Primroses in Corporation Park

The weather was a little better today so in the afternoon we went for a walk in Blackburn's Corporation Park. Corporation Park was created in the 1850s as an area of green space in what was quickly becoming a smoky industrial town. The park contains two small lakes and several fountains and statues, all it has to be said in reasonably good condition despite their age. The park also houses a Victorian conservatory, which sadly has seen better days, having often been targetted by vandals over the years.

On a brighter note, the flower gardens were looking well with several displays of primroses bringing colour to the park. I had my macro lens with me and took several close ups - this one being about the best.

Walking at Ribblehead

Ribblehead viaduct was built to carry the Settle to Carlisle railway and was constructed in 1875. The viaduct is an impressive sight - the surrounding countryside is always bleak and no matter which angle you view the viaduct from, there's usually one of the three Yorkshire peaks looming large in the background.


We parked up to be greeted by a heavy snow flurry and had second thoughts about leaving the car at all. Thankfully the snow shower soon cleared and we ventured out for a refreshing walk in the cold.

Easter snow in Downham

It's very rare that we get any snow these days so it was a surprise to see snow on the ground when we woke up on Easter Sunday.

I went over to the village of Downham, about 15 miles from where we live, to see whether I could get any decent shots of the snow. Downham is one of Lancashire's best preserved vilages and has even been used as a location for film & television dramas. The sky was great for taking pictures and I was quite pleased with the results.

Be creative with your Easter Eggs!

Easter eggs don't fit in with the diet too well, so Carole had a plan and used the chocolate from her egg to make some rice crispie cakes resplendant with a mini egg on top - the idea being that the rest of the family would eat most of them for her!

Yarrow Valley Country Park

On Good Friday we usually get out for a stroll in the fresh air and this year was no exception. Carole remembered several years ago visiting Yarrow Valley Country Park near Chorley, so we thought we'd go again for a look round with Jean & Kevan.

The source of the River Yarrow is only a few miles away near the summit of nearby Winter Hill, so by the time it flows through the park it isn't particularly wide. Nevertheless it has to work hard in that short distance, feeding several reservoirs along the way.

In times past the area was heavily industrialised, with bleaching, dying and mining all taking place here, not that you would notice today. The area had been derelict for many years before being converted into a pleasant woodland park in the 1980s.


With the industry gone, salmon have been seen in the river for the first time in living memory, and a fish ladder has now been built at Birckacre weir to help them swim upstream to spawn.

The walk itself wasn't too strenuous and we were soon back in the nearby cafe enjoying a hot drink!

A wheely good night out in Manchester

Don't seem to do this very often any more... a Friday night out in the big city!

Had a great night out with the rest of the team in Manchester - we were celebrating a nomination we'd received for an award. The difficulty was in deciding how to spend the cash - we'd explored several options over the past few weeks but they'd all fallen by the wayside for various reasons.

We started the evening with a trip on the big wheel, Manchester's answer to the London Eye... but as the photo shows, it does go round a little bit faster!

After a couple of swift drinks, we visited 'Ghengis Khan', where you prepare your own 'dish', take it to the chefs and watch them cook it for you along with everyone elses. If the level of spice in your food isn't right then you've only yourself to blame!

Thanks to Ian C, Jenny and Nook for a great evening - we must do it again!

Thumping good time in Witton Park

Blackburn's Witton Park is a large area of green space in the west of the town and is very popular with families and walkers at the weekend. We used to live literally across the road from the park, and even though we've since moved away it's still only a couple of miles down the road, so it's a regular destination for us if we want some fresh air without pulling our boots on for a long trek.

The park has some decent athletics facilities and football pitches, which are well used by locals, but at weekends most of the park's visitors head for the cafe (which incidentally sells fantastic ice-cream).


There's also a visitor centre, but it's situated round the back of the cafe and consequently never seems to get the same attention, which is a pity because there are some interesting displays about the local wildlife. Nearby is a small collection of animals including four goats, some guinea pigs and Thumper the rabbit. Thumper is certainly an apt name for him as he is absolutely huge!


The goats were also a little dosile, although they did wander over to us briefly before returning to their pen. One of the goats was named Elvis, however he wasn't playing up to his namesake as he wouldn't leave the building.

The visitor centre and animals are looked after by nearby Myerscough College, who offer courses on animal care, horticulture and floristry at the centre.

Project Africa

The company Carole and I both work for are enthusiastic supporters of staff who get involved with charity work in a variety of ways. One rather ambitious project being supported by Carole's part of the organisation at the moment is 'Project Africa', which aims to raise £60,000 to send two groups of staff to Malawi later this year to help rebuild a school. The people going out to Africa need to raise £5000 each as a minimum to fund the trip. Whilst the trip itself is much more adventurous than anything we'd consider ourselves, we are nonetheless happy to do our bit to raise funds.

So, Carole's team are busy hatching up a number of schemes to extract cash from colleagues at the moment in a bid to add to the fund and Carole's idea was to organise an African-themed quiz. Entries are £1 a go and so far it's proving very popular. Hopefully this will raise around £100 towards the trip.

Of course you can't have a competition without a prize, so earlier this evening we were doing our creative bit making a hamper for the winner. The hamper has an African theme, with wine from South Africa, coffee from Madagascar, Tea from Botswana and lots of other produce from a variety of African countries.

The only problem we may have is that our teams are based in several offices around the country and if the eventual winner isn't local to us then somehow we'll have to get it to them. We'll tackle that problem when it happens!

Closing date for the competition is 20 March, and I'll post details of how much we raised afterwards.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to Jean and Marilyne!

Telford biscuits?

It hasn't been a week for getting out and about, so the camera hasn't seen much use recently.

With both sets of parents visiting for a meal tomorrow for Mother's Day, we thought we'd have a go at making some home made meringues for dessert, which turned out surprisingly well.

Rather that waste the yolks, I decided to try my hand at Shrewsbury biscuits, using a fairly straightforward recipe. Even so, I managed to add the ingredients in completely the wrong order but the end result was pretty good. If they weren't Shrewsbury biscuits, then they were pretty close... so I christened them Telford biscuits instead: