Still a wintry scene

Wed 23rd Dec 09.
                  The cold weather continues. It's been a busy couple of days looking after two of our grand children, building a snowman, recording the weather on the camera, sledging, general feeding the birds in our garden and doing the last minute Christmas shopping.

The Pheasant comes early every morning and waits outside the door to be fed. Here are just a few  seasonable photos of our area as we run up to Christmas.      

Pendle Hill

          Wishing everybody a very Happy Christmas    

A wintry day

Sun. Dec 20th 09.

                           It's a cold dark snowy winters day . A quick walk out into the snow around our house not much activity from our local wildlife but plenty of activity sledging on the hill on the golf course.

A cold fresh day

Southern Marsh Orchid spike in the fields near our house

Friday 18th Dec 09.

                               The first snow of the winter arrived as forcast so I took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.I needed a closing sequence of snow shots of dead orchid spikes protruding through the snow for my film on wild orchids I've been making since early spring.  I also needed some winter scenes for the second film I've also been making "Garden on the moor" so it was a brisk walk up Noah Dale to the garden located in this high Pennine north facing valley.By the time I'd finished filming at around 3pm the temp was already reading -6.5c on the temperture gauge in the car, but despite it being a cold day I'm glad I've got the film sequences out of the way.


            

  Orchid spikes around my pond

  

On the road to the Garden on the Moor

 

   Comparing the seasons  

Heads above the Clouds ...video

Thurs. Dec.17th 09.

Of all the videos I've made over the last 10 years the one that I've enjoyed showing more than any other is"Heads above the Clouds" it was spontaneous with no planning and because of the weather conditions it turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience. The contents of the video has been received well with the public. I've down loaded 2 short sections from the video each section being limited to 100 megabytes per download. The commentary is by my mate "Eric" who lead the walk and recorded the commentary during the walk.

Mid-December in Ribblesdale

Wed. 16th Dec 09.

The last 3 days have been raw and overcast temp about 4c so not quite cold enough for snow but dry enough to get out for a walk and that what we did last Sunday Dec.13th. after a get together on the Friday evening for our annual Christmas meal.
This area of the Ribble valley is very scarcely walked especially in the winter time and a good map is essential because the paths are indistinct or non-existent. Our walk of about 7 miles was a circular walk from Bolton by Bowland.

Shots from my video library..... October 2004

Sunday 13th December 09.
Now that the salmon spawning season has come to an end I've been looking back in my video library to Oct. 2004 . I recorded these shots of the salmon leaping up Stainforth Foss and Langcliffe Weir on one of our many visits, this time we were with our friends on our weekly Sunday walk.

A Wintery Scene

Friday Dec.11th 09

     Probably our last walk down Twiston & Ings Beck before Christmas. There weren't any salmon spawning  just one salmon spotted, so it looks like I'm not going to get the good shots of the salmon spawning that I expected, but as a consulation there were some nice atmospheric shots of fog on the slopes of Pendle Hill.

Mist over Pendle

The old city of York

   Sunday Dec. 6th 2009 ....  Just a few images of the lovely old city of York last week. We stayed  for 3 nights doing our Christmas shopping and just enjoying the pre-christmas atmosphere. 

        

  York Minster

     On a more sombre note.....the River Ouse had burst its banks and flooded some of the properties near to the river.