Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 29th August, 2025)

What was the film called? ‘The Loneliness Of The Short Distance Walker’.??

Another good woodland image Dennis...cool & dark with the walker just caught in a patch of sunlight.

What, walking without a dog, oh no.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, took the one less travelled by,
And that had made
all the difference….”

Robert Frost
Good photo quite dramatic…

As soon as I saw this photo the opening sentence of a book I have had since childhood came to me....."The Dark Wood was green and gold". It is from Alison Uttley's "The Country Child". I still have it, battered by the sheer number of times it has been read, (as books should be), since I was about 12 years old, with my maiden name and my childhood's home address still inside the front cover. How tempting it would be to walk through that shady wood on a sunny day, but sadly a woman would need to be with a companion these days to feel safe enough to do so. A lovely photo, Dennis, as always. Thankyou.

Is that the River Douglas on the right Dennis? I seem to remember that stretch of path, very calm and tranquil, I can almost hear the birds singing in the trees.

Mutley why do you need a dog to go for a walk?? When my knees are not playing up I try to go out even if its only a short walk around the estate or onto the park near my house.

It's so nice to go for a good walk, it clears your head and takes frustration away that's thrown at you. This looks fantastic.
Brilliant photo Dennis.

Veronica & Irene...both of you just mentioned names I know so well. The poetry of Robert Frost & the books of Alison Uttley. Irene I too have a paperback edition in my collection of A Country Child bought many years ago...and still read now & again. Ms Uttley must have known the woods around Cromford well on her walks to school.

Colin, you don’t need to go to Bottling Wood to hear the birds singing.
Go to Elnup Wood or tune into these pages for the unmistakable identical call of the Shevington Warbler.

Yes the poem ‘ hits the spot’ with decisions made during your life.
It can be taken different ways either ‘regret’s’ or ‘hope’…to me anyway Helen. I only read non fiction but the books sound really good. Although there are some classics I can read over and over again.

Colin, if you go down there now what you will hear will be the Whelley and Scholes off road riders

I’m just reading a book by Michael Palin ( Monty Python fame) about his old Great Uncle Harry killed in the 1st WW I’m quite enjoying it. He knew nothing about him and got to know him by delving into his history …which I find that does happen once you start on that journey. I will look up Alison Uttley at the Library thank you both.

Exactly Sue….
“Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..
Or take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them…”
W Shakespeare
A good walk is balm for the soul.

I've just had a nice walk with my son's two dogs.....I've had them since last Wednesday and got them until NEXT Wednesday.....I'm running out of lamp-posts! Are those Michaelmas Daisies on the right by the path in the photo? I think September is the right time of year for them, and we're nearly there. I love September.

Peter P, I'm only kidding my good friend. So sorry if you took me seriously.

So pleased you agree with me for a change Veronica. But end of the day, it is water off a ducks back.

Veronica, though Alison Uttley wrote fiction her book A Country Child was her account of her childhood on a farm called Hilltop, near Cromford in Derbyshire. A world away from today....

Colin, it’s the stream that used to be known as the Yellow Brook that eventually flows into the River Douglas.
It starts life as the overflow from the Swan Lodge in the Plantations then makes its way down to and under the Canal near the Crown Hotel in New Springs. It then goes behind the Hotel down to near Canon Sharples School in Whelley. From there it goes down a waterfall, under this road and on to the River Douglas.

Lovely photograph6 Dennis - so many shades of green - a tranquil scene, thank you.
Veronica and Irene, I'm envious of you both in that you can quote poetry etc - to get through English 'O' Ievel, I had to learn all the poems parrot fashion. I passed the exam; unfortunately I retained very little of it!

William Shakespeare would be proud of you Sue.
Helen I will definitely ask at the Library for “A Country Child”.
Pat I was a ‘Mature’ student when I did my studying having left school before’O’ levels..I appreciated it more! And lucky to do it. But at School I loved the play
“ The Merchant of Venice” just for the poetry..
And I was blown away with “The quality of Mercy is not strained ,it droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven on the place beneath…….” I think most schools had to read it. Never forgotten it. I love all the famous speeches.

Pat McC.....We did Macbeth for English O-level. We read the book, saw the film. were taken to Liverpool to see it performed on stage AND listened to it on an LP Record, and I STILL can't make head nor tail of it!. We also did Pride and Prejudice and I couldn't really get into it, but the screen version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle brought it completely to life for me.
Helen, I must read The Country Child again soon....I haven't read it for years. I was never quite sure if it was fiction or her own childhood, going to school alone through The Dark Wood, especially in the Winter Winds with the lantern....I actually used to feel her relief when she got to the last gate and "let it clang behind her to tell "Them" she was safe". I have just got it out of my corner cupboard and will renew my enjoyment of it soon....it was given to me by a teacher and I have had it for over 60 years! Apologies again to Dennis for going off the subject of his lovely photo.....but I don't think he'll mind. One thing leads to another on photo-a-day!

