ABC Wednesday: Low Cloud

Today's post for ABC Wednesday is L for "Low Cloud" and the photo shows low clouds obscuring the hills in Mossley.

Even though Mossley is only 4 miles north-east of Ashton, the geography is very different, with the town being enclosed by the steep-sided Tame Valley with the surrounding hills rising to over 1000 feet. Therefore, when you get low clouds, they tend to bump into the hills! On the ground this is experienced as fog or mist.

This photo shows one such low cloud making its may along the valley with the higher ground of Noonsun Hill and around Pots and Pans rising above.

See Google Street View of this location (without the low cloud).

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"Low Cloud" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "L" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Damp Day

Today's post shows the steps and entrance to Ashton Town Hall on a damp winter's day. On each side of the steps is a non-working cannon for decopration!

It might be a damp January day and it might be cold and windy, but the hardy Ashtonians just wrap their clothes a little tighter around them and get out there!

In the background is the Ash Tree, Ashton's branch of the popular Wetherspoon chain of pubs, a good place to escape the cold!

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"Damp Day" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.

ABC Wednesday: Rain

Today's post for ABC Wednesday is R for "Rain". Of course, being close to Manchester, rain is not something that we see very often, as you can tell from all the sunny scenes eleswhere on this blog!

However, it does occasionally precipitate in the town and, like many other towns, it can look a little miserable when the weather is bad.

The photo shows part of the Market Place in Ashton, with the Market Hall on the left and the Open Market to the right. Open markets are not the best places to be during downpours but there are still some hardy souls carrying on regardless. It is on days like this when you really appreciate the town having a splendid indoor market where you can forget the weather!

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"Rain" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "R" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Unseasonal Weather

A week ago people were wandering around in shorts and tee shirts, splashing sun lotion over themselves. This week it's back on with the winter woollies as strong and cold winds bring snow back to the area - in April!

The photo shows the Market Place in Mossley which, being much higher up than Ashton, had a layer of wet snow on the ground this morning, although it had begun to melt by the time I took this photo. A friend told me that there was 5 inches of snow in the higher parts of Oldham this morning.

It seemed strange to see daffodils poking their heads out of the snow. This is certainly an unusual about-turn for the weather!

See Google Street View of this location.

Rainbow

Today's Sky Watch image shows a rainbow over Mossley, about 4 miles from Ashton, earlier in the week.

Because Mossley is the steep-sided valley of the River Tame, you can see the hills and houses through the rainbow! Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, the sky appears darker than the hillside!

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

Sky Watch is a regular weekly feature on this photo blog. It links with websites all over the world with the general theme each week of looking upwards. Please take the opportunity to visit some of these other sites. I hope some new visitors have found their way here today, watching the skies!

A Bit Wet

Today My World was A Bit Wet. Today's photo shows Market Street in Ashton in the rain.

Some cynical people might say that, since it is near Manchester, it must be a bit wet most of the time! However, today's rain has made a welcome change after weeks of warm and dry weather. It may not be nice getting soaked on the way back from the shops but the rain is needed - April was one of the driest Aprils on record!

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"A Bit Wet" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.
(from 8 pm UK time)

Rain, Rain

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"Rain, rain, go away!" was the general sentiment in Ashton over the past few days, as "My World" became Waterworld and it seemed as if it would never stop raining.

The Manchester area has a reputation for having a lot of rain but it is not as wet as is often supposed, as can be seen from the majority of photos on this blog!

In fact Manchester is the 9th wettest city in Britain. Swansea (not far from the location of the recent Ryder Cup golf tournament) is the wettest with an average of 53 inches of rain each year. This compares with 31.5 inches for Manchester. Mind you, I suppose Manchester would seem wet when compared with Cambridge, which only gets around 22 inches of rain each year.

And if you thought Swansea is wet, more than twice as much rain falls in some parts of the Scottish Highlands, with up to 118 inches of rain annually.

That was little consolation in rain-soaked Ashton in the last few days, though! Incidentally, the photo shows a damp Warrington Street, looking towards Old Street from near the Old Post Office.

"Rain, Rain" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.

Sky Watch: Market Hall Clock Tower

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

Yesterday was a chilly day - it even snowed around lunchtime. Yet, by the end of the afternoon, blue sky was visible between the remaining patches of cloud, which were lit up by the low sun.

The clock tower of Ashton Market Hall was in the shade, making more of a contrast against the backgrounds of sunlit clouds.

It seems scarcely believable that less than six years ago the tower was lit up by flames when the entire Market Hall was gutted by fire.

Sky Watch is a regular weekly feature on this photo blog. It links with websites all over the world with the general theme each week of looking upwards. Please take the opportunity to visit some of these other sites. I hope some new visitors have found their way here today, watching the skies!

Dusting of Snow over Greenfield

The area around Ashton woke up to a light dusting of snow on Friday, which quickly started to disappear at lower levels, so I took a walk over Quick Edge, near Mossley, to survey the surrounding landscape.

This view looks eastwards, over one of the many dry stone walls in the area, across the Tame Valley towards Greenfield and the Pennine moors beyond.

The snow wasn't deep enough to hide the grass completely. In spite of the winter sunshine there was a penetrating cold wind blowing! The forecasters are suggesting that we may see some more snow over the weekend.

See Birds Eye View of this location.

Rainy Days

Some followers of this blog have commented that the photos mostly seem to show Ashton in the sunshine. This is probably true as I do tend to go out taking photos when it is a nice day and don't usually think about taking photos on a wet, miserable day.

