Swans
No trip to historic Exeter is complete without feeding Her Majesty's Swans. The old city wall, the Roman ruins, and even the Cathedral is nothing to these gorgeous swans. Well, that and I really like to feed them. The kids and I both have a bit of a love/fear relationship with them. They are so big and can be a little excited about getting the food that they will come right up to you and take your pizza crusts right out of your hands. They are not always gentle and do not seem to feel guilty if they accidentally take your finger along with the bread offered.
It is pretty amazing that the children are standing on their own two feet in these photos. Usually, we are carrying them while they alternate between wanting to feed the swans and being scared to death of them.
The coolest thing is that the swans you see in the photo is probably less than a quarter of the number swimming around the quay.
A few years back there was an old goose who use to hang with those swans. He use to do swan things, when the swans groomed he groomed, when they went to get food he followed, when the other geese flew south he stayed with the swans. We always use to speculate if this was goose retirement because migration got too tough, or whether he really thought he was a swan.
ReplyDelete