Ashton Memorial

Anyone travelling up the M6 past junction 33 at Galgate will have seen the dome of the Ashton Memorial amongst the trees of Williamson Park. The motorway takes the fast traffic around Lancaster and the memorial is passed in a matter of seconds, but a visit to the park is well worth the effort and the memorial is quite special.

Building work started on the memorial in 1906, and it took 2 years to complete. It was commissioned by Lord Ashton as a memorial to his late wife and finally opened in 1909.






Although damaged by fire in the 1960s and closed on safety grounds in the early 1980s, the memorial has since been restored and is once again an impressive building.

I hadn't realised but the building is open to the public, and the ground floor space underneath the dome is regularly used for exibitions. Climbing the curved staircase, the first floor viewing gallery provides great views across the city and Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland hills beyond.

Chiquitos and an alien called Paul

We'd not been to the pictures for a long time but having seen a clip of Pegg and Frost's new film 'Paul' we went down to the cinema to take a look.

Paul turns out to be a quite a character as the three of them head across America's mid-west staying one step ahead of a number of pursuers. Daft, but good entertainment nonetheless!

Afterwards it was Mexican for us at Chiquitos over the road, with a couple of beers and a selection of nachos, burritos and chimichungas. Far too much food and once again the diet will have to wait another week!

Southport birdlife

A day off today, so after a visit to the exhibition we decided to drive over to Southport for some lunch, a little shopping and some fresh air by the Marine Lake and pier.

At just over a mile long, the lake is home to a variety of seabirds as well as the common birds always found in parks and ponds, and half an hour with a long lens produced several shots I was happy with.


As the sun started to descend in the sky, the clouds were sufficiently broken to generate some fantastic colours in the sky, and as we returned to the car near the pier there was a chance of some great shots silhouetting the pier against the setting sun.

2011 Exhibition

The camera club's annual exhibition is now on display at Darwen Library, and I have four of my prints included. The exhibition takes place to highlight some of the best photos members have produced over the year, but everyone can enter some photos and there's no criteria to work to - you can include whichever photos you want to.

The pics I've included have all been on this blog over the last year and include a shot of the Eagle Owl, the Cuillins mountains, Lytham windmill and Blackburn's fairly new Wainwright bridge. Carole's pictured here looking at my Cuillins photo.

There's no competition as such although visitors are encouraged to vote for their favourite, and I'm sure everyone wants one of theirs to be the most popular.

The exhibition is on until March 8th, it's free admission and the library is open every day except Sundays (early closing at 1pm on Tuesdays).

Snooker legends live up to their billing

Blackburn has been the home of several legendary snooker players over the years, including the 1985 World Champion Dennis Taylor and the even greater Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, World Champion in 1972 and 1982.

The mill towns of East Lancashire have always produced high quality players, the game proving popular over many years in the numerous Working Mens and Conservative clubs dotted around in Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley and smaller towns in between.

So when the Snooker Legends tour hit town tonight, a sell-out crowd was guaranteed, especially as the two players involved were the hugely popular Jimmy White and Ronny O'Sullivan, along with 1980 World Champion Cliff Thorburn and the entertaining John Virgo providing their own commentary.

The players certainly lived up to the high standards the crowd expected, with O'Sullivan in particular in exceptional form with five centuries in eight frames and another one in the one-frame doubles match with two raffle winners from the audience.

White chipped in too with the highest break of the night, a 130, but O'Sullivan was in total command, rattling in four centuries in each of the first four frames, including a 122 which broke down on the green with a maximum in sight - from his very first shot of the night.





It was all part of Dad's Christmas present too, so he certainly couldn't complain about the entertainment!

It's nearly fifteen years since I last played seriously, but I used to be able to play the game to a reasonably high standard, winning the Accrington 'Observer Cup' in 1994 and the Blackburn CIU Championship in 1995 and 1996, as well as reaching the East Lancs Amateur final in 1993. I also won several high break prizes in competition, including some centuries too, but the game was always considerably harder than O'Sullivan made it look tonight.