11.3.2026, Reddish Vale.

 Well here I am again, some of you might have thought I was dead, but was only cold and wet the last few weeks, so not been down the Vale much lately.

Managed to get there last Wednesday for an hour before my lunch at Morrisons.

Plenty of Tufted ducks about ,

Female

Male.

Only one juvenile swan left  on the lower mill pond, but will soon be chased off by the parents when they start nest building!.

Lonely moorhen.

Young gull.

Not many people about so this Nuthatch was glad of the seed.

As was this Great Tit.

Quite a few gadwalls about on the lower mill pond.

I was surprised to see this couple of large terrapins out in the sunshine, it was nice and sunny, but not that warm.

The usual hungry Squirrels, but they always seem to be hungry.

Out and about with friends, got the waitress to take this one at the Bridge View Café.

Punch with two Judy's, show your nails girls!.

Brian the owner in the background.

On the way home from Morrison's most days, I past this tree that's enveloped this set of railing, see it a lot but the other day the traffic lights were in my favour and I was stopped right opposite so able to take a picture.

 At home I've been doing a lot of jigsaws whilst the weather was bad and decided to have a go at this one bought by my family for my birthday.

Thought the pieces just fit into the lid, then realised there are three sizes and I got the largest, so t was still very hard as most of it is different shades of brown, still I like a challenge!.

And I'd already bought another one!.

Finished as you can see it was never going to fit in the lid.

Glued it on to some card, then painted the card edges, drilled a whole in the top and hung it on the wall in my man cave!.

Another Jigsaw birthday present was this nice scenic one, which I've framed and is now hung in my living room.

Another nice one framed and up in the back bedroom.

A bought one for a Christmas present was this nice one of my previous Whippet "Molly" done by Snapfish! 

This is one of my favourite ones  

Just had to frame this one!.

"What matters most is how you see yourself", which is very true!. 

Whilst my friend, Chis has made an opening in our fence to allow his dog to come in my garden, I tided up my side with a framework and painted it. There is a rope system to close the opening if needed!.

As a matter of interest to those of you out there that do jigsaws, Amazon do a pack of two picture frames for £29.99 that fit a 1,000 piece jigsaw perfectly! and you don't need to glue it.

So sorry again I've been a bit off the last few weeks, but the weather seems to be brightening up now so will be able to get out a bit more.

Down the Vale, 2026.

 I went down the vale yesterday for the first time this year, cold but I was well wrapped up.

I'd hear there was a Golden Eye Duck there at the moment, which are a rare find there, I was lucky that a friend David was there and pointed it out to me, it was hard to see amongst the little gulls and tufted ducks, so I was lucky David was there.

I was then able to show another friend Emily where the goldies were!.

Has you can see here the tufted ducks are very much alike.

Emily thought this black and white one was the goldie but they are Male and female Goosanders, male the black and white one, the one with the rusty head is the female.

Quite a few Gadwalls about too.

Plenty of Squirrels too 

This chap is getting mobbed feeding the birds.

A splash of colour on a cool grey day. 

The swan family has still got one of the youngsters with them, surprised that one still there, usually see them off to start breeding again.

Heron there too

Back home there are loads of Sparrows on my feeders!.

Finished this jigsaw last week and it was so nice decided to frame it!.

Bought a pack of two photo frames from Amazon and they fit a 70x50cm jigsaw perfectly!.

Finished and framed this one too, birthday present from friend Jean.

The Bridge view Café was full on Thursday with a large group from St Georges church in Stalybridge.

Lady vicar on the right with the red hat.

A chap borrowed the mike and said it was nice to welcome the group and mentioned that it was their Christmas and New Years dinner 

They didn't show much appreciation by clapping for my mate singing but they said they enjoyed it.

This chap had his two English bulldogs there too, very well behaved.

They had a tub of ice cream each.

Bought these seat belt extensions from Amazon and it makes it much easier to clunk clink now! 

So its the end of January already!.

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Tuesday 20.1 2026

 Not done much photography of late with the weather being too cold for me.

Me and the gang went to the Bridge View café on Thursday for their reopening after the Christmas break, went again on Saturday.

Luckily Morrisons have been open for me and my mate Chris the singer, so no problems there.

Just spent nearly an hour with the online chat with Amazon, after I'd ordered a pair of  70x50cm photo frames, which came ok but it looked like someone had opened the corner of the package and slipped in a package for someone to pick up at a Morrisons miles away.

It was very hard to get across to them that My order was ok but for the addition of the extra package, after a long while it sank in and they offered me a refund!!, "but I never ordered it so why a refund" eventually they sent me a code to return the other item.

When I got the email with the code to return it, It was for my ordered photo frames and not the other thing!!.

I feel sorry for the person waiting for their items!.

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The other way to identify is the female has Orange under her beak!.

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