Quicksand

Autumn really has clambered out of bed and got its clothes on now. It’s that time of year when the Sun feels nice on  your back but there’s a cold wind in your face. Sometimes Northenden and Wythenshawe do look quite pretty. Not to mention nearby ‘hoods.

This tree is in Cheadle Hulme, and we pass it on the walk from Jenny’s house to school when we’re picking up the children. We checked, and the mushrooms were still growing at the foot of the tree over the road.

Martha, William and I were dropped off near the playground in Riverside Park. I ended up chatting with a fellow grandfather, named Fred, which was a bit off-putting: I was counting to 20 while William hid somewhere and I was meant to seek him. Oops. We got there in the end, but I think my hiding places were better than his 😉

While here, I checked that my microphone was working and I started to record a short piece, a travelogue, for Wythenshawe Radio, about Riverside Park. This is for Our Earth Week, which lasts from 11 to 17 November. You’ll hear about it on Wythenshawe Radio and many other community radio stations around the country. I won’t be in England at the time. I was dead pleased with myself for remembering to do this today. I even asked Martha and William a couple of questions. It all sounded pretty good as I was going along. Before going home, we visited Costa, mainly for the toilet. But of course, I felt obliged to buy a babyccino, a cookie and a coffee. I played back my mini documentary just to see how good it was. Only it wasn’t. I had 26 seconds of me saying, ‘this seems to be working’, a rustle as I put the phone in my pocket and then, nothing else.

After that major disappointment at my own ineptitude, I let Martha and William use my phone for a while. I didn’t realise at the time, but they took very many pictures of themselves, and of me, with some filters turned on.

One day, I’ll be in the right place, at the right time, with the right conditions, to see and take pictures of the Northern Lights myself. Meanwhile, here’s a picture from Anchorage, Alaska.

Liesel, Leslie and I joined a large walking group in Heald Green. It was a walk we’d done before, and we were warned again about how muddy it was in places, and about the five stiles we’d have to climb over. It was a very pleasant hike, nobody fell over and it didn’t rain. We greeted some sheep, alpacas, donkeys and horses on the way around the loop. But the highlight was undoubtedly the family of toadstools in the field, not quite a fairy ring.

At about the halfway point, we had a break on the golf course. Liesel and I hadn’t brought a snack but a kind gentleman whose name eludes me offered us Penguin biscuits.

We passed by a tree from which growns nylon rope. I didn’t think such a specimen would survive in this north-western English climate, but, it seems, nature always wins.

More interesting than that though was the huge greenhouse full of tomato plants. I don’t think I’ve seen so many in one place since Sarah and I were in Guernsey all those years ago.

After a quick snack at home, I picked Martha up and we joined another session with the Wythenshawe Star Gazers group. After a fairly clear day, it was overcast when we arrived. Fortunately, the cloud dispersed and we were able to view such objects as the Moon (couldn’t miss it really), Saturn, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, the Andromeda galaxy and the Seven Sisters. Unfortunately, our viewing conditions were less than optimal, as we were in a car park surrounded by lots of flood lights. So, thanks to Kyle for bringing along binoculars and telecopes. Martha and the other young people took part in a quiz, and they were each rewarded with a space-themed Lego set.

No, I wouldn’t normally let Martha lie down in the middle of a car park.

One of Kyle’s telescopes can be programmed to look at a specific object in the sky. It then sends the image to your phone, which builds up a picture over time. Here is one result:

Martha got home really late, but it doesn’t matter because the next day was the last school day of term. She was already tired from the school disco earlier on, so all in all, an exciting, exhausting day for young Martha.

Plans to revisit Riverside Park were shelved due to torrential rain, but I eventually made the pilgrimage on Saturday while Liesel and her Mom went out somewhere. I recorded about six minutes of nonsense, checking every few seconds that I really was recording this time.

At home I edited this down to just over three minutes and sent it to the Our Earth Day Coordinator at WFM. And that completes my commitment to Wythenshawe Radio for the time being. The actual weekly show, titled Happy Endings, was also uploaded to be broadcast as usual the following Wednesday at 10 in the morning.

Here’s a bonus picture from Wythenshawe Star Gazers. Thanks to Kyle and Dave for sending this:

Yes, the comet, as seen from Wythenshawe, despite being really close to the lights of the airport.

Let’s go to the seaside since it’s half-term. So we did, with William and Martha. And what a fun day we had at Formby, where we’ve not been for nearly a year.

From the car park, we walk up and over the sand dunes to the beach itself. On this occasion though, we also had to jump down a cliff, an escarpment. It looks like the tides and/or the rain have shifted a lot of sand recently.

Even though the Sun was out, the wind was quite cold, but that didn’t dampen the children’s spirits. We all wore Wellington boots but only the children wandered so far into the sea that their boots were inundated.

As the tide came in, we moved further up the beach and we finally settled near the dunes for our picnic lunch. Although it was half-term, there weren’t that many other people on the beach. Neither did we come across any jellyfish.

For a brief moment, looking south, black clouds threatened to ruin the day, but other than hiding the Sun for a moment, they were harmless. William helped(?) Martha construct a castle with a moat, and it was delightful to see the moat filled with water following one particularly large wave.

At one point, a police car was driven along the beach at a ridiculous speed, and I’m sorry to say I was hoping the vehicle would get bogged down in a quicksand.

We walked back to the car and then to the public toilets. Oh and look, the ice cream van is right next door to the loos: what are the chances? So we had a disgusting Mr Whippy and the best part, for me, were the two chocolate Flakes.

On the way home, William fell asleep on Martha’s shoulder.

We ran some errands in the evening and I finished off all the administrative taskson the PC which then left a whole day in which to pack for our upcoming trip, turn off most of the devices and run around grabbing items that we’d forgotten to pack in the first place.

We met up with the children and their parents for an evening meal at Albert’s in Didsbury. Again we bemoaned the fact that Greens has now closed for business. But Albert’s was good, as usual.

In the morning, our cab arrived punctually and we arrived at Manchester Airport in very good time. If we’d been a couple of minutes earlier, we would have spent less time in the check-in queue because we would have beaten the large school party from Derby! Hello Littleover Community School, we hope you have a great time in Iceland. No prizes for guessing our final destination.