Favourite Photographs, 23rd August 2016

 

The Bear’s Paw, Frodsham – at the top end of the Sandstone Trail.

You can read my story of when I backpacked the route in 2011.

Favourite photographs 22/8/16

En route to Mallaig, May 2004

Steps

Since having to bail out of this year’s TGO Challenge (due to family health reasons and other stuff) I’ve been out walking most days – well mainly evenings actually. The walks have all been local and of between 5 and 10 miles at a reasonably brisk pace.

I’ve just totted up my mileage for these local walks; since returning from the Challenge (ten days ago) I’ve walked 77 miles = 125,714 steps….for those wot are interested.

The walks have been pleasant diversions to other stuff: Apart from unusually high levels of grief, PLUS family health issues etc, I’ve been working hard to make one of my flats habitable. Walks, as most walkers know, are great for straightening the head as well as good exercise.

The easiest way out of suburbia from here is via the Duke’s Cut where it’s possible to walk north into Manchester or south-west towards Warrington. This makes it my most frequently used escape route.

Yesterday evening’s little walk was augmented by Sue & Martin and Long Suffering Rick – who was taking a break from a hectic weekend of dance at Chester Folk Festival.

The idea was mine, the route was Rick’s. Much of it was over ground we’d covered before although there was some ground not at all familiar to me – surprising, considering how close it is to home.

Briefly, our route followed the canal towpath towards Dunham, a wander along the footpaths of Dunham’s golf course, some quiet paths and roads into and through Altrincham, across Alltrincham golf course (where the local yoof were taking full advantage of the lack of golfers….we were all 14 once. I think)

Here’s (approximately) where we went:

7.5 miles of absolute flatness:

This route may not be entirely accurate, I’m a little unclear as to how we crossed Dunham’s golf course.

Evenings at this time of year offer great levels of light for photography. I took some snaps of the old Linotype & Machinery factory in Broadheath.

These first two were taken with my soon to be replaced Lumix DMC-SZ3 on a cloudy evening last week:

 

The second two were taken yesterday evening using my Samsung S3 Mini camera-phone thingy:

It seems that the L&M factory, quite a local landmark and once the employer of thousands, is being redeveloped to provide yet more housing. How things change.

It’s going to create traffic mayem, there’s no sign of any improvement to the local infrastucture. Oh well. 

Anyroadup, we had a lovely little walk and managed to catch up with all the scandal etc. This evening I may take the bike out – just for a change. I need the exercise.

The Ides of March

A run into Manchester

I needed to get into Manchester to pick up a tube of specialist glue for a repair job I’m carrying out (replacing the ‘non-replaceable’ battery in a Garmin Forerunner GPS).

This little GPS is a cracking bit of kit but is spoiled by a designed-in limited life of around 4 years because of the sealed-in Lithium Ion battery. Fortunately I’m able to carry out such repairs – thus saving the not insignificant cost of a new GPS.

I also needed to get out to do some exercise so….two birds, one stone an’ all that, so I ran into Manchester. Rather than use the standard Curry Walk route along the Bridgewater Canal towpath all the way into Manchester I decided to add a significant amount of tarmac.

Manchester has some interesting sights:

 On Chester Road, Old Trafford

 Inside the remains of a demolished pub, Old Trafford

 

Dot Motorcycles, still running after all these years

St George’s, no longer a functioning church

Adjacent to Whitworth Street West

 

T’ Cut

The new, the newer and the renovated:

A Metrolink tram, Manchester Central (formerly G-Mex – but prior to that, er, Manchester Central Railway Station) and the Beetham Tower in the background.

Amazing what you see when you look up:



or when you look down:

  

River Medlock running under Oxford Road

The Lass o’ Gowrie, closed once again

Dunno

The Old Trafford Cycle Link, designed to frustrate cyclists. The gate is locked shut.

I probably covered around 12 miles altogether – 9 miles running into Manchester, the extra 3 miles were tagged on as I once again successfully got lost in Manchester.

Ho hum.

Tomorrow’s job: replace the battery in the Garmin.

