Trains and Tucker

We boarded the Cambrian railways iconic 1980s Pacer commuter train as the only passengers, to the next stop, Weston Wharf, where we dined. I was perturbed to find out I was regarded as a 2nd class adult:

While we waited for our ride, we watched all the comings and goings from the platform.

The Stonehouse brewery and distillery where we had dinner, sports a very rustic look - cutlery stands in tin cans at each table. The cider was really delicious.

     

This was served as nachos! Intriguing take on corn chips. No melted cheese either. It tasted fine, it just wasn't what I'd recognize as nachos.

It was a fun outing -it's been just over 10 years since we visited a train exhibit, from what we can recall!

Railway Museum

The Cambrian railway museum in Oswestry (England) offered some simple and down to earth displays of railway memorabilia for us to peruse. There were no high tech displays or videos, just real-life stuff to touch.

There were some lovely paintings and posters from long ago

This poster made me laugh - so proper!

This little prophesy was included on a tourist map

The Pond Re-do Begins

Dale has begun tackling the problem of our leaky pond. He removed the large clumps of plants that stood in the way of our view of the pond as well as those that were growing in the water. I enjoyed my OCD task of removing each and every piece of crushed stone I could find.

Then he drained the water from both ponds,

and laid a new underlay and then liner, over the top of it all. We filled it with water and re-seated the aquatic plants we'd saved. Dale very cleverly designed a wetland just beyond the pond to provide habitat for marsh plants in what we hope will be an overflow area. I would like to have some sundews and sphagnum moss there eventually. 

Utricularia vulgaris, or greater bladderwort, is native here, so I'm really hoping to add some to our pond eventually - it will be a reminder of my life at lake Arrowhead (It looks as if I'll have to order from specialty aquarium shops for this).

Next comes the prospect of hiding the liner in such a way that it will look natural - Dale has begun adding mossy rocks, and we've collected some branches and a log, but we don't want to create an amateurish-looking ring around the edge, so it's a design and engineering challenge right now to imitate nature. As vegetation becomes re-established, the ugliness of the liner should diminish.

We're keeping a guest book of pond visitors - frog, dragonflies, water striders and a bathing robin so far.

Old World Shrub

Viburnum opulus or Guelder rose (it's not really a rose) has spectacular showy berries that almost look artificial.

The leaves look very maple-like

This is an ornamental shrub with berries that are only edible if cooked, at which point they apparently smell like 'musty old socks' (Eat weeds).There are so many in my yard, and they look so luscious, but I'm not sure I'm that desperate!