CURIOUS

Churchstoke

Someone wondered if this was my house. It isn’t.

It isn’t Blackpool, but the streetlights are shedding a bit of

sparkle along Deansgate as the sun goes down. Monolithic

at the end of the road is the Beetham Tower, the tallest

building in Manchester.

Albert Square

Usually the council switch off the fountain in the city centre

for the winter, but for some reason the water was flowing

right through December. Until it froze. It’s one of the most

enchanting sights in the city at the moment. Catch it before

it gets boarded up, to save it from the New Year’s Eve revelry.

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Logs

Our stove is hungry, there’s ice on the inside of our windows

and we’ve taken the easy way out. We are fattening our

haphazard store of firewood with logs from the sawmill

in the valley. It feels quite luxurious to simply load up the van

and motor off with this lovely ‘processed’ firewood without

having to chainsaw, carry and split our way through a whole

tree. Taking heed of this traditional rhyme we rummaged

through these bags looking for ash. Whilst I might not be

able to recognise a tree in leaf I’m well practised at

spotting ash bark!

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City Snow

I just looked out the back window and it’s been quietly snowing

a surprise. The old police station on Cross Keys Street (although

the road sign looks like Cross Eyed Street at a first glance),

shot derelict by a stray flame to its store of fireworks on bonfire

night a few years back, seems to reclaim some dignity in the

swirling snow.

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Snow

Snow has been falling hard up on Beacon Ring. Walking through

the copse on the top, inside the ring of ditches of the iron-age fort,

the trees are black as we set out and white as we return.

Albert Square

The Christmas markets are back in town.

White Horses

White Horses

Never thought I’d hear this again