Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 30th December, 2024)

I remember getting a surprise when going to work very early one morning....a peacock was strutting along the pavement ...this was a village pavement in rural Kent.
Beautiful birds but as you say John, noisy !

They are beautiful to look at but has you say are very vocal. A few years ago we were on holiday and had the dawn screeching from a regular visitor to the garden.

If a neighbour's Peacock came into your garden and laid an egg, who would that egg belong to?

Tom, a peacock would never lay an egg. Only peehens do that.

Apologies for being pedantic Tom but that would be an impossibility. Peacocks don’t lay eggs, Pea Hens do. The Species which originates from India and South East Asia is known as Pea Fowl.
Lovely photo John of a beautiful but noisy bird, amazing how nature evolves.

Peacocks don't lay eggs.

It looks as if he is eyeing up if the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence.
Noisy birds worse than Cocks crowing. But beautiful with feathers splayed .

It was a trick question.

Tom, I thought that you might have thrown that in to see what a reaction it would get. And it worked!

John, it would have looked spectacular shaking its tail feathers. You should have scattered some corn and danced the ‘Funky Chicken’ in a mating routine on your patio and then posted a link to a video.
That would have been quite something!!!

I thought Peacocks sold clothes not laid eggs.

It must have been a trick question in a Cracker…
John your Begonias have done well lasting into December…I pulled all mine out of their pots a few weeks ago. I should have left them….

Something different today John, thanks for sharing, is he feral or someone's pet?
In residential gardens and I had to choose I'd opt for the Peacock over the Silver Birch, as they get far too large both height and width and block out daylight, they're fine in woodlands but not residential gardens where they're more of a nuisance than Peacocks ever could be.

If Dtease is looking in. ‘TheQuiet Man’ is on
( again). It’s on More 4 at 5 25. There’s a better fight fought than the other mis-matched , much advertised one!

Good photo John.

"I saw a peacock with a fiery tale"

'i Saw a Peacock' is a four hundred year old nonsense poem, aka a... trick poem.

What came first . The chicken or the egg ?
I say the egg , for whatever laid that egg which hatched the first chicken was certainly no chicken . Most likely a mutant T. Rex .

It takes me back to when I worked in the Arabian Sea offshore Bombay.
Every four weeks, we would come ashore and stay one night in the Holiday Inn. The next day, it would be a flight back to where our families were. As I traveled along the airport approach road, I would see Indians selling bunches of Peacock feathers. The Peacock is the Indian national bird and a bit of a spiritual god, so it is protected.
Anyway on one occasion I got my driver to stop and I bought a big bunch, but when I got to the airport the environment police pulled me up and said I was breaking the law and I had to pay a fine, so I did because I didn't fancy being locked up.
4 weeks later I was doing the same thing and all the Peacock feather sellers were standing in the same place still selling feathers.
This is what you have to put up with when you are working overseas.

This will bring back memories for Mick.
Not many people will know it, but Mick was once officially “Ye Oldie Parish Peacock Pouncer Of Olde Shevington Towne”. Unfortunately he had to relinquish his post due to the onset of knee trouble a few years ago.
He was very good at the job, but let’s face it, a one leg bike rider was no match for a fit and agile Peacock. As a result the Peacocks are now running rampant and the noise they make is preventing the good folk of Shevington from sleeping during the day which was, previously their want.
If you fancy applying for the post the requirements are
1, a large Butterfly Net.
2. At least two working legs
3. A working bike and the ability to work nights at the week-end.
Send your application to-
Ye Oldie Parish Council,
Shevington.

The peacock belongs to the smallholding Cyril at the rear that used to be the Briggadear pit offices and you can just make the pit rucks out that the farmer who owned the land beyond this smallholding refused to allow the firm that filled the shafts after the capping collapsed to use as filler instead the transported loads of stone then capped yet again with concrete.

John, you threw the Cat amongst the Peacocks today! All good fun and a great picture. Cheers.

Colin as you and I know as well as most people on here we would sooner put a smile on someone’s face rather than a frown.Veronica the photo was taken before we left Snydale as we now live closer to yourself,maybe that explains the flowers.By the way there was a post recently naming all the pits surrounding Wigan but didn’t see the Briggadear if that is spelled correctly yet some that were further afield were named strange.

This also takes me back to when our trees were in leaf the flowers were blooming.
Come on spring.

I once told my wife that I saw a peacock on the way to work and she said "How do you know it was going to work"?