All the photographs (apart from the Garmin GPS) were taken using my little Lumix DMC-SZ3.

Saturday 30th November 2013, Wildboarclough

Time has been very tight here at JJ Towers, there’s just been far too much stuff going on. It was something of a relief to have the excuse to get out with the Cheshire Tally-Ho! Hare & Hounds Club (Estd 1872….founder members still running I think) and trot through some lovely countryside in the good company of the Club members…and a guest: the Long Suffering Rick.
The trail, from the very excellent Crag Inn in Wildboarclough, was a little longer than it should have been. Many Hounds returned late, some running in the dark. Those who took the time to turn around and look behind them were rewarded by a breathtakingly beautiful sunset:

This is where we went (widdershins):

A little over 10 miles with around 1800’ of up and downery. And mud.
Good fun though. And Rick’s still talking to me.
And my English teacher told me not to start sentences with ‘And’. And so I’ll try not to. And I’ll be careful with the use of apostrophe’s.
And now that I’ve got a little free time I’ll attempt to fill in some gaps in the ‘ere blog.

11th August, Last week was the week that was…

Just some pics:

Flahs:

Shame about the focus on this one

Oh dear x2:

A fine example of a flying kettle, aka Suzuki GT750 2 stroke triple:

I’m fairly certain that’s a non-standard seat

Lymm Rushbearing:

(Anyone spot the Long Suffering Rick?)

Lymm Morris

Marmalade in Manchester:

And in my spare time…

Thursday 11th July, Lymm sunset

View from the TransPennine Trail, part of the E8 European route.

The E8 European long distance path is one of the European long-distance routes. It stretches over 2900 miles between Cork in Ireland to Istanbul in Turkey. You’re not expected to walk on water though.

Tuesday 12th March, Timperley at 5.50pm

The ash tree in my back garden, lit by the setting sun:
Taken with my Lumix DMC-FS40.
By the time I’d grabbed the Lumix G3 – perhaps just 30 seconds later, the sun had gone and the moment had passed.

Sunday 17th February, Sunset in Cheshire

Whilst en-route to the Clonter Opera Theatre this evening, I thought the sunset was rather nice:

 Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope

Jodrell Bank and a tree

Jodrell Bank 10 minutes later

Jodrell Bank is quite a fancy bit of kit – you can read all about it here.
Both the Clonter Opera Theatre and Jodrell Bank are well worth a visit if you’re around these parts.

The photographs were taken with my Lumix DMC-FS40.

6th January, Lengthening Days….just

Sale at 4pm this afternoon…and it’s not raining.
Looking south down the Bridgewater Canal towards Timperley. Where else?

Red at night….

Friday 19th October

Yesterday evening I had just nipped out to harass a neighbour, a fellow member of the LDWA, when I was stopped in my tracks by a most amazing sunset. My camera (The Lumix G3) was close to the front door, so…..

I see that Martin also spotted the same splendid sunset. Good, weren’t it Martin?

New toy

The purchase of a Panasonic Lumix G3 came about after an increasingly unhappy relationship with a Fuji FinePix S1500 camera which frequently crashed, losing photographs. This is a shame because other than that it’s not a bad camera for the price. Replacement memory cards, new batteries, changing the settings etc didn’t help – the damned thing just wasn’t reliable.

Anyway, the G3 came on offer so I took the plunge and bought one, it’s virtually an SLR without actually being one. So far I’m very pleased with the results – although it’s very early days. First results can be viewed here. Many of the photos on this link are very severely cropped and most are taken without a flash, which is why some will appear grainy.

I’m going to Spain soon to walk a section of the Via de la Plata and I wanted a camera that I could rely on. I rather feel this is the one.

A few features that persuaded me that this was the camera for me: A decent sized image sensor, accepts filters, viewfinder, reasonable battery life, much smaller and lighter than an SLR, very little time-lag taking photos, very fast auto-focus, idiot mode (fully automatic if needed, ie: point and shoot)….and lastly: Ian Cotterill reckons they’re a good buy.

‘Nuff said.