Snow Going

I had a very long and difficult drive to Manchester today. It took just about twice as long as it should have.

Firstly there were some roadworks on the M1, so speed was restricted to 50mph, instead of the usual 70mph. This of course resulted in vehicles going at 40mph, and sometimes coming to a standstill.

Next came some rain, which made driving hard work, as there was so much spray about. It was like being in a car wash.

Then when I got on the road that runs through the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire it was snowing. And snowing quite hard at times. In fact in one part, there was no movement of traffic at all. I think we were all stuck in the same spot, or moved very slowly forward for almost an hour.

Finally when I reached Manchester, there was a lot of building work going on. So roads were closed, a few diversions or single lanes. There was one particular main road that had single file traffic on each side, and on the side I was on, there must have been about twenty buses all in a queue, and not going anywhere. So that added to my journey time.

The return journey was a little easier, except for the dreaded roadworks on the M1. But what got me, was the fact that I couldn't see anyone working. But isn't that always the way?

Foggy Bottom

Here's another shot from yesterday's foggy cycle ride through Highfields.

Not a lot to say about this almost silhouette of a tree by the lake, other than it looks a bit mysterious and haunting.

Tufty

As I failed to take a photo of a squirrel yesterday, I thought I would have another go today, even though I have taken shots of squirrels before.

So I got into the same position, with the same camera and same lens and waited until a grey one started to head towards me.

This time I got my camera ready before the animal got too close and I frightened them off again.

Bingo, he got close, but not too close, and suddenly he decided to pose for me. The way that he held his right paw I think just makes the shot.

A Bum Shot

Cycling through Highfields, I saw lots of squirrels wandering around, looking for food to keep them going through the winter.

Crouching on the ground, I stayed quiet, as the squirrels  became used to me being there. The park was fairly quiet too, with just the odd jogger or walker passing by.

Slowly their curiosity became too much and one gently crept towards me. I raised my camera and tried to get a shot. He obviously was scared by this and made a run for it, just as I pressed the shutter!

As Clouds Go By

Cycling home from work via the supermarket tonight, I saw that there was a really good cloud formation in the sky. Not particularly white, or a blue sky, but worth photographing just the same.

Obviously I could have tweaked it in my digital darkroom, but didn't, as I wanted to keep it natural. Hopefully it will mean another lovely day tomorrow, even if I am at work.

Pigeon Post

I popped through Highfields again on the way home, in the hope of finding something to take a photograph of .

Sadly the sun had disappeared, and the grey clouds had arrived. Would it rain?

I noticed a big patch of daisies, so I thought I would see if I could do a close up from the ground level. Looking around for a good clump, I saw a feather in amongst the little white flowers.

Great I thought, I'll see if I can shoot that instead.

Theme Day December - My Street

I have been absent from joining in with the City Daily Photo theme day for quite some time now, that I thought I should find a few minutes to start it up again.

There has been some well documented problems with the original CDP site, which disappeared some months ago, but now there's a new one on Facebook, so here we are.

This month's theme is 'my street'. Now I live on what I would call an ordinary road, with a mixture of terrace, semi detached, and in my case, detached housing.  What might be interesting from the casual observers point of view, is that generally all the terrace houses are at one end of the street, the semi detached in the middle and the detached at the other end.

A lot of the houses were built during the Victorian era. Some more during the 1930s, and the rest in the 1950s. There has been a couple of rebuilds too since my late mum and I moved to the area in 1996.

I have been wondering what to put on, as although most of the houses are nice to look at, but not particularly of any architectural merit. So instead, here's a photo of an old Citroen van that belongs to Dave, a neighbour of mine. A good friend, who tries to lead an ethical and green lifestyle. He also has a great sense of humour, is musical and interesting to talk to and is also the father to two lovely children.

Moss Bros

A shot from the archives, as sadly I didn't manage to find anything worth taking today. Although I did have lunch with a friend, so didn't really get the opportunity of hunting out some photographic subjects.

I took this in Highfields a couple of weeks ago. It is various kinds of lichen growing on top of a wall in Highfields. The wall is made of stone, rather than brick, so I don't know if that makes a difference to the types and colours of the moss that are growing quite nicely, and making a abstract pattern.