Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 9th January, 2025)

Hypnotic senses prick with glee
where words don't match what our eyes doth see ,
when falling silence rests in peace
on beds of slumber of virgin fleece
As ballet dancers land their feet
upon the face of each child they meet
to melt their footsteps on a glowing smile
a dance from heaven , that stayed a while ...

The word ‘unprecedented’ has been much over used since Covid but waking up this morning yet again to snow, the garden looks no different to the phot taken on Sunday and I’m still in bed with a hot cup of tea. Five days of snow I think is unprecedented.
-5 degrees earlier but pity poor John away on holiday where it was 16 degrees overnight and expected be 23 degrees this afternoon.
Our sun loungers and pool are tucked away in the shed. Hope he gives us a thought when taking a dip in the pool or sat on his sun lounger sipping Pina Colada’s. Enjoy John.

I haven't got a garden but just come downstairs on this THURSDAY morning to see thick snow on Warrington Road through MY window. Nice garden, Colin. I like the chimney pot to the left; it reminds me of the days when we all had coal fires and they would have been lit on this snowy morning and we'd have been sent off to school in our wellies with the words "mind tha dunt faw" in our ears. Far from being kept off school as they probably will today, we loved it, and slides and snowball fights abounded!

Another sight for sore eyes again this morning! Opening the curtains to see more of the white stuff. Good job I’ve got my ‘supplies’ in to last another week. I think this is what to expect for a few more days. Keep warm and batten down the hatches!

You're spot on regarding the school closures Irene . But the absurd thing here is that the little school is open and the High School shut . There are little toddlers ploughing indefatigably through the snow this morning while the older kids have the day off . In fairness to the latter many reached the school gates to find them closed . It's the teachers who can't get in , not the kids . The website says it's due to Health and .......blah blah . Remember the Strawbs . 'You don't get me I'm part of the Union ' .

I am with you on the chimney pot memories Irene. I have one in my garden in Norfolk which I brought over from my late mother's back yard in Platt Bridge some years ago and I cherish it and my memories of my childhood in Spring View

Irene, the chimney pot was in the garden when we bought the house 20 years ago, it came off the roof when the stacks were capped.
In the summer we have lavender and trailing white lobelia in it and geraniums, begonias and blue lobelia in the other tubs and pots.
Counting the days until spring and they are again filled with colour.

My chimney pot came off my next door’s neighbour’s house after she died. I brought it to the house I live in now. Incidentally it was the house Robert Shaw was born in Irene. I have planted some crocus
inside it. I have also painted it white but it needs another coat.

Lovely memories, everyone, and it's nice to know those chimney-pots have been kept and are cherished. Mine is still on the roof, but no smoke comes out of it these days, although I have seen smoke still issuing forth from from odd chimneys in Abram through the years.....in fact someone still had coal delivered when my children were at Abram School, but that's a long time ago. We had the chimney swept 25 years ago when we had a living flame fire installed, and I had to go across the road and let the sweep know when the brush appeared out of the chimney......it took me back to childhood when people's chimneys were always catching fire! It was just a day-to-day occurrence back then but would make "News at Ten" these days! On a morning like this, my Dad would have made the fire for us before going off to his job at Ince Wagon Works; he would have made a little fire with some sticks, paper and coal, and then leaned the shovel against the aperture of the fireplace and held a sheet of The Lancashire Evening Post over it to help the fire to "draw". The paper would then catch fire and join the flames. If the fire died down after my Dad had left for work, my Mam would throw the contents of the sugar-bowl on it! (Sorry, Colin, for rabbiting on on your p-a-d!).

Irene, that was a lovely recollection and my dad did exactly the same. I to temper sugar on the fire, the flames would turn blue.
We had one of those cast iron fire places with an oven at the side, I think they called them Bungalow Ranges, then around 1955 we became really posh when it was replaced with tiled fire place.

Oh..all this lovely talk about the shovel against the fire with a sheet of newspaper to help to get the fire roaring really takes me back..in fact it brings a lump to my throat remembering it all..going down the yard for another shovel,of coal.
I know all about progress etc but I’m sure todays folk roughly our age won’t get nostalgic about switching the heating on etc,but there you are ..we can’t turn the clock back and I know that we can’t live in the past..but I often wonder if todays children youngsters etc will look back like my generation does..I’m so grateful for my memories..I’ve often thought,it would be nice to go back for a day,but would I be disappointed and no doubt plenty of folk would scorn at the idea..but I’m not plenty of folk am I..I’m just me!!

