Soul mates
Gently gliding along the Rochdale canal near Middleton is a barge named “Soul Mates” which is equipped complete with the aforementioned soul mates at its stern (in matching blue tops) and a small, bored-looking Terrier peering around the side of the boat!
Norman Hill reservoir to Windy Hill Mast
A shot taken from the dam wall of Norman Hill reservoir in Piethorne Valley, Milnrow up towards the mast at Windy Hill at the side of the A672 and M62 motorway on the Pennines. With the water level being lower than normal at the reservoir when this picture was taken, the release valve walkway is stranded high and dry, giving the impression a drought is under way: in reality, Norman Hill reservoir is situated higher than Piethorne, Kitcliffe and Ogden reservoirs and its overflow sluice can often be seen channelling water down to the others when need arises.
The Foxglove and the Bee
A rain-speckled Foxglove proves far too tempting a prize for this heroic Bee and it has to cling onto the wet flower of the ‘Lady Slipper’ in order to win a lap of sweet nectar, where the insect will inadvertently gather pollen on its legs and aid the plant’s reproduction cycle at the next flower along.
My name is…
A close-up angled shot of the steel railway bridge that runs across the Rochdale canal at Middleton, amusingly nicknamed locally as “the Iron Donga”! Limited writing space on the bridge’s cross sanctions and girders means successive generations of kids have had to spray their graffiti on top of names that have come before them, that is until the local Council come along and give the bridge a fresh coat of paint. Once this new façade has been laid down, it doesn’t take long before another set of daubed monikers, multi-coloured tags and semi-literate scribblings cover the structure’s surface once more…
The Beech stump
All that remains of the Beech tree is its stump and roots, now covered in lichens, fungi and green mosses that get swept aside once in a while when someone wishes to use the wood as a seat. Surrounding the tree’s dead foundation are countless prickly Beech nut husks, accumulated over a hundred years or more, from when the growing tree first started to fruit, right up until the giant’s demise finally arrived. The end was either because of a summer gale fanning the full canopy to its trunk’s breaking point or just due to a local Council’s decision to remove a potentially unsafe behemoth.
Either way, the forest is now a much more lonely place where the Beech once stood…
Hare today, gone tomorrow
A startled Hare bolted underfoot as I crossed a field near the rear of Tandle Hills and so, with my ageing reflexes just about holding out, I managed to grab this snatched shot just before the long-eared rodent disappeared for good!
Robin in a Hawthorn tree
A freshly trimmed Hawthorn tree means plenty of displaced insects and grubs, hence the appearance of this red-breasted Robin who’s on the outlook for a morsel or two in the leaf litter below and doesn’t seem to care about the 40 year old bloke snapping away with a camera just mere inches away!
Daisy chain days
The lowly Daisy, a lovely small flower reflective of a picnicking British summer that is often trampled underfoot and passed by unnoticed. Unless some children are making ‘Daisy Chains’ that is and then the little white and yellow heads and stalks are plucked, pulled, picked and plaited into necklaces, bracelets or left as conjoined lines of flowers just for the enjoyment of making plant-derived jewellery!
That’ll do
An old fence post, now rotten and dried out from the moorland weather, has become the only support for a rusted and worn metal gate. However, because the wood’s too far gone and no purchase can be found in order to secure the gate’s hinges, the Farmer’s just decided that a twist of some of the fencing wire will be enough to hold it all in place, for this year at least!
Let sleeping giants lie
A picture taken New Year’s Day, 2010 at the back of Tandle Hills from a small valley named Jarrod Wood. A yellow Bulldozer sits flaking and rusting away as it slumbers in suspended animation, waiting for the cold to pass and some sunshine to melt away the sprinkling of frost around the field. Off in the distance, the wind turbines have had to contend with a more substantial snowfall overnight and judging by the dark clouds beginning to form on the horizon, maybe the dozing mechanical giant will have a little longer to wait in the cold after all…
Stretch the Horizon 