Last of the month, 30.10.2024.

 Well that's another month gone by and the clocks gone back again, so it's getting quite dark by 5pm now.

My last visit to Reddish Vale Park produced these pictures, my last post showed this scene but with two males, she seems to have made a choice and seen the other one off.

The female Mandarins are quite beautifully marked, just not as colourful as the males.

Still a few cormorants about.

The crows enjoying my Monkey nuts. 

 This one seems to be a bit of a mixture with it's white bits.

A few gadwalls still about.

I've photographed this bench a few times as it's always got fresh flowers on it and on this day I finally met the lady who bought it and had it for her late husband.

She had just given it a second coat of wood preserver, we had a nice chat for a while.

The resident swans, not produced a clutch this year has the male had been away at the vet's for treatment.

The squirrel by the Coffee Dream Machine seems to approve the painting done by Maureen the volunteer.

I think he recognizes my hat too as he knows I have monkey nuts! 

Talking about painting, I gave my front gate a coat of green Hammerite last week as well, thought it would look better than the black gloss I'd bought.

You've missed a bit there Duckie!.

Smoky, one of my daily visitors, just cupboard love I'm sure.

I've been over to Debdale park today after my visit to Sainsburys for shopping and lunch, I'd seen a post on Facebook that showed a new mural by Heart-Murals that showed Gorton's past with the Belle View Zoo, Speedway and stream engines.

I couldn't find it though!, perhaps in another park in Gorton, will keep looking as I would love to see it for real.

Whilst there saw the changing face of the park with the autumn colours.

My visit to Sainsbury's this time was a better one than last week when I did my Smart shop and went to the tills, flashed my bill and the red light came on because I had alcohol in the bag and the young assistant came over and jokingly said "Have you proof of your age" I said "I'd got my driving licence will that do?". he then took the bottle away to take the security cap off, he came back played with all the buttons and said You can go now! so I went!, on the car park I thought he didn't give me my receipt, then felt a tap on my shoulder and it was him and he said "You didn't Pay!!" what a plonker and said "you said I could go so I went", then it was back into the shop to the till to pay!.

That's not the end of my day, as when I got to Sainsburys I'd backed into the kerb which I don't usually do, so when I opened the hatch to deposit my shopping, bent forward and head butted the hatch, I hadn't realised I was stood higher on the kerb, so again What a plonker!!. So after the stars cleared I got out the first aid kit and did a bit of cleaning up, then sat there for a while whilst my head cleared and I was sure I was going to be alright to drive. Won't be doing that again!, so senior moments over now, today went well and paid and parked ok. 

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This week so far, 22.10.2024.

 Monday had a nice couple of hours down in Reddish Vale Park, the weather was quite nice for a change. Have you noticed in Manchester it seems every other day is different, one day of rain followed by a nice day, still shouldn't complain, other parts of the country have it a lot worse!.

This bush is looking colourful in it's autumn colours.

This wigeon on the top mill pond

and a pair of Gadwall's there too.

He's mine Ethel , I saw him first!.

Male mandarin.

Female Mandarin.

Nice group of Mandarins in the trees

A cormorant having a rest from fishing, it's a wonder there are any fish left there, still the fishermen are always hopeful.

Squirrel in a box.

Sleeping off it's dinner.

This one further round the park enjoying a monkey nut. 

This one sharing a biscuit with me.

Magpies love monkey nuts too.

Male tufted Duck.

Female tufted Duck.

Plenty of Little Grebes on the top mill pond

Look so cute and their so small, called Dabchicks in other parts of the country!. 

The Robins are so tame, they sit with you and have their food.

Everyone loves a Robin don't they?.

Tuesday, it was off to Morrison's Café at Bredbury to met friend Jean for dinner, the usual fish & Chips for me, porridge for Jean 😡, still each to their own hey, must say the food there doesn't seem the same as the Morrison's at Reddish, but there again I'm perhaps more used to it there.

Back home with it being a nice day it was out with a paint brush and some Hammerite paint from the garage and painted the bird feeding station.

The past week I've been stripping  the paint off the window sills in the back garden, used paint stripper at first but it was taking forever and needed more stripper and then I had a thought. I'd bought a weed burner that came with 8 gas canisters and I thought I'll bet Amazon will do an attachment like a Bunsen burner, And they Do!.

Very simple to use Grey knob is to turn on the gas, orange switch above it is the lighter and the other orange one is the regulator for the flame, and it works a treat (Once you get used to it!)

 Then painted with Doorstop red paint from Amazon again, makes a nice change from black.

Just had another thought, do you remember when the petrol stations used to give you stuff to get you to go to their stations!.

You used to get cutlery like this or another one did a tigers tail to wrap round your petrol filler, (they would be a handy torch these days wouldn't they!, then there was the bullet holes you stuck on your windscreen so it looked like you had been in a drive passed shooting, again you might get the real thing these days!.

So the cutlery was the best ones for me and still got mine as you can see. 

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That's all for now folks.
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