Colin,I must say ..your garden looks very neat and tidy,mine has been a bit neglected through one thing and another..but I can’t wait for Spring to get some tidying up done..I’ve got some mortar ready for applying to the cracks in the patio flags and see if it’ll keep the weeds away.

Colin,it would be around 1955 when my mam decided that she’d had enough of the Bungalow Range and got a new tiled fire surround,which looked very nice but I missed not see the black range after I’d cleaned it with ‘Zebo’..I even miss scrubbing the front step and the big flag in front of the door ,I would polish the window sill the until you could see your face in it ..if I got down now to scrub anything I doubt I’d be able to get up so quick…I’d like to think that in my past I was a lady of the manor but it’s looking more like being the parlour maid..still ne’er mind eh..there’s nowt like dreaming.

Irene my dad used to use our shovel and a big sheet of newspaper, but I think he used the daily telegraph.
Anyway back to today's snow this morning I drove to Wing Yip Chinese supermarket in Manchester, I went via Standish and the M62.
There was still plenty of snow on the rose road around Red Rock and Aspull but easy to drive on at a reduced speed, but one car was in the bushes at the. Bend where you can turn off to Haigh Hall.
M61 was OK except for some patchy fog
Coming back I went to along the M62 and M6 Orrell and Gathurst, again no problems except for a broken down lorry at the Orrell roundabout.

I remember practicing my reading on the sheet of paper over the shovel. That’s when the News of The World ended up being banned at our house. I was always top of the class at spelling in those days!

I have to say that I miss cleaning the black range,my mam bought a new tiled fire surround from a shop in Wallgate..I also miss mopping the front step and,I would work on it like it was a work of art,and the windowsill my Lord you could see your face in it..
Sometimes I would feel like the lady of the manor when in fact I was more like the parlour maid…still ne’er mind eh.lol

Veronica, we got The News of the World too; We had an outside toilet and used newspaper until the mid-1960s for toilet purposes, as many people with outside loos still did. Most of our neighbours cut the newspaper into neat squares and hung them on a string behind the lavvy door. Not My Dad! He had knocked a nail in which wouldn't have looked out of place in The Tower of London, and just rammed the News of The World in it in one piece! Of course this meant you could read the salacious news in there without interruption and I read many a thing that was really unsuitable for a girl of my tender years and most of which puzzled me! (Children were children back then). But I do remember all the stuff about Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davies....I didn't understand what it was all about but have often wondered since what those glamorous ladies would think if they knew I'd read of their exploits sitting on the loo! I think my Mam started buying those awful Izal and Bronco toilet rolls shortly after that and we thought we were dead posh!

My comment @14.42 did a runner for a while hence my doubling up on our chat about cleaning the range etc..so my apologies for the blunder.

Veronica, you learn something new every day.
Is it really true that Robert Shaw was born in Wetherspoons?
I Googled him and that’s what came up!

Maureen, I think it was Cardinal Red Polish if you were posh or a Donkey Stone from the Rag ‘n Bone man if you were well off.
It was a sight for sore eyes walking down Harrogate Street seeing the ladies bent over on their hands and knees. Skirts would ride up to show knee length bloomers on the older ones and if you were lucky suspenders and an expanse of thigh on those younger. All a cheeky experience for us kids.
Ah, the good old days.

I’m very sorry about the doubling up of my comment,plus this is my second apology on the subject..God knows where these missing comments get to.

Irene I didn’t realise everyone did that with the shovel and paper when lightning fire as my dad did exactly same and my mam would say thet gooin av chimney on fire Jack throwing paraffin on great memories.Colin it certainly felt hotter than 23c today I do hope that snow will be gone soon can’t stand delays.

Tha’s still not gett’n thi yed round “as “ and
“ has “ though … ast Veebs ?

Good gracious Colin …Wetherspoons is named after our Robert. The Wetherspoons was previously a Supermarket (or the site of one) . He was born in King St off Market St…we lived at number 53 . He was born next door In what was formerly a doctor’s surgery I believe. The family moved to Bolton Rd later. My old neighbour wouldn’t allow a blue plaque to be put on the wall. There is one on the Town Hall now though.

I remember my dad throwing paraffin ont fire too! It’s a wonder the house didn’t blow up!
That was then Ozy age has caught up or ‘ spell check’. …still it’s not as bad as the 3 ‘There’s’…

Colin,I loved the smell of lavender polish and when it was all used up it then became our tin for the. beloved game Hop Scotch…and yes a donkey stone from the Rag ‘n’ bone man…lovely days.

My late brother had a glass fronted fire and he would never get shut of it. My niece is still living in the house and when I went to visit I asked how much coal was a bag and she said £37