Skywatch Friday: Brookfield Church, Gorton

Rather a grey sky this week, but I wanted to show you Brookfield Unitarian Church. It lies off the busy Hyde Road in Gorton, its spire a prominent landmark.

A few days ago I finally spent a little time exploring its environs. This shot is from the quiet area at the rear where old gravestones lie strewn around above Gore Brook. To the left of the church is the mausoleum of Richard Peacock (1820-1889) who was a Liberal MP for Manchester Gorton and responsible for the construction of Brookfield Church.

You can see the other photographs I took that day on the Geograph website.

For more shots of the sky from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday - F is for Fountain

I've shown you fountains here before, such as the one in Qaqortoq, but this is nearer home in Vernon Park at Stockport. This is from the New Bridge Street entrance on a wintry day with a bright sun sparkling behind the trees.


The fountain was flowing although most its collection pond was frozen over. In the background you can see the bench I showed you a closer view of last month.

To find more "F" posts this week, visit ABC Wednesday.

Jam & Scones

I happened to mention the word scone on Facebook recently and a New Yorker asked if English scones were similar to American scones.

A mutual friend from Sydney chipped in with

I seem to remember American scones being a bit hard and a good English scone is light and fluffy

to which New Yorker replied

our scones here are crusty and sprinkled with lots of sugar on top. And they are usually the size of a muffin.

and when our Australian sheila linked to a photo of a scone, the American said they called such items biscuits.

Well here is the scone I ate earlier this afternoon. It is cut in half and spread with butter (well low-fat spread actually) and jam. The top half has got strawberry jam on and since that was last in the jar, I had to open a new jar of apricot jam to spread on the bottom half.

Top left is the scone I'll be munching tomorrow - it is a cherry scone and I get them from the market - £1.50 for a packet of six - they do currant scones too.

Just for the record, top right are couple of biscuits - plain digestives as it happens; it seems Americans call them cookies!

I'm not sure that other scone is going to last till tomorrow.

Skywatch Friday: Gorton Lower Reservoir

Last week I took a walk through Debdale Park on the Eastern fringes of Manchester. Beside the park is Gorton Lower Reservoir which was almost completely frozen over. I took this photograph which includes a whole line of birds on the ice.


I was thinking of zooming in to get a closer view, but noticed there was a large flocks of birds flying in from the East. I moved a few yards to try and view them more clearly through the trees. With no time to frame or focus a shot, I just pointed the lens and clicked. The birds in the photograph number around 40% of the flock in the air.


I don't know what species these birds are, but further along my walk, at a partially unfrozen section of Gorton Upper Reservoir, I found a pair of swans.

For more shots of the sky from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday - E is for Etherow Country Park

Etherow Country Park, established in 1968, was one of Britain's first country parks.


The lake was created to service the water needs of Compstall Mill, built in the 1820s. The estate is presently being regenerated. See Ask about Compstall.


The park is also home to the Etherow Country Park Sailing Club.

For more E posts visit ABC Wednesday.

One Cold Coal Tit

A couple of days ago I managed to capture this shot of a coal tit on the rose tree outside my window.

Skywatch Friday: Haughton Green

On Monday, after all the snow had melted away, I went on a photo-shoot around Haughton Green. I found myself on the recreation ground which was now somewhat squelchy.

It was still quite cold but the sky was bright and the sun was casting long shadows. Over the trees I captured these lovely clouds.

For a view of the soggy field and the sky in the opposite direction see Winter Haiku 2008/2009.

For more from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday - D is for Denton

Denton is a town to the East of Manchester. The first photograph is of the Town Hall.


Across the road from the Town Hall is the old Post Office. It closed some years ago and is now the offices of New Charter who took over the management of the stock of local council houses in March 2000.


For a time postal services were moved to a local supermarket, but recently that too closed down and a new Post Office was opened on the corner of Peel Street and Manchester Road.


This last photo is of a sculpture outside the Town Hall. "Tipping The Denton Linney" was erected on October 12th, 2005 as a tribute to workers in the town's hatting industry.

For more D posts, visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - C is for Cretan Cats

I contemplated for ages what to post for ABC Wednesday this week. I could have compiled any number of collections of cows or clocks. I could have considered visting Catalina or Chester, Christchurch or Cobh.


In the end, while browsing through files, I came across these three photographs of Cretan cats I'd created for the Cypriot magazine Creature Features. One of the photos appears in issue #16 along with three poems of mine on the subject of dogs.


For more C posts, visit ABC Wednesday.

Stockport Viaduct Again

For our contribution on the first Monday of the month to Broer som Binder [Bridges between] we have gone again to Stockport to take another look at its famous viaduct.

Do check out my first post about the viaduct on January 5th, 2009


This month's photographs are from Wellington Road South, the main A6 road from London through Stockport and Manchester to Carlisle.

Underneath the massive viaduct is the busy Stockport Bus Station.


The rivers Tame and Goyt meet to the Northeast of Stockport Town Centre to form the Mersey which then flows under the town's Merseyway shopping centre to emerge here beside the bus station before making its 70 mile journey to Liverpool and the Irish Sea.

More details of and links to other participants to Broer som Binder can be found on Visual Norway.