On Wednesday, I went with some of the members of my WI for a walk alongside the canal near Uppermill, a town in Saddleworth, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It’s a beautiful place, very much like the High Peak, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I snapped a whole lot of photos, and wanted to share some with you.
My last photo-heavy post got no comments, and I suspect that it took so long to load that everyone gave up on it. This time I’ve resized all the photos, so it should load quicker, and added a link in each caption to the full size photo, should you want a closer view of anything. I really hate squinting at a small photo, trying to make something out, that would be dead easy to see if only the full size photo was available. This is the best balance I can think of at the moment. Please let me know how it works for you.
Photos incoming …
Remember to click on a photo to see it a bit bigger, and also to be able to read the whole caption.
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- Some pretty flowers to start our day …
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Uppermill High Street. To the left of the Sweet Memories of Saddleworth shop is a shop called The Vintage Cupcake Kitchen. I don’t much fancy vintage cupcakes – I’d rather have fresh ones!
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- This shop name also amused me.
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This pretty brook passes under Uppermill High Street. Turns out they call it the River Tame. This isn’t a river to me.
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This is a river.
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This is a brook. Sometimes, depending on my mood, it’s a creek or a stream. My dear friend who told me this was the River Tame knows me well enough to simply have not commented on my continual references to the Creek Tame thereafter. 😉
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- I love nature’s fractals.
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Now, that’s a backyard I could do with having – set out a couple of chairs, relax alongside the canal. Mmm.
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This is what it looked like most of the time. I took 134 pictures this day, but am only sharing about 40 with you; for most of the missing bits, you can just fill in this view.
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- The towpath we walked along was actually between the canal and the Creek Tame. Full size image
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I found the Tesco supermarket in this landscape rather incongruous.
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I was amused by the name of this boat in this marina. 🙂
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Found my future home – it’s even for sale, just waiting for me! 😉
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This is where we turned around to come back; it’s Shaw Hall Bank Pond. And to think, I *almost* took some duck bread – wasn’t sure I’d see any waterfowl!
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We walked …
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… and walked, sometimes accompanied by ducks for a bit …
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… and crossed Uppermill High Street again …
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… and carried on past it, now seeing new bits of the canal. Also, note the paved towpath we now get to walk on – no more worrying about slipping head over heels in the mud, hooray!
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- Margaret’s dog is very mellow around humans, but let another creature enter his field of view, and he quickly informs them that he can take them! He never gets close enough to try, of course. He did end up in the canal at one point – whether he slipped (he was very close to the edge, and it was muddy), or was trying to go after the ducks, I don’t know. He still didn’t get near the ducks, dried off just fine, and was still quick to inform any other non-human creature about his prowess as we passed other dogwalkers along the canal; he didn’t seem to notice that he’d gotten wet. Ah, pets – how we love em.
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- This little guy jumped up on the bank to say hello to me, so I quacked back at him. 🙂
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- Kodak moment! So pleased I spotted this photo opportunity to get an interesting photo of my group – we usually only remember to get the camera out for the group once we’re all seated around a table, which makes for a boring scrapbook.
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Arty shot!
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The family just out of the frame to the left, who had this Dr Pepper, doesn’t know how tempted I was to buy that off them. I’d missed my mid-morning coke, and was seriously jonesing for a coke by this point (Dr Pepper will satisfy). Just hold out til lunch…
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There’s a canal lock just out of the frame, to the right; this is the passageway for the water to carry on flowing down the canal around the lock. It was a pretty miniature waterfall.
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The camera made this shot far more moody than it really was, but I quite like it.
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That viaduct is for the train tracks.
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I didn’t think locks were supposed to leak like that; Chris says it’s okay so long as it doesn’t leak too much.
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The Limekiln Cafe, where we lunched. I was quite taken with the fun lights over the porch dining area. Highly recommended, should you happen to be in that part of the world. Our reserved tables were waiting for us, the food was wonderful, service was fab, prices were decent, they were dog-friendly, but most importantly: they had COKE! Ahhhh, so wonderful that afternoon.
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I quite liked this tree.
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My cohort laughed at the Horse Corral, saying it made her feel like she was in the Wild West or something. Heh.
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- Walking back along the main road after lunch, instead of the canal (to see something different), I spotted this little spot where Chris and I might someday come have a picnic lunch, overlooking the canal.
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The Tame runs alongside the main road for a piece.
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- By English standards, this area is rural; by my standards, it’s suburban. Either way, I boggled to see five foreign languages on offer outside of an urban school. When I were alive (that’s Derbyshire for “when I was a kid”), French and Spanish were my only choices!
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We passed these allotments with chickens, right next to a busy, noisy road. Surprises me that they’re not bothered by all the noise.
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Arty shot! Or at least, an attempt at one.
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Getting back into the town centre now.
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Another view of the Tame. (Chris read this entry and praised me for not calling it the Dribble Of Water Tame by this point – suppose I was in a good mood when I wrote these, or something.)
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As we approached this miniature market (three stalls), I said, “Oh dear.” With good reason, as it turns out – at the cheese stall, it was me they lost!
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Uppermill High Street again. I like the shop sign on the left; it says “Pause A Second.” I’m afraid I can’t tell you more than that — a second is all I had, since I still hadn’t found my group!
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- I was amused by this sign — even moreso when I got home and realized I’d snapped this photo with two ladies going into the premises!
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You’ll be heartened to know that I did find my group again; I’m not still stuck in Uppermill, writing this from under one of those bridges you saw earlier. 😉
Driving in, we’d passed this view, and hoped our walk would take us to this area, but it didn’t, so I tried to capture it from the car as we left. This is what the other side of the hills around Glossop look like!
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And then we came home – I was worn out! I totted it up; we’d covered 4 miles in all – not bad!
SJ those are some GREAT pictures, sure looks like you had a wonderful day out with your WI. I like the house you picked out, should have plenty of room for Mom and I to visit. I so enjoy your posts especially the ones with pictures so we can see more of your England. Take care, give our best to Chris and have a fabulous day! Love, Dad
Thanks, Dad! Hah, yes, plenty of space. Just have to win the lottery now! 😉
It sounds like you enjoyed yourself and your photos are fab. Don’t move though! Just to put you off glossop is a walk in the park in winter compared to saddleworth – treacherous! Best for spring time visits….xxx
Ps, very clever thumbnails on the photos that work great. Em
Ugh, you know how to talk me out of a thing, that’s for sure! Fine, I guess I’ll stay. ;-P
Thanks for the compliments & feedback. I shall carry on with this arrangement for the photos, then, unless I get negative feedback, I suppose!