Wythenshawe and New Year

Today's mystery item!



We went out for another walk in Wythenshawe the other day and BOY was it cold! This here is a puddle, well should be a puddle, but as you can hopefully tell, was all iced up. Not the sort of thing we usually have in the middle of the day here!

As you can tell already, I had remembered to take my camera and I had decided to take some pictures of the old hall at Wythenshawe for the blog and of the statue of Oliver Cromwell which is nearby. This hall was beseiged by the roundheads during the civil war and the seige was successful when the republicans brought a cannon from another town. That was sufficient to make royalist Robert Tatton decide to surrender.

However his family did get the hall back a few years later (it appears palms were greased!) and in fact it is said to be unlikely that Cromwell himself ever came up to Wythenshawe. Nevertheless, there he stands. Except that this week he is hidden by scaffolding! LOL Typical luck. So the mystery shot at the top was all I could manage to see of General Ironsides. Ho hum, ... another day.

However, the hall was looking beautiful and I did manage to take two rather sporting models along with me to pretty up the picture.

After Wythenshawe we went to Mickey D's for some lunch and this is Millie waiting for the arrival of her burger. Awww .....

So, now my music show is on, which means there's less than 1 hour of 2008 left here. So I simply need to say .... Happy New Year!

More Christmas and Worthington Park

One of Millie's favourite gifts this year came a while before the Big Day, having been sent over in a parcel, by Annie's Mom. It's a "big bone" squeaky toy and is pictured here when fresh from the box.


Since that day, however, it has had to be patched several times, to keep it going, as the main terrier aim appears to be to get the squeaker OUT and hence to disable the thing! Nonetheless, it is still carried around very proudly.

On Saturday, we had our ham and I am thinking of carrying a copy of this picture around with me, just to show that I can (a) cook glazed ham and (b) carve faintly convincingly! In the shot also are our corn muffins (I don't know why the potato chips are still on the table!) and a nice drop of white wine.

So, enough with the bragging lady! Before Christmas, Millie and I went out to Worthington Park again, with camera. So here are a few more shots from there. I was taken by the snowberries on bare branches.

Here Millie is ignoring another of Mr Burton's creations in the park, I call this the snail bench, but it may have a more elegant name :-)

Again, I'm not sure what this is other than "eagle-man" in my head. He always looks sad to me, so is not my favourite.

The park also features a much older statue to a local hero, Mr J.P.Joule, after whom the international unit of energy the "joule" is named.

Joule lived in Sale in the latter part of his life (and there are precious few other famous folk who have lived here) and there are also some quite charming information sheets about him on the noticeboard in the park.

And if you think this a tad dull, just pause to imagine what a nutter I looked, ignoring my lil dog and photographing the noticeboard!

Merry Christmas one and all!

And so this is Christmas, and what have we done?

Well, I've had my hair chopped off. I decided that I was fed up of spending part of every day styling ... so now have a wash-and-wear cut, for the first time in some years. The only picture I have for you was taken on my new phone, so the quality is not what we're used to (apologies but I do not like having my picture taken, so it is surprising there is anything, in truth). Most of my friends have said nothing about the crop, so I suspect it looks more severe than in my imagination! Hey ho.

My girls both received new tops to wear today. So here we have Millie in her "Winter Walkies" t-shirt and Annie in her Wrangler. My suspicion is that Annie likes her shirt rather more than Millie enjoyed modelling this! I know I could have fixed the "terrier eye" in this pic, but I feel it captures her mood! We told her that modelling your new clothes on Christmas Day is just a tradition she needed to experience.

As you can see, Annie is wearing a crown in this second shot. That's her paper hat, from the crackers we had at Christmas Lunch. Crackers are another tradition over here, they are a bit like a mini-pinata, in the sense that they get pulled open and contain goodies. They also contain a small amount of explosive (enough to make a "crack") so we never dare bring any over for you (P Babe).

