Tuesday 12 July 2005 - Silverdale

 Here's the result of indexing a few old pictures:

On return from Geneva (see here), Sue and a colleague, Richard, on a month's visit from Perth, Australia, and I enjoyed one of Sue's excellent veggie lasagnes before heading up to Leighton Moss for a 7:30 start on a lovely warm summer's evening.

We went down to the public hide and saw mainly Coots, Mallards, and Black-headed Gulls. A Coot with very small young, looking after them on her own. All very relaxed.

Then, a diversion whilst we wandered around a disused quarry, before getting onto the correct path to Hawes Water.

This was Trowbarrow Quarry, which has some interesting climbing routes. I've posted the next picture before, here, by way of a report on a blunder. Note the comments.

Whilst we had passed through an area of serious mosquito infestation, beside Hawes Water bikini clad women were enjoying an insect free barbecue! 

We continued on, the sunset being nice but not spectacular given the clear sky (I failed to take a photo due to problems with my new Canon Powershot S70 camera - the shutter intermittently fails to open).

 Then through fields of buttercups to reach the church at Silverdale.

We adjourned to the Silverdale Hotel for drinks outside, near a large party of people. Still very warm here - 9:45 to 10:15.

After that a stroll back to the car in the dark along the road, and home around midnight after dropping Richard off at his rooms at the hospital.

Here's the 10km route.

A lovely evening, if not the best route in the area.

Rosliston parkrun #331, and the Tatton Yule Yomp

On a trip to a family lunch in Hinkley, Sue and I stopped off on Saturday morning at Rosliston to take part in their 331st parkrun. The rain that had accompanied us all morning persisted as we jogged around the course. There were some deep puddles.

I was 88th out of 105 finishers. The marshals at the finish had a long wait for some of those finishing after me...

Full results are here. We were slow, but despite that I came first in my age category, and Sue was second female (out of 35).

Mick and Gayle, TGO Challenge stalwarts who live nearby, were at the finish to greet us, and spend a quality hour of catching up in the adjoining cafe. Great coffee and cake - thank you Mick.

As you can see, it was a day of full waterproofs - not the most appropriate clothing for a fast run!

The 5km route is somewhat convoluted. We kept coming across familiar looking marshals from different directions. Not to mention the familiar water features.

Sunday morning: drive through heavy rain to Knutsford for the Tatton Yule Yomp that was cancelled last year due to icy conditions. It was raining, mostly lightly, for this 10km cross country yomp.

Jan joined us at the start, and I won a dog in a raffle.

Fancy dress was the order of the day. 

I left my fancy dress at home as it gets very heavy in rain and I find 10km quite hard anyway these days. There were over 1800 entries, of whom 1141 turned up and finished. Here we are at the start.

I started at the back and took it easy as we jogged along in slippery grass and mud beside the lake.

I while later, the runners got very spread out. I chatted with Ian Blakebrough for a while. He's a Hash House Harrier so I thought he might know our friend JJ. But he didn't. We passed a very jolly marshal, resting happily on her prosthetic legs.

A rather cumbersome Christmas cracker was outpacing me at this point, but I'm told by Louise (Practice Manager at my dentists) that they had the misfortune of falling over in a swamp a bit further on. All, including Louise, were apparently traumatised by the whole experience and will stick to road events in the future!

Here's the swamp...

Just 2km to the finish, and my quickest kilometre of the event.

Sue was nearly half an hour ahead of me.

We were joined by Alister Pooler in the cafe, as well as Jan and his friends who kindly adopted my newly acquired dog.

Jan had been rather careless on the way around. His knee was dripping, but at least he didn't damage any trousers. 

The following screen dumps show our results, which are also here, and the route. Note that the figure of 1832 participants is misleading, as only 1141 of them actually took part and finished.

Great fun! (But not for Louise!)

Nice medal...

Tuesday 5 December 2023 - Shutlingsloe

                                         Ridgegate Reservoir and Tegg's Nose

On a dull morning I parked by Ridgegate Reservoir and enjoyed a brisk(ish) circuit in Macclesfield Forest, featuring Shutlingsloe. I've been here many times before - see here for some of those visits, so today's record is just by way of annotated pictures. Click on any image to access a slideshow.

After rounding the reservoir, with its resident cormorants busy drying their wings, the path winds upwards through the forest above Trentabank

Just beyond the forest limits, remnants of a recent snowstorm lined the path

I was catching up with another group who were ambling to the summit

From the summit, a view across Wildboarclough to Shining Tor, capped by mist

A brisk, cold breeze ensured that visits to the summit were fairly short

I soon returned to the stile at the foot of the final climb, with the other group just ahead

I took the path that is normally very boggy but which was frozen solid today, whilst the other group returned to the good track at the edge of the forest.
Here's my view back from the stile that maks the end of the boggy ground

A coffee break was taken in view of the three nearby reservoirs

Sunlight beamed down on my view ahead to lesser heights

The view towards the Cat and Fiddle indicated some vaguely unpleasant conditions in that direction

Some highland cattle had to brave knee deep mud to access their winter provisions

The path back through Macclesfield Forest is delightful

I soon reached the Leather's Smithy - very busy today, and had a brief chat with John before making my way home

Today's walk was 10.5km, with 375 metres ascent, taking 2 hours 40 minutes,

including a couple of coffee breaks

Monday 4 December 2023 - Eagley Jazz Club and The Dixie Beats

Another great night at Eagley with the Dixie Beats, who generously donated copies of their latest CD, recorded earlier in the year at Eagley, to the 100 plus attendees at the annual Christmas Dinner.

Thanks to the active committee and the talented bands who perform for an entry fee of £8, the club is thriving despite its older than desirable age profile.

The programme is here.