29 November to 7 December - Diary Update

De Quincey Park on a sunny day

29 November

A Princess came for lunch.

1 December

The Dixie Beats came to Eagley Jazz Club, performing in front of an audience of 100 who had just enjoyed an excellent Christmas dinner.

Magnificent hampers for the raffle

A guest vocalist performed 'When I'm 64' for his partner (wife?) who was enjoying her 64th birthday

 

After the raffle

2 December

This is the first time that we've noticed parakeets in the garden. They were on the washing line by the feeder before being pictured on a tree next door.

I enjoyed a walk through Wythenshawe Park, then across the Mersey and through Fletcher Moss Park to collect my car that had been lent to Sarah.

Wythenshawe Park

Simon's Bridge - look carefully and you'll see that the Mersey was quite full

A typical view in Fletcher Moss Park

4 December

A Christmas Dinner menu at the Aspire restaurant, with Paul and Jeanette.

We always start with a cocktail here, then we share a bottle of wine

Click on the image to see it properly
In addition to the above, the £25 meal includes bread on arrival
and coffee and chocolates after the dessert

The salmon starter featured a huge portion of smoked salmon

Pan fried seabass fillet (mine - delicious)

Roast rump of lamb - others enjoyed a large and very tasty portion of lamb

Chocolate Macaron

Lemon scented creme brulee

Raspberry Frangipane tart

5 December

Back to De Quincey Park.

A visit to Wythenshawe Park's courtyard tearoom saw me meeting up with Fechin and Keith, two of the other 'Oldies' who try to meet up every month. Much of the hour was spent reminiscing about my backpacking in the Pyrenees. Happy Days.

6 December

En route to Sue's family Christmas meal in Hinckley, a rendezvous with Mick and Gayle at Sence Valley Forest Park parkrun. Sue and Mick had a chatty 5km run in under 33 minutes, and Gayle and I did the same in under 40 minutes. Here we are at the start.

It was great to catch up, and enjoy the pleasant woodland through which the undulating run passes.

The full results are here.

7 December

The Tatton Yule Yomp, which for a change wasn't cancelled! Sue and I were joined by Paul, Greg and Jan. Sue's number was concealed, so there are no official photos of her, but here are four of us near the start.

I stayed back to start slowly, and when the others moved forward they found Jan, another parkrunner friend.

I took a few pictures before and shortly after the start (before everyone got too far ahead)

The official pictures (download for free) show four of us at the finish.

Martin

Jan

Greg (6291) [No comment!]

Grandad Paul, the Elf

Jeanette had kindly stayed at home and supplied post race coffee and bacon butties.

Here are our results. We were lucky in that the rain stayed away. The others did really well but I took it very gently, as is my wont these days. It's good just to take part, and I was happy to speed up to a 1 hour pace at the end.

A quick turnaround at home was followed by a visit to Sale Conservative Club to enjoy a Christmas themed performance by Hootin' Annies Big Band, where my son Mike is the current guitarist. He seems to have been promoted to a place where we can see him, his usual place having been usurped by a Christmas tree.

Dave is a resident vocalist, and he did well. A lady called Jo also performed excellently, and the two of them sang a lovely duet. 

And that just about brings the diary up to date.

Wednesday 7 May 2025 - De Quincey Park, and Didsbury

 

It's looking very green by De Quincey Park just now.

I'm on Millie duty for a few days, so visits to Didsbury are needed. It's very green there, as well.

Friday 23 August 2024 - Wind in Didsbury

After a 'breezy' night, I cycled to Didsbury (14km off-road) and encountered lots of wind debris, including some quite substantial trees. The picture taken above was after I had carried the bike over the obstacles, including struggling up and down the steep upper banks of the river.

There were numerous more similar blockages, resulting in the Fletcher Moss parkrun on 24/8 being cancelled.

After a pleasant interlude at Isabella's house in Didsbury, to whom I returned a rain jacket and where grandparents Bob and Wendy were in residence (I nearly typed 'in charge', but we know who that was...), I returned home via the meadows, Northenden and Wythenshawe (12km).

Sunday 4 August 2024 - Didsbury Beach

I've not reported on Saturday's parkrun, or today's Community Run - both of them enjoyable and sociable, but no pictures were taken. What a contrast with the Sizzler - in the parkrun my slower time of 30:34 saw me in position 191/310.

Anyway, this afternoon Sue and I popped over to Didsbury for a family outing with Isabella and her mum and dad. She fancied going to the beach, and enjoyed every minute of the outing.

This was good practice for going to Scarborough in a few weeks' time.

It's great to have a beach (even if the sand seems to come and go) a few minutes walk from home, near the centre of a major city. Kingfishers patrol this stretch of the River Mersey, though we didn't notice any today..

What we did notice, frolicking on the opposite bank and in the water the other side of the river, were three juvenile river otters. Well I never! Later: no!!! we now realise that these were adult mink, not otters.

Beyond the beach, the Mersey heads off towards Manchester. The otters' playground is on the left bank in the next picture, beside rather inaccessible woodland. The otters move quickly and are well camouflaged; my attempts to photograph them all failed.

What a lovely afternoon.

There will now be a short interlude (holiday) from postings. Enjoy your holidays.