pre Christmas dinner stroll in the park on the Costa del Scotland

Merry Christmas everyone!

Today is indeed Christmas Day and I have just finished Christmas Dinner and here to document our pre Christmas dinner walk!

So although many posts for Winter is coming 🥶🥶🥶 - and with it the Worldmappin Winter Challenge 🥳🥳 are based around Christmas markets and cold weather, this entry will focus on today's unseasonably warm weather!

I had heard rumours a couple of days ago that we would be getting 15 degrees C weather on Christmas Day which is still cold to many of you, but here in the UK on Christmas Day that is not usual!

This morning was blue skies and extremely warm for this time of the year with no wind.

I picked up some swan and duck food, some oatmeal and some garden bird food and packed in my backpack and away we went.

It didn't rain, but the sun was playing hide and seek with us and the clouds all afternoon.

Not that this pup would have minded if it rained. We always get a heap of dogs and dogwalkers in the woods and the park.

Today being Christmas day was no different!

The NO Rose Garden

We took a left into the rose garden.

I do not know what Kirkcaldy council are doing but they are systematically destroying this park.

This was full of rose plants...

As you can see this was The Rose Garden.

They have fluffing removed everything. Even the roses that were on the trellises.

This is yet another blow for the park and the environment.

The pond was full of seagulls.

There are little shits, and unfortunately they are protected little shits. Mind you some of them are bloody big little shits.

So to the left was the sun but I wanted to walk around the pond to the memorial garden, and spied some ducks who were no were near seagulls.

You can see the Rose Garden pillars in the background and birds nests in the foreground, I think they are ravens although I am not sure, perhaps jackdaw nests.

Charge of the Tufted Ducks

This was when I took my opportunity to feed the smaller ducks and coots.

This was a trio of tufted ducks enroute to their food.

Can you guess the sexes?

There were no kids playing though, I guess busy unwrapping their presents. Although the park is fortunate in that it has some good playground activities for kids.

Here we go, the seagulls were in Birds mode. The resident pair of swans were at this end of the pond, and every time dogs would walk past, the seagulls would get scared and fly up and down again!

Pirates ahoy

A kids ship!

I feed the swans some of their food whilst Mrs T stood on seagull duty.

She can't stand them and shoos them away with vengeance!!!!

Next up was the Peace garden, and this is the start of my tirade against the council.

Last year they removed hedges and a tree from this wee garden that wasa memorial to some people. It was a haven for wildlife.

The fountain to Mrs Beveridge who got the park created by her husband Mayor Beveridge is still there.

I wonder when the council will pull that down and drain it.

This squirrel was watching Mrs T who was bust leaving oatmeal and food at the base of trees.

He went and got it once we moved out of the way.

The fountain is at the centre of the memorial garden, and it has four entrances, so we are going in close then back out the other side.

The bare naked trees do make for some cracking reflections in the water!

We are going back to the pond though to feed the mallard ducks who tend to live down this end of the pond and can hide under the bushes that overhang the water that the seagulls can't get into.

A trio of Mallard ducks

Here we go and this time there are two males and one female, with the tufted ducks it was the other way around!

Now the hunger was saying hello!

So we started to head towards the closest exit home.

The tuning fork tree

I always think the tree on the right reminds me of a tuning fork, what do you think?

Mrs T finds food!

You said you were hungry she says ...

Well look what I found!

Cute says I, no idea whether it is even edible or not!

What do you think?

Another rant against the council destroying the park and their vendetta against the bees!

If you look in the picture above you can see a stone column that was put there as a symbol of religious tolerance to all faiths.

There are inscriptions from all major religions and there were the most gorgeous buses that the bees absolutely loved.

The fluffing council have got rid of them too!!!

I remember seeing loads of council workers hanging around here a while ago and even took a picture of it. Was going to make a meme and I will do soon.

Can you see those birds? Oystercatchers!

They are getting worms, see the mild warm weather has these guys eating worms.

Often in winter the ground is frozen, well not now!

Right we will be walking parallel to the park soon, but did you see what is on that house?

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!

This was our roast turkey dinner with pigs in blankets and pork and apples stuffing balls.

An awesome day.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate it!

I hope you managed to get out for a few walks this week!

This is also a post to participate in the #wednesdaywalk initiative from the wonderful @tattoodjay

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day!

All images and ramblings are from me, the mad Scotsman TengoLoTodo and pictures were taken with my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL smartphone and lead image designed on canva.
@tengolotodo December 25th 2024

DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND DO IT OFTEN

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