1 Wharfemeadow Park

 There is a lovely park alongside the River Wharfe on the outskirts of a Otley, a village near us (and a suburb of sorts for Leeds).  We pass it all the time, almost always mentioning that we should go there.  It's one of those places that's packed to the brim with people any no-school/work nice day, so since today wasn't terrible (although there were some weird clouds) and it was mid-week, we decided to finally go.

 There are numerous ducks and swans here, and we saw lots of people feeding them.  

 We followed the path, not realizing the extent of the park- it's HUGE!

There were lots of older (elderly) couples out, enjoying the afternoon.  Part of living in a "posh" area of N. Yorks means that we've got a good many older people around us, too!

 Further down, past a playground area, there was a huge double-field for football (soccer) and rugby.  The dogs were quite curious about the goalposts- I'm sure there were lots of smells there!

 We met several other dogs on our walk, and Max was an angel about all of them- even off lead, he'd trot slowly until he got near them, no bee-lining!  YAY!

 We did have both dogs on lead when we were closer to the road, though.  We're still too paranoid (and always will be) for that. 

Notice the cherry trees blooming- Spring seems to be working its way in slowly, but it's arriving!

 All these birds were lined up on the edge of the waterfall-thing.  I'm not sure why...

Max tried to make friends with the swans, of course.   They weren't so keen on the idea, hissing and ruffling their feathers!

See the weird clouds?  If we were still in Idaho I'd say it was a wildfire in the mountains... yesterday had some of those, too.  Oh well, there's no choking smoke in the air and, for the most part, the weather's still better than usual!