Today's photo is for those of you in hot faraway countries, especially ex-pat Ashtonians who miss the Lancashire rain! The scene is looking northwards along Warrington Street, from the junction with Old Street, towards the Market Ground.

The photo was taken this morning. Typically, the weather this afternoon returned to the normal glorious sunshine!

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Miserable Morning

A dull morning in Warrington Street - today's photo looks from the corner of Bow Street towards Old Street. The buildings fade into the mist as they stretch on past Stamford Street in the distance.

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Misty Market

It's not always sunny in Ashton, although you might think so from looking through the photos on this blog. Naturally, when I go out to photograph a location, I usually wait until the weather is reasonable, so that the picture looks passable.

However, there are days when the weather itself is the subject of the photo. That is the case with today's image, looking from Warrington Street along Bow Street towards Ashton's historic Market Hall, with the open market on the left and the Town Hall looming in the background.

It's a dull and drab day but the mist adds a little touch of mystery that makes me want to share it with you!

Cedar Street

Cedar Street is off Curzon Road, in the Hurst area of Ashton.

The bright red of the Accrington bricks contrasts with the white of this week's snowfall. The snow was not deep compared with the snows of many years ago but was enough to cause a certain amount of disruption to the daily routine, such as closing some of the local schools for a day or two.

See Google Aerial View of this location.

A Chilly Scene...

Winter returned to Ashton this week with a good helping of snow on Monday. This photo shows the Town Hall steps through a curtain of snowflakes. The traders on the open market seem to have decided against setting up for the day - and who can blame them?

Ashton itself has a fairly thin coating of snow, but as you climbed uphill through Hurst and Hazelhurst the snow was deeper - up to 6 inches where it had been blown by the wind! The snow on the sides of the sign post and camera poles shows how the wind was driving the snow.

Look out for more wintry scenes here in the next few days.

Sky Watch: Fade to Grey

Sky Watch? Where's the sky? It's disappeared in the fog!

Or, put it another way - the sky has come down to earth and engulfed Ashton in clouds!

Ashton is not often foggy so this view makes the tower of the Old Baths look mysterious as it fades away pointing to where the sky should be.

The photo is looking westwards along Stamford Street towards Henry Square from the junction with Bentinck Street. The scene is completely different from how it would have been a few years ago, when both sides of the street were lined with small shops. The Old Baths is the only feature that will be familiar to anyone who has not been to Ashton for a while!

See Google Aerial View of this location before the redevelopment.
See recent LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Sky Watch is the new Friday feature on this photo blog. It will link with websites all over the world with the general theme each week of looking upwards. Please take the opportunity to visit some of these other sites. I hope some new visitors have found their way here today, watching the skies!

Photo of the year 2008 "A Touch of White"

January's theme day is "Best Photo of 2008". I asked for suggestions (here and by email) for the best photo to appear on this blog during 2008 and had a wide range of suggestions. Some of the snow scenes proved to be the most popular and this photo, "A Touch of White", from February just edged ahead of others. Ironically, it wasn't actually taken in 2008 and is in next-door Mossley, rather than Ashton itself, but don't let that spoil your enjoyment!

The photo shows the frozen Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Woodend, in Mossley, just over the hill from Ashton. (Click on photo to see larger version.) It was actually snowing on that day in February 2008, but the snow melted before I could attack it with a camera, so I published this earlier photo to illustrate the day's weather.

See Google Aerial View of this location.

The runners-up were these other snow scenes:

"Ashton under Snow" on Easter Sunday, and


"Now where did I leave my lunch?" in December.

Thank you to all who sent suggestions. Please click here to view thumbnails for all participants in the January theme day.

A  Happy New Year  to you all! I hope you realise that it is exactly a year since I started this photo blog!

Mossley in the Rain

This photo sort of sums up the wet and windy wintery weather of the last few days!

It shows Stamford Street in Mossley, with the Market Place and the library to the left. You can also see some of Mossley's Christmas illuminations (the stars on the lamp posts).

Mossley, being a fair bit higher up than Ashton, usually seems to have wetter and windier weather than Ashton, even though it's only three miles away!

The camera wasn't too keen on the driving rain and the lens began misting, which produced the slightly interesting effect around the street lights, in case you thought I'd used some sort of technical wizardry!

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Yesterday's Snow

After the snow, the sunshine. Hartshead Pike, on the ridge overlooking Ashton and Oldham, looks good in all sorts of weather conditions, but I think it looks magical when there is snow about!

There has been a bit of a thaw, so that some of the grass is now visible, but much of the snow is still lying. Down in Ashton a lot of the snow had disappeared although compressed icy snow was making walking hazardous on some pavements.

A big fall of snow is forecast in the area for between 2.00 am and 6.00 am on Thursday morning, so be prepared!

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Early Snow

It's been a few years since we had snow in early December, but this morning saw an inch or two. This caused the usual chaos to traffic as many drivers no longer seem to know how to drive in snow! In fact, many drivers stayed at home as shown by this photo, taken on the usually busy A635 Manchester Road in front of Mossley Railway Station at around 9.00 am today.

Click on the photo to see a larger version.

See Google Aerial View of this location without the snow.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn seems have have arrived all of a sudden in Ashton.

This was the autumnal scene this week in the small gardens at the top of Crickets Land and Penny Meadow (known to some as The Cats Park). It only seems like five minutes ago that I was showing you the spring daffodils here!

See Google Aerial View of this location. Just to the north can be seen the new Heys school and a little further north-east the houses built on the site of the old Heys or Mossley Road school.