Your wife isn’t Irish by any chance is she Mal?
Made me chuckle that did.

Just finished watching that film again Veronica. I must have seen it a hundred times over the years, but I still enjoy watching it.
It’s not the Ireland’s that is, it’s the Ireland that we want it to be and none the worse for that.
A great film.

Big H, those peacock-feather-retailers were likely to have been running a racket with the airport police.
They'd sell you the feathers, the police would confiacate them and issue a fine, then they'd give all the feathers back to the sellers who'd sell them again, and again. A kind of "boomerang sale"?

Just done some reading about the Brigadier Pit which was it’s nickname as it’s proper name was Snydale Colliery and opened in 1866 and the nickname came from a dog called Brigadier that won the prestigious Warterloo cup that year.Mal I do like your wife’s sense of humour as mine is similar.

I always remember ‘up Snydale’ where the Water tower was John
( now a house).
Yes Dt it’s a whimsical take on the Irish and very endearing to watch. They have a way of talking amongst themselves that’s quite unique…a language all their own.

Veronica maybe you remember seeing a concrete mixer wagon being parked down the side of what was our house next door but one from the water tower but way down the hill?

Bit late to add this as it's Tuesday, but, Veronica and DTease, Peter and I went to Ireland for my 50th birthday in 2002 and it was also the 50th birthday of the film "The Quiet Man" and the bridge that features in the film was decorated with balloons. If only we had had mobile phones with cameras back then!

I remember the bus (59) to Bolton going up Snydale John but that’s years ago now. The Chequerbent roundabout put an end to that.I have a friend who lives up Snydale you might know her but I won’t mention her name which begins with F she lost her husband a couple of years ago. A lovely lady. She was a red head the same colour as Maureen O’ Hara’s as a young woman.
I have been to Ireland a few times Irene and where the film was made. I’m not keen on Dublin though but the villages are like stepping back in time.
My dad used to say the older generation would speak in their ‘own language’ in whispers so kids didn’t know what they were talking about!
I looked up John Wayne’s ancestry as I always thought he had an ‘ Irish’ face his grandparents originated from Antrim. Barry Fitzgerald hailed from Dublin . Most of the American actors in the film had roots in Ireland.

Veronica correct me if I’m wrong but I think the bus going up Snydale before the motorway created one of the widest longest culdesacks was no. 39 later changed to 40,as I used the 39 going to Harker and Howarths Bolton for guitar lessons,I’m thinking the 59 was heading along the A6 for Manchester.

Veronica I do remember a lady with long red hair,a few weeks ago I was parked outside Sainsbury’s and saw an elderly man with a trolley full of shopping looking around and feeling in his pockets also trying a car door he’d lost his keys so I reported it to security and loaded his shopping in my car to take him home for a spare car key when security came out holding his keys ….he lives up Snydale.

It was the 59 John then it became 559 I used to catch it in the 60.s.
It still runs but only to Hindley down Hart Common way - then turns back cutting out Wigan.. There was a 38 that went to Manchester from Wigan through W/H up Church St then along the A6. The 540 took over from the 59 going all around the Hindley estate. It’s now the 607.
The fare was 2s in those days.
‘F’ lived on Manchester Rd for many years before moving ‘up Snydal’..
Happy New Year to all.

The lustrous red hair has faded now John. She’s a little older than me.

Veronica if you type in on your iPhone or iPad
dartslf.com then go to page 6 you maybe surprised to see that the bus no 39 operated from Birch Avenue Westhoughton to Bolton via Snydale upgraded to the 40 then the 540…….I’ve searched but can’t find any evidence of the 59 ever going up Bolton Road Snydale as I was born at 347,Bolton Road you certainly had me confused but no harm done whatsoever Happy New Year Veronica.

I know I went to Bolton by way of Snydle John.
Up to 1973 SELNEC
Ran the 59 .which later became 559 There was a 40 which was a Bolton W/H Service. Now I think of it the 559or 59 went along the A6 towards Hulton Lane Ends and onto Bolton. So it would have been the 40 which later became the 540.
It’s strange to think that Snydle is now a cul de sac. I walked the dog up there last Summer. I was reminiscing of how it was.
Happy New Year to you and your family.

Yes I enjoyed being up there 47 to 67 and then 80 to 2017 but just about getting settled where we are nothing stays the same Happy New Year and not forgetting your family to.

Yes I enjoyed being up there 47 to 67 and then 80 to 2017 but just about getting settled where we are nothing stays the same Happy New Year and not forgetting your family to.