Thank you Dennis, I am familiar with the stretch in the Plantations that leads into the Douglas but did not know that its upper length and source was so far upstream.
I do remember a time when it did flow yellow due to its mineral content. I think I’m right in saying that now it does flow relatively clear although traces of yellow can be seen on stones and rock outcrops in places.

It's nice to see a gentleman without tattoos on his legs

The Calico Brook here in Shevington used flow a Calico colour, it rises from the field close to the M6 then flows down what is called Calico Wood, under the M6 then under Miles Lane, then under the Southport to Manchester railway, then under the Leeds Liverpool canal and into the river Dougas.
It also marks the border of West Lancashire and. Greater Manchester.

Irene next time your out with dogs take a bottle of water to rinse the lamp posts from dog pee. folk won't walk in it then.

I too was a mature student Veronica with young children - sitting O levels at Abram Guest. You've certainly jogged my memory - bits of 'As You Like It' have come to mind - age appropriate 'sans hair, sans teeth' etc!!

It was great Pat ..three years of being a student in my late 30’s. I loved it…..Many good memories as well…and most of the essays to prove it. Once in a while I read them and think how the heck did I do it!!! Never had my head out of books all that time.

Mick, you might have a very good point there.
As you know Wigan is now acknowledged as the Roman Town of Coccium, possibly because the river flowing through it flowed red or redish yellow due to iron ore deposits upstream, Coccium being the old Latin word for Red.
These days Cochanille similar in origin from the Mexican Beetle is also a red dye in food colouring. Spanish being a Latin language from which it derives,
Please don’t get me going on anything to do with Cockroaches which is also a very similar word and colour if you have ever stood on one, a bit like a standing on a dark chocolate cherry liqueur!!!!

I DO that, Howard....you jumped the gun there, AND I clean up whatever else they do, and dispose of it properly. I just wish everyone did. And can I just point out that it ISN'T my dogs, or, indeed, ANYONE'S dogs, who leave empty pop and beer cans and crisps packets all over our local parks and pavements when there are litter-bins everywhere, and throw McDonald's paper and polystyrene wrappings out of the windows of moving cars onto the road to blow onto the windscreens of the car behind them? Neither do they spit on pavements, smash shop windows or choke people with the smell of cannabis. No, Howard......it is PEOPLE who do that, love, NOT dogs!

Ladies, don’t you think your poetry discussion although interesting is more for Facebook. It’s off at a tangent and very distracting and irrelevant regarding Dennis’s photo.

Irene

Echoing your book opening first lines:

" I mind as if it were Yesterday"

I get your point, WN6, but one thing just leads to another on p-a-d, and we meant no harm, and ladies DO rattle on! Howard's intentional nasty comment about my son's dogs had nothing to do with it either, but I am blowed if I was going to ignore it! By the way, your comment on the "Call of the Shevington Warbler" was the highlight of my day and made me laugh out loud, so let's not fall out! And Dennis doesn't mind.....he's a lovely gentleman and I hope he enjoyed the comments, even if they WERE at a tangent.

No I don’t WN6 . You don’t HAVE to read it.
Sometimes things do go off on a tangent it’s called conversation limited as it is.. We’re not robots. The photo can spark it off. We have enough from the Politicians suppressing
‘’free speech”. Who are we harming?. Don’t forget the comments you made over the Arcade photo which wasn’t very nice. Short memory there WN6 .

Strangeloop....I like that! Is it s quote? I know a few opening lines, such as "It was the best of times, It was the worst of times", but I don't know that one. (Oh dear'll be getting told off for going off the subject again!)

The last line of the most terrifying novel ever written ?

' He loved Big Brother ' .

Take care all .

“final line of George Orwell's 1984 is, "He loved Big Brother". This powerful statement signifies the protagonist Winston Smith's complete surrender and submission to the Party's ideology and control after undergoing intense torture and brainwashing in the Ministry of Love”.

Irene
'tis the opening line in 'Prester John' by John Buchan

(remembered from School)

PS I had not intended a tangent.

I spent the first few years of my life in the vicinity, and my first thought looking at this photo genuinely was, "I mind as if it were yesterday"!