Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 8th January, 2025)

With that amount of snow, the footpaths must be treacherous for any pensioners visiting their family's graves.

Looks like a clip from Dracula if it was getting dark.

It's so fitting a black and white photo for a Cemetery shot.

Goodness me, you have got some snow.....what a beautiful scene you have captured Colin & I love the wording from the carol, In the Bleak Mid Winter, its one if my favourites.

More had fallen overnight
On the eiderdown field
He was first to cross ....
Clean and deep each new step
Sounding like creaking ropes ,
The snow ahead unfurling like the sails
Of the Santa Maria ,
By noon lay half wrecked ,
Ploughed by dogs and their humans ,
And snowmen erected like aboriginal art ;
Just small parts remained untouched
Pristine and unexplored ...
But he was glad to have discovered
In that dawn ... a New World .

Poet

A good photo, all the better for being in black-and-white with that snowy scene of old graves and bare branches. It reminds me of Scrooge begging The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come to give him another chance in the 1951 film with Alastair Simm. I saw that film 5 times over Christmas, (four times in colour and once in black-and-white, and the black-and-white is by far the best). My daughter took me to see the flat gravestone with Scrooge's name on it many years ago; it's in a graveyard in Shrewsbury. Sadly it was in the days before mobile phones which could take photos so I only have the memory.

Believe it or not that photo is in colour but when I saw it, it does look black and white but that’s the Winter light for you.
I have visions of Keith seeing it and adding some colour.
Thanks for the nice comments.

It might be in colour, but the whole of Standish would be black & white on that snowy morning.

It's roasting in Oz.

Just to cheer you up, today the pollen count in 'The Graveyard' is low.

Reminds me of the old graveyard at Haworth (which takes some beating)in between the church and Parsonage.
The eeriest I have ever seen. Snowdrops will soon be nodding above the snowy landscape there… life still goes on no matter what. .

Can anyone tell me what is the building on the
Right hand side of the picture.

Veronica, although I don’t think there was snow it puts me in mind of that graveyard scene in that 1946 film Great Expectations.
The old black and white films of the classics are without doubt the best.

Looks too slippy for me to be out walking.
The weatherman and the doctors are saying to stay at home.

Veronica, one of the first flowers at the arrival of spring.
You remind me of the snowdrops that can still be seen on some of the gravestones in Wigan.
Chiseled by long, gone Victorian stone masons.

'Symbolising new beginnings, hope, rebirth and the capacity to triumph over challenges, they're not just a sign of the changing seasons, but also a beacon of positivity' (Deep meaning from bloomandwild.com)

Eddie Rowland, I think used to be St. Wilfrid's primary school but is used for something else now, but I'm not sure what. The photo appears to have been taken from the back end of the church.....usually photos of St. Wilfrid's tend to be taken from Market Place where the old well used to stand, in which case the building you have asked about would be on your left....it confused ME for a moment when I first saw it. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone from Standish will correct me!

I don’t know the part you live in TD I have a schoolfriend in Perth Cottesloe
W/ A . I should have gone visiting her and booked my flight but it was not to be because of Covid! I still get invited but the older I get the less confidence I have. I hope there’s no fires smouldering in the vicinity.

Yes you do get everything in a Dicken’s novel Colin. Melodrama, humour, atmosphere. The Victorian age will never be forgotten with his novels amongst others. I liked Mrs Gaskell’s as well … Her description of her journey to the Parsonage visiting Charlotte is illuminating to say the least of the villages she passed through and of the ‘working classes” . Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ is still one of my favourites. I first read it borrowed from the adult library at aged 14.

Spooky-looking !

Tom, it is very slippery on the pavements, it's when the snow melted during yesterday and has frozen overnight, there's been plenty vehicle accidents too on untreated roads, and it's forecast to get a lot colder before becoming warmer over the weekend.
So keep warm folks and beware of hypothermia - and when you begin to imagine that you are so hot you then take off clothes, but your core temperature is seriously dropping to a fatal level and you need urgent help.

Eddie, I'm sure that it's apartments and built where a youth club and other buildings once stood, was it once an old school and hall?

We were lucky because we didn't get that much snow up here in Shevington.

Just looking at your photo Colin as we are sipping some lemonade with ice on the sunbeds and hopefully all that snow will be gone when we get home our dafs where shooting up before we left,the downside was we were sat on the plane for 4 hrs awaiting the wings to be de iced and then a couple decided to get off so all the luggage had to be took out of the hold to remove theirs what a todo we are shattered.

I have been out all day, pavements everywhere like sheets of ice. Don’t know about down in Shevington but up here in Standish it’s treacherous.
John, thought by now you might have flown out, all sounds brilliant.
Which we all could be Snow Birds and fly south for the Winter. Make the most of it X.

Cheers Colin just going for tea.Stay safe everyone.

John, (Howfen), you should go to Whitby like me, lad.....even in July you only need three overcoats and an umbrella....no messing about at airports! Only joking....have a wonderful time..

Irene I’m so looking forward to seeing everyone including your Peter and especially Veronica and Colin but take it onboard about Whitby as just got in after a great night out so take it easy as the Eagles would say I do enjoy speaking to all the decent people on PAD xx

What's all this DECENT people malarkey John Boy, sounds like you're saying that some people on PADs aren't.
Hope you enjoyed your lemonade last night, did you get a straw with it.

Harold we had a great night last night with friends from Scotland that we haven’t seen for seven years no chance of lemonade that’s for cooling us down in the day and just managed to squeeze an Irish Coffee in after returning to the hotel at OO.50 hope you didn’t get nicked on Wing Yips car park we supplied Concrete for Wing Yip when they were up Cheatham hill road in the early 80ties before they moved to Oldham road hopefully your enjoying your kayly

Eddie, the building to the right of the picture is now called Bramley Court. It is an extension to the building that was once St Wilfrid's Infants School, the old stone building is still there and part of the complex on Rectory Lane. The upper floor of the old building was once home to Standish Boys Brigade and hosted a room for a brass bands practice. The lower rear portion became Standish St Wilfrid's Church Club before the site was purchased for repurpose and the club moved across the road and merged with St Maries to become the Unity Club, in Cross Street. There was a small single storey building with a large gym/sports hall attached which was the Youth Club, accessed off Bradley Lane between Taylors shop ( TSB bank / Charity Shop ) and Smalley Street. Incidentally, the name of the apartment complex is a nod to a very popular gentleman, Canon Charles E Bramley who was Rector at St Wilfrid's between 1956 - 1981. Also, Smalley Street is a nod to another Rector, Edward Smalley who was in charge 1760 - 1779. There are quite a few streets in Standish named after the Clergy.