Les Oakes Reclamation

Have you ever been somewhere and you spend the whole time walking around with your mouth hanging open because you can't believe what you are seeing?

Well, Les Oakes Reclamation in Cheadle is one of those places. Been recommended by a friend (thank you Felix) ages ago as an explorer's and photographer's dream. Well I finally got there this week. And wow!

Where to start!. The place is huge. Loads of sheds like this one which you are free to wander around. At your own risk of course! 

As long as you are prepared to cope with dust, pigeon poo and the wandering rooster that lives on-site (I kid you not) you are going to come across some very unexpected things.

And yes, that does include a lifesize statue of Queen Victoria.

I must at this point let you know that I only had my phone and my little Sony camera with me, so please excuse the quality of the pics.

As you wander through this vast metropolis of junk, there's barely a soul around and it gives you the feeling of discovering some long forgotten explorer's hideaway.

This is probably my favourite find of the day. It was just beautiful but with all the dirt, dust and cobwebs it looked very forlorn. Sadly no one wants this type of thing in their front parlours anymore and so they are left to gradually fall into neglect.

So then onto the outside.

This is only a tiny part. There was some semblance of order to it I guess, in as much as rocks and concrete was in this area, bricks in another, wood somewhere else and terracotta hidden away in the depths of beyond! But if you love a clamber and don't mind getting decidedly grubby, you can have a lot of fun here.

Or at least until.....

Thought I had a stone in my shoe and when I took it off, saw that it was a rather large rusty nail on it's way to embedding itself in my foot. Having had a tetanus jab a few years back after a dog bite I was very relieved that I wasn't going to have to go through that hellish nightmare again.

With my shoes already soaked through and now holey I headed back to the car to change into my wellies which I really should have done in the first place.

The video shows the original reason I went to a reclamation yard. I had seen the fabulous Charlie Dimmock use old Victorian drains in the garden and I wanted to have a go. I wasn't hopeful of finding them, but there they were. Right at the back of some treacherous shrubbery challenging me to risk life and limb and do something creative with them.

Well I did, and this is the result...

It's not finished yet, but you get the general idea.

And this has now become a tunnel for the hedgehog that appears occasionally in the garden.

So a return visit is rescheduled and next time I will leave the shopping list at home, take my proper camera and just see what delights I can find.

Lessons Learned: If I am sensible enough to bring socks and wellies, try to be sensible enough to actually wear them!

Diet Diary: Move along, nothing to see here.
 

Trentham Gardens

How wonderful is it that we are now allowed to travel around a bit and visit some fabulous outdoor attractions.

Still sadly can't get into Wales but there are many other places to explore.

So for a long overdue photowalk I head to Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire. There is a really rather good garden centre on site which, when allowed, you can get some amazing cake. But sadly, not on this day.

Anyway, I turn up with pre-booked tickets for the actual gardens and the sun on my back. Surely they were wrong when they forecast snow?

There are many parts to the gardens, but the centrepiece is a large lake a mile long. A path takes you all around it but those of a more weary disposition, on season you can actually catch a boat to bring you back from the far side.

But to me, the main attraction of the lake are the fairies.

Dotted around the gardens are the most stunning sculptures of fairies playing, climbing and just doing what fairies do.

They are made out of some sort of woven wire and are so delightful with real personalities.

The weather was a real adventure, they might have got it right about the snow after all! It went from warm and sunny to blizzard conditions and back again time after time. Sadly with the coffee shops doing takeaway only, there was nowhere to hide so I had to put faith in my trusty thermal layers and hope I didn't catch my death!

At the entrance, there is also an Italian Garden. More formal and manicured that around the lake but still beautiful.

There stands there the remains of Trentham Hall, including the sculpture gallery and clock tower. This was partly demolished a century ago but was once one of England's grandest country houses.

This shows some of the remains and also my favourite fairy. Or possibly the next one..

So beautiful, hard to pick a favourite.

