COLD WEATHER FOR DUCKS!

We haven't, thank goodness, had all the snow here that the eastern half of the British Isles has had. But it is still bitterly cold, everything is frozen solid, and although there is a lot of sun (or there was today!) it is not strong enough to make anything feel warmer.

Late afternoon in the Park looks rather chilly, I thought.



The ducks and gulls on the lake have only a fairly small area which is not frozen. This is where the deepest part of the lake is, and usually, however, cold the winter gets, a bit remains unfrozen.



There seems to be an unusually large number of ducks here, plus the wintering gulls, but the Canada Geese have gone elsewhere. The ducks know that they will be fed with an enormous amount of bread as all the small children come here to feed them. Their little red legs looked so cold on the snow!

It is very early for winter to start here, and I for one am feeling I am too old for all this!!

I know my friends in the US have it much colder, but we are supposed to be a maritime climate, and -9C is not nice. That's 16.2F (I think - maths is not my strong point!)

SEPIA

Carmi's Thematic Challenge this week is SEPIA. I don't like to let him go unchallenged, so here are my two efforts.











I always associate sepia with old photos. I used to print photos in sepia, as did my Father, using daylight paper. Anyone remember that?!

So I have included one of me and my sister, taken in about 1942, and done in sepia. I'm the big bossy one! I loved that tree, which we called the Swing-y Tree. It was quite a walk for small legs, but we thought nothing of it then!






Ah, happy days!

A SHORT POST

I am sure you are tired of looking at boring pictures of the Park, and I am sure tired of taking them!



So I am posting a photo of some strange fungus on the beech tree they cut off 20ft high! There was always a cleft there, in fact, one year a mallard duck nested there! I think this is bracket fungus, but its too high up for me to see properly. This photo was taken with my zoom lens from a bit of a rise in the path, so I was more level with the fungus, but further away! (You have got that, haven't you!)

Still can't see much, and no appointment so far from the Hospital for a follow-up. Can't do anything about new glasses until that happens.

Until then I have to make so with short bursts!

BLACK AND WHITE

I can't look at the screen for too long, but when I saw Carmi's Thematic Challenge this week was Black and White, I had to have a go, as it is one of my favourite photograhic methods. I dug around in my files (it being too cold to go outside for the moment) and came up with these:





Soapsuds under a running tap




Tulip leaves after the rain




The growing tip of a young Monkey Puzzle tree.

I get cross-eyed trying to do too much on the computer, but I manage to keep reading most your blogs, even if I can't say so!

Its going to drive me nuts not being able to read properly for at least a 6 weeks, maybe even 2 months! A prayer for patience would be appreciated!

ELECTRICITY (and other things)

Carmi's Thematic Challenge this week is "Electricity. I couldn't think of anything more imaginative than this one of a pylon! Nearly fell over backwards taking it one of the sunny days we had this summer!




But I thought I would post another picture of the fir trees on the pitch and putt course in the Park. They are beautiful at the moment, a real orange, and looked so lovely in the early sun one morning.

Alas, nearly all the needles have come off in the wind and rain we had last night and today. Larches are the only deciduous conifer (native to the UK) here, and I love them at all seasons. The first bright green tufts in the Spring, the lovely dark green against a summer sky, and the orange of the autumn.

This might be the last blog for a while as I have eye surgery tomorrow. Its a simple cataract operation, but it does mean that I can't see with my spectacles and I can't see without them!

Hopefully all will be perfect once I can get my new spectacles, but I do crave for a bit of reading ability once my eye has settled down. I can't do without books! I will ha ve to go and investigate the audio book section in the Library!

TREACLE MARKET

Macclesfield always used to have flourishing markets, both in the Market Place (where else?) and one down the bottom of the hill, which at one time was a Cattle market. That is, until the Council, in its wisdom moved the market to a rather windswept and off centre car park. Which meant the market wasn't nearly as good.

However, a few months ago, some lively-minded citizens organised a Sunday Market, which they called Treacle Market, as Macclesfield was at one time nick-named "Treacle Town" (don't ask). This market has flourished and on Sunday was packed with everyone enjoying themselves.



We started at the bottom of the hill, in Waters Green, where it was all food, and a flower stall. There was a lovely Greek stall, with home-made hummous, olives, pasta, and other yummy Greek specialities. There were lots of other stalls selling honey, chutneys, all sorts of bread, and other foody things.




I admired the flower stall, and bought a deep red cyclamen. This meant I had to climb up the steep hill to the Market Place, where the flea market and non-food items were, carrying a pot plant, some hummous and a packet of that rice-shaped Greek pasta!




There were some very strange things for sale up there!




And a rather gorgeous mirror, though you would need a Baronial Hall to accommodate it!

There was also a stall with the artist and her work for sale, as etchings and silk-screen printed pictures. I fell in love with one, but it is for my birthday this week, so I can't show it to you, as it has mysteriously disappeared!




There were one or two people who had just turned up in the hopes of selling something. I don't know if this fellow sold any of his old radios!

It was a very successful Sunday morning, and most enjoyable. I am looking forward to the next one, which should be a very Christmassy one!