Punch and Judy

We went to the Skipton Puppet Festival for the first time today, and the highlight was the festival parade which saw an array of giant creatures marching around the town. It seems to be a good event, and was well supported, but you need to book ahead for the ticketed events to make the most of it (we hadn't).

when the puppets ~ are five metres tall ~ who pulls the strings

We also took in a short canal cruise, under the castle walls on the Springs Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and on another day my blip would probably have come from that journey.

Probably the most unusual event of the day was saved for our return home though, when we watched from the garden as a Magpie, a Carrion Crow and a Black-headed Gull chased a stoat down the 18th fairway of Baildon Golf Course. It seemed to escape into the rough eventually. Our final visitor of the day was a Speckled Wood butterfly, one more to add to the 2011 list of garden wildlife.