It took about 3hrs to get round, taking photos and stopping for an odd takeaway coffee when the snow stopped, so what to do next.

Head up into the hills of course. Buy fish and chips on the way and park somewhere with a fantastic view over the Peak District watching the snowstorms come and go. A fabulous end to a totally brilliant day.

Diet Diary: Easter Sunday found me desperately hunting through my wardrobe to find something that fit and looked half decent. I struggled. Now I believe that there is an ancient religious decree somewhere that says you have to eat copious amounts of chocolate over Easter, and not wanting to anger anyone's God, I did just that. 

However, Easter is over now and I have to look forward to warmer weather and the shedding of layers and the thought makes me shudder a little. So back on it, yet again. Wish me luck!

Moreton Corbet

 How wonderful to finally be allowed to leave the house and to meet up with people outside. I have really missed that. So a photowalk was in order and an excursion planned.

The destination of choice was a beautiful woodland full of silver birch and pine trees. So peaceful and lovely to walk through, but with the overcast and drizzly weather, absolutely hopeless for photography. At least for someone with my limited skill set!

I tried a bit of intense fartnarkling to make something of a picture, but when it ended up looking absolutely nothing like it started, I thought better of it, so you will have to wait to see gorgeous photos of magical woodlands!

Next stop, Moreton Corbet. This was more like it!

This is somewhere that the overcast and slightly stormy weather really suited.

The Castle was built in varying stages from the 12th to the 18th centuries. Sadly it was so badly damaged during the civil war that it was deemed unrepairable and was left to decay. 

I do find it so incredible that parts of it seem almost untouched while other parts have completely disappeared. When you stand at the bottom and look up, you definitely wonder how long the rest of it will remain.

Nice to see a little reminder of spring and beauty and fresh beginnings taking root amongst the dereliction.

I have played around with the image in lightroom a bit, had to balance out the sky and also straighten the perspective a bit otherwise the buildings would look a very jaunty angle and more likely to topple than they actually are!

Taken from the English Heritage website, this is what the castle originally looked like. Pretty impressive I think.

So a fabulous day walking with a dear friend and a few half decent photos to boot! Doesn't get much better.

Lessons Learned: Sadly that which looks beautiful to the naked eye doesn't always translate to a beautiful photo. We have all seen gorgeous landscapes but when we see the photos they look flat and lifeless. So it was with my woodland photos, but they can't all be masterpieces!

Diet Diary: Here we go again. Through the latter stages of lockdown, eating cake has become almost a compulsion and it was the donning of hiking trousers after many months of avoidance that has made me realise the time has come to get my act together again. Darn!

Not my finest moment

It's confession time. Have you ever done something that you know at the time is a very unwise thing to do? It's happened to me a lot but usually I am lucky enough to emerge unscathed. However, on this occasion I didn't.

Last February when we had all that awful flooding and Storm Persephone or whatever it was called, I arranged to go out for a photowalk. The howling winds and the water cascading over the road should have been warning enough, but I was determined to go.

I had to drive through Corwen and as I approached the town there was a lot of water across the road, but I got through ok. So armed with a completely false sense of security and no other sense whatsover, I drove into the rather large puddle outside the firestation. And got halfway.

The car judders a bit and then with an overly dramatic sputter decides, nah, not going any further, and stops.

So I am sat there wondering what on earth to do, but at least I am dry. Until the first of many huge lorries whizz past, rocking the car and sending the water level higher enabling about 4 inches of it to seep into the car. B<gger! To be honest it was actually a bit scary!

So I ring Green Flag who tell me that they can't do anything until the water recedes and because at that current moment it looked like it wouldn't be happening until Mid March I started to get a little bit upset. To which the Green Flag man replied "Well what do you expect me to do about it!" So I hung up.

