Undeterred by the grey clouds looming over the skies of Preston myself and short stuff set out on one of our fantastic expeditions across town. First stop was to admire the new mural painted on the side of The Ship Inn, Fylde Road.

Does anyone know who these graf guys are because I’d love to feature them on Blog Preston? Every month or so there is a new piece of art displayed and I’d love to see more graf of this calibre around town. It really brightens the place up, you don’t feel like you’re drowning in a sea of grey buildings and clouds! Keep up the good work!

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Next stop Bruccianis on Fishergate for a malted coffee, vimto and a Chorley Cake. Brucie’s must be the only coffee shop I’ve ever been to that serves malted coffees and all the better for it I say. The women on the next table were tucking into two hefty looking filled baguettes whilst we slurped our drinks and I admire the collection of bowler hats and brollys on display. Only downside to this Preston coffee institution is the lack of baby changing facilities and disabled toilets, otherwise it’s a bob on recommendation for visitors to Preston.

We jounreyed onto Avenham and Miller Park to stretch our legs and seek out snails in hibernation. Whooping down the steep hill into the park and past the Japanese garden we heard the sound of chainsaws. Work was well underway on the second phase of the exciting Avenham and Miller Park Victorian restoration project, we stopped to watch the workmen clambering in trees, sawing down branches and shredding them to wood chips. I understand from Preston City Council’s website that the hazardous diseased trees are being removed. Short stuff asks what the different coloured spray paint marks on the trees mean, I am unsure but hazard a guess at the tree being ‘poorly’.

In fact Preston City Council’s website says ‘Phase two of the project will see the parks restored to the original designs of Edward Milner drawn up during the 1860’s. The work will see the planting of almost 500 new trees and 32,000 plants aswell as the removal of 73 hazardous diseased trees which will be replaced with disease resistant elms. ‘

We carried on secretly hoping our friends in hibernation weren’t clinging to crevices in the disease ridden trees….and thankfully they weren’t! Short stuff loves snails, do all little children? So nothing is greeted better than the sight of five or six shell bearing Gastropods, well a packet of sweets maybe. There tucked in the nook of a tree were a huddle of snails keeping well out of the way of men with chainsaws!

With the wind nipping at our heels we photographed the snails and moved onto the tram bridge in the hope of finding Quacks and co. A short stroll on and despite the stillness of the river not a duck was insight. Armed with bird food we carried on hoping to find some feathered friends further up the park by the Pagoda but there wasn’t one to be found. Undeterred by the increasingly blackened skies we carried onto Winkley Square where it became apparent that all wildlife had more sense than us and had stayed at home for the day.

Coming back through town we decided to round our afternoon off in Waterstones  to rest our legs, browse books and pick up a sale bargain or two. The toasty end to a lovely, chilly day.

23rd January 2010 4 mile Winter Wander from Avenham Park Pavilion. Starts at 10am. Wear suitable footwear.

28th February 2010 Spring Clean, help the Rangers with a spring clean of the wildlife garden in Frenchwood. 1-3pm. Meet at Avenham Park Pavilion.