Lunch was us three, plus my Mum. We ate: chicken; stuffing (aka dressing); bread sauce (hmmm, not sure what that translates to); cocktail sausages (small links); bacon rolls (crispy); gravy (which is always brown here); roast potatoes (do you have those?); roast sweet potato; bean casserole (you know that one!); carrots, brussels sprouts (?) and cranberry sauce. We also consumed two bottles of wine and some Christmas pudding and brandy sauce!

So then a rest was called for.
Clearly.

Some time later I walked back home with my Mum and Millie came along too. Then Millie and I headed over the road to our local park (simply known as "the field") and went for a run about (no, you're right, I walked). On the way though we saw a heron land on the roof of one of our neighbour's houses and eat whatever it had recently caught. And it stayed still long enough for another rather shaky effort with the new phone.

What a day!

We all hope your day has also been lovely and we're off to sleep some of this food off now, in front of the tv! Much love.

The onset of Winter

Dear Blog readers, as ever I have been remiss. However, this might turn out to be a bit of a mammoth post however, as I catch you up with the excitement that is ... the British Weather!

This story starts about 10 days ago, when Millie and I were out for a walk in Wythenshawe, enjoying the beauty of a sunny day in the "Rhody Walk". I was snapping some pictures, including catkins in the sun and Millie was largely ignoring me, which is the Jack Russell way.

The weather had been very "on and off" before that. That is to say, it had been raining and then nice and then rotten again, all in one day. As we walked along I remembered that just by the Rhody Walk there is a fallen tree which has had some seats carved into it (just flat parts that one can sit on, nothing too clever) and I thought I'd take a picture of that.

Millie, as usual, had better things to be looking at. But as I took this shot I thought, "well what's that hanging from the tree?". Closer too, it became obvious .... someone had left their umbrella (or "brollie" to a Brit).

When I got close enough I realised that there were actually TWO umbrellas hanging there. It was so easy to imagine two people (a guy and a girl, jusdging by the brollies) coming to the tree at a moment when the rain had abated and having a sit, a chat, perhaps even taking some pictures themselves, and then eventaully carrying on with their walk. I wonder how long it was before they realsied they LEFT THE FLIPPING umbrellas! Ah me.

Of course, I left them too. For all I know they're still there. We haven't been back to Wythenshawe this week as the weather has taken a turn for the chilly and it hasn't seemed worth driving over there just to walk through ice! So, on Monday, we went to Worthington Park, which is much nearer to home - and of course we took some pictures whilst there. (Oh, ok Millie doesn't take many of these, truth be known).

This park is just beside the place where Annie goes to do voluntary work and so is another good place locally, to go for a run around (ok, you know who runs, right?). And I was struck by the beauty that a good frost can bring, with leaves outlined in ice, lying prettily about the place.


Worthington Park also features a number of "chainsaw sculptures" where rooted trees (I think, I hope, already dead) are used to carve a sculpture. Perhaps the most striking of these is "The Wizard" and for once my pup even agreed to pose by this. Prettily, I know you'll agree.

Here's the credit. He's done an eagle and a snail thing that is also for the kids to play on and both of these are worth seeing too. However, there were other dogs and owners over towards those this visit, so I didn't trouble Millie with going in that direction. Instead we struck off, into the quieter parts of the park.

And discovered that Tim appears to have been at work pretty recently. This, as yet untitled piece, is still surrounded by sawdust, so I'm not even sure if it is finished, or indeed who is expected to move in!

Cute though, well Millie and I liked it, anyway. We'll go back and look in a while, I promise - with camera.

Today the frost is more serious and tomorrow they promise blizzards. . Anyway, we did pop out to the local water park today and just have this one picture to show for it. The birds are all flying, which might be to keep warm, or might be because Millie has just run at them - she did that a bit today!

So, wish us luck with our blizzard and I'll keep you posted on the latest effects of "global warming".