTION
The only trouble is that you need an axe to get in them, but very definitely worth it when you do. They are not on lay yet but I for one cant wait, today is one of the few times they have been out! .
I was talking to a friend of mine who keeps bees the other day, and he mentioned that he and his fellow apiarists (Bee Keepers to you and me) had been discussing that the Bee's should have been moving around and getting the hives ready for spring, but they were all moribund and quiet, 2 days later it snowed !
The Bees of course knew this and so wouldn't stir! Who needs forecasters?
Back to this winters maintenance, a big thinning out job, to manage a garden is to know when something is past its sell by date, and yes the conifers were encroaching more than we would have liked, but the overiding descision to make was "what would they be like in 12 months time?". We went with the gut feeling and got the job done.
Of course when you cut this much stuff down you have to move it.
So WE did
the spring bulbs are wonderfull
THE CHINESE DUCKS
The Guinea Fowl are enjoying the sunshine and haveing dust baths under the Beech trees
What glorious weather for EASTER ,We were very busy with caravans,and after the hard winter nature is fighting back with a vengence
everthing is flowering
What sensational Easter Weather, the best for years, and I gather the hottest since 1949 just look at these Bluebells
I Thought we had lost our GUNNERA (A huge Rhubarb type, Bog loving Plant) to the Frost ! But it has one leaf Spike so it Has survived! The stand of Beech trees are now comeing into leaf, and all the fruit trees are in flower, the water lilies are all up
the frogs are spawning, and life is very busy getting on with procreating,
In the warm (out of the Wind), Weather I spotted this moth.
This is the last we will see of the Bluebells for this year and the have all died back now,
the guinea fowl in one of their more disobedient moments decided as it was a warm evening that they were
going to roost up in the trees! They did this for three nights, Anyway it rained today? so when I went over
They were wringing wet through,and where very glad to get back into their pen .
Now summer is upon us, I can report that the gunera manicata (above) are thriving near the waters edge
though we have lost an awfull lot to the frost of 2010/11
THE Night are certainly drawing in now ! well it is officialy autumn, The illumination are in full swing
THE NEW TRAMS ARE BEING TESTED
WINTER ARRIVES
The first air frost of 2011/12 was on sunday the 6th of november
2012
Jan 19 th We cannot Believe how far the bulbs are up! The Crocus are in flower! so that says how mild it has been.
We went to north pier to see the second largest flock of Starlings in what is known as a MURMATION (which is when they fly and then dart like a swarm of fish)
before finally rooosting for the night unnder the piers decking