We Decided To Take A Walk Around The Park,

and look for the 'pink pond'

Steve mentioned a few weeks ago that the pond opposite the Mansion House had turned a pink color, I was intrigued, so off we went,

as we started our walk we noticed that another house near us has a covering of wisteria like Foxgrove Lodge,

as we entered the park, we took one of the pathways leading to the left,

and walked towards the woodland there,

a few fallen trees from the latest storm had thankfully been cut away,

like the last time we were in the park,

we had the place to ourselves, and it was the same today,

a few bluebells greated us,

the path led out of the trees,

so back in through the next pathway,

and there they were,

just like the far side of the park,

hundreds of bluebells,

so a quick pose,

out of the woods, and there was the pond,

and amazingly Steve was correct, the pond was pink, 

  straight away I knew what the pink was,

not the water,

but just the surface,

except where the strong wind had had moved the plant to one side,

yes it was a plant that gave the pond the pink look,

not native to the UK the floating plant is called Azolla,

and unlike duckweed, it is a fern,

originally from Tasmania it is a fascinating plant,

that has spread worldwide, in China once rice has grown and planted tall enough to be above water level, azolla in is deliberately introduced, it stops all light so no other plants can grow in competition to the rice, 

which is bad news for this pond, which is effectively dead, not native to the UK, hard winters kill the fern off, but not so this winter, so the plant has a head start for the summer, the main problem is its rate to reproduce, it has been found that in just 1.9 days the biomass doubles in size,

the good news is that the council have made a nice area to sit down and watch the pond,

and other wildlife that inhabit the area,

so a couple of poses,

well I had to get into the picture as well!

as did Diana,

what a mess, except azolla a totally deadpool, it can kill off live fish and frogs spawning eggs masses, swimming animals survive under water needing oxygen, without it, which azolla totally stops from entering the water, everything dies, I just hope someone from the council reads this, although looking at the state of the plant growth I doubt it,

and this is azolla,

the wind whilst we were there had started to die down, the floating mat of fern was now creeping back over the pond surface, soon everything under the carpet will again be starved of light and oxygen,

on a happier note, the meadow flowers were putting on a good display,

so I had to take a panorama of them,

we made our way,

towards the Mansion House,

now of course closed,

but I could still pose outside,

a map of the park,

we walked back home, under clear cloudless skies,

 for our afternoon tea and cake, and ourgame of cribbage, 2 - 1 to me at last!

after our evening meal, a treat, a chocolate Easter egg, some of which which went down well as we watched television, 

for tonight another episode of Cornwall: This Fishing Life, one from Have I Got News For You, 

rounding of the evening with Night Hunter, the story of a cop, a retired judge and a deranged abductore of women and girls, not so much gruesome as unsetterling, to think that these things can really happen, and with the end of that we were off to bed.