About an hour later a proper Knight in Shining Armour in a Range Rover offered to tow me out. But I am ashamed to confess that I sort of went to pieces and panicked a bit and the poor chap was trying to tow a car in 1st gear with the handbrake on and a driver who was too ditsy to actually steer. So we bunny hopped narrowly missing the wall at the side of the road. Quite understandably, he left me there with the car parked up out of the road. I optimistically turned the key but my poor little fiesta was having absolutely none of it.

I was then given a lift to the other side of the impromptu lake by another samaritan in a Land Rover which was where I was rescued by my OH.

Eventually Green Flag came out and the car was towed to our local garage where it was pronounced DOA. So I salvaged whatever wasn't soaked, and the only piece of good luck was that I had put my camera bag on the seat rather than the footwell as I normally do, and so it kept safe and dry.

Lessons Learned: Puddles can be deceptive!

New Brighton Catch Up

I have been lucky enough to visit New Brighton on a couple of occasions. Again, this was all down to new friends encouraging me to visit new places. Never headed towards the Wirral before apart from a brief shopping trip to Liverpool if that counts.

New Brighton is one of those fabulous places that has many sides to it. Naturally there is the fantastic beach, but as with most of my trips, I don't tend to visit when it's linger on the beach weather!

The lighthouse is of course worthy of a picture at any time and the varying tides turn it from a warning beacon rising from the sea to a landlocked thing of beauty.

To be found further along the beach is the driftwood pirate ship and I was lucky enough to be with a real pirate on my first visit.

The whole structure is made from wood washed up on the beach and unlike many "sculptures" this is made to be clambered on and enjoyed.

There is a high wall separating the beach from the promenade and this was part of the structure supporting one section of it. I just loved the patterns the shadows made and the gorgeous colour of whatever it is that is growing along the sides.

The same stuff, some sort of algae I guess, that is growing on the wall itself.

However, it is easy to forget that New Brighton is on the edge of a very industrial area and that huge old structures are now easily dwarfed by their modern counterparts.

But there is still a really charming side to New Brighton, almost hidden away amongst the trees. If you should care to wander along the front and head slightly off the beaten track you will come across an enchanting fairy woodland. With mystical creatures...

And terrifying monsters...

Truly a very special place.

Heswall - Boat graveyard

January 2019 

Since taking up photography I have been lucky enough to meet some very interesting people and visit some fabulous places.

As part of a tour of the Wirral area I was taken to Heswall and what an incredible place this is.

The day was bitterly cold as befits a January, blowing an absolute gale, and the ground was sodden and swampy, but so worth the visit.

This is situated on the banks of the Dee Estuary on the Wirral and is the final resting place of many once magnificent boats that had the misfortune to find themselves marooned on the mud banks.

There are literally dozens of boats in many stages of decay and it was an absolute joy to wander amongst them and find so much texture and interest.

You can't help but wonder about the story of these boats. Surely something could have been done to salvage them or is it just an inescapable fact of life, that once we are past our best then we are found somewhere out of sight and out of mind to quietly crumble and fall apart!

Possibly, but I for one am not there yet. Bit of life left in the old girl yet!

After all, there are still so many wonderful places to explore and we have a lot of lost time to make up for!

Winnats Pass

 As part of my fabulous trip to the Peak District before Lockdown struck, I visited Winnats Pass.

I am not at all familiar with this area of the Country so it was fabulous to explore somewhere new. Like many of us, I do have my favourite places and sometimes it is tempting and comforting to stick with those, just in case the new places aren't as good. But of course, if you keep going to the favourites, the photos get repetitive and there are only so many different angles you can shoot Criccieth Castle!

So there I was, spending the most extraordinary couple of days in uncharted territory!

And wow, what an adventure! Standing high up on a hill looking down of the most amazing natural phenomenon, a cloud inversion that I was able later to follow to Mam Tor.

I hadn't seen anything like it before and haven't since (but then I have hardly left the house since, so that's probably no real surprise!)

And not only that, but to cap it off, a bit of derelict scenery.

All in all, the most fabulous couple of days ever!