A fun day at Martin Mere June 2009

The family fun w/e at Martin Mere was very successful. There was a circus theme and the children enjoyed face painting, circus acts, craft stalls and competitions as well as the usual attractions

As I was supposed to be working I did have to limit my time away from the information desk - well in theory anyway!!

The Chilean flamingos were as colourful as ever but seemed to be half asleep in the afternoon heat. The Greater Flamingos have produced 9 chicks so far and there are still a few eggs left to hatch.

A Coscoroba Swan takes an afternoon stroll

An Andean Goose

and 2 babies

Trumpeter Swan with her 3 babies (I believe there should be 4 but I could only see 3)

For the rest it seemed to be bath time -

well perhaps almost all !

This is Boris a Spur Winged Goose, he is quite a character and not to be argued with! He has a spur on the elbow of each wing which is used in defence and believe me he does know how to use his!!

If you look above the exit door as usual we have a family of swallows

And - Oh dear it's been a long hard day, did I hear someone say that I have to do it all again tomorrow?

Cactus flower - name unknown

My most lethal, yet for 2 days each year, also my most beautiful house plant!!

My children gave me this cactus plant years ago - in fact more years than I care to remember! It has never been re potted but recently it has started to flower. This year there are 9 flowers which start off as a phallic shaped growth - you can just see one on the left of the first photo. They then grow extremely quickly and it's almost possible to watch the flower opening. Unfortunately they only last for 36 hours at the most, as you can see a couple of these are beginning to wilt and within a further 12 hours they will close up and droop and then eventually fall off. They give off a rather strong sweet smelling fragrance.

I will be happy to hear from anyone who can provide a name for this cactus.

Wigan Council car park staff - thank you!

This morning we went to Wigan town centre and parked in the Mesnes Street car park. Whilst we were sat having a coffee in Smiths coffee shop we noticed a police van and the armed response vehicle outside and a copter hovering overhead. We believe there had been an armed robbery in Ashton in Makerfield and the getaway vehicle had been abandoned inside the multi storey. We carried on around Wigan and then returned for the car only to be told that the car park was closed and no cars on the lower floors could be removed until the police had finished their job. The car park attendants were extremely helpful - taking phone numbers for everyone involved so that they could ring us when the cars could be released.

Eventually we travelled home on the bus and I got to use my free bus pass!!!!! We received a call as promised at 5pm to say we could collect our car - yippee.

I would just like to thank all council staff involved, you did a good job in a difficult situation.