Got going before noon today – once again totally overcast but not too chilly. Decided to explore more of Lyppard Grange since it was so close and if the rain started I wouldn’t have far to ride home.

I rode in on a different trail than yesterday and ended up at the other end of the grasslands, then rode further to a ‘lake’ that was actually more of a small pond.

The information posts said the smaller lake used to be an ornamental pond and the larger might have been part of a protective moat for the original manor house.

I was not impressed with the amount of garbage that was in the water – so many plastic bottles and bags – there are garbage cans all over the place – how can people be so ignorant/lazy/oblivious? What did surprise me was the bicycle in the water! I managed to take a couple of photos that didn’t show the trash, but it wasn’t easy.

I rode out of the nature reserve to the end of that path, then turned around and entered a small green space off to the side. There was a booth set up and a bunch of people so I asked what was going on. It was the local community garden folks and they were doing maintenance and cleanup on the trails. I told them what I’d seen at the ‘lake’ and they said that was their cleanup project for Thursday – so glad to hear that!

Rode thru another neighbourhood – saw a pure-black cat lounging on the sidewalk at the entrance to another path, and it didn’t move until the last moment. When it did I saw that it only had three legs – it was missing the front right one, but even so was a pretty good hopper.

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