Pie and Mushies

Thank Heavens For Little Gulls

Not, in fact, Little Gulls (Larus minutus) but chicks of our old friend Barrow’s own gull, the Lesser Black-Backed (L Fuscus). I reckon these two are about two weeks old and are only just beginning to acquire their wing feathers.

I noted in my private journal that I saw the first chicks, as tiny, spotty balls of fluff, on 25 May. I’ve been watching them just about every day since; those first chicks are now, less than four weeks on, as big as their parents, have their flight feathers, and are almost ready to start jumping up and down trying to fly. That won’t take long and by August they’ll be swooping round the docks, getting ready to fly to the Mediterranean in September.

The gull colony shares their space – former railway sidings now kept surrounded by razor wire as a cordon sanitaire by the shipyard – with a warren of rabbits. The rabbits and the gulls get along just fine, but let a magpie in and there’s sure to be trouble. They aren’t madly keen on humans with cameras getting too close either so one has to take the chance when one can.

Cocktail Hour

I felt like being creative at the weekend.

Three cheap wine glasses that don’t fit in any of my cupboards, a box of Price’s utility candles, and some wax crayons produced this colourful trio.

I could enjoy this kind of thing. I could even make them for sale, maybe. What do you think?

Twilight on the Walney Channel

Tomorrow night I’m hosting the Friday Quiz at the Queens Arms, Biggar so any spare time I’ve had today has been devoted to devising fiendish questions to flummox the punters. If you’re in the area why not come along? The quiz is always good fun.

So in the absence of a fresh photo here’s another take on one of my favourite subjects; the view from the Walney Bridge. This time on a high tide at twilight. Enjoy!

Ghost Rider in the Sky

I caught this shot of the sign outside the riding school at Biggar, on Walney, last night as I was leaving the pub. The sky was absolutely terrific and the light quite magical.

A New Beginning

I think it’s time we blew the cobwebs off this site, don’t you?
One of the amazing things about this internet of hours is that dear old Pie and Mushies continues to get a regular stream of hits eighteen months after I last posted to it. So somebody must think it provides a service. So there’s no good reason not to pick it up again.
The reason it ground to a halt in November 2009 is that my little Nikon digital camera turned up its little toes that month after three-and-a-half years service and, in this throwaway world of ours, nobody was much interested in fixing it. My other workhorse, the Nikon FG, is still going strong after thirty years but is now confined to black-and-white work. But I have a new little digital camera now and so there’s no more excuse.
Former followers will note that the title of the blog has reverted to what it was unofficially known as anyway. When I started it, it was part of the City Daily Photo Project and they didn’t like my choice of title so they made me change it. But I no longer feel any connection with that, so I can go my own way again, and not confine myself to photos of the town either.
Expect some pithy comment to come then. And don’t expect our civic representatives (or anybody else) to escape unscathed!

The most poignant war memorial of all?

I think I may have done this once before, but what the hell.

It’s Remembrance Day, and as it happens I travelled to Lancaster today to stock up on coffee and tea at my favourite coffee shop (this one, since you ask. They do mail order but the shop itself is a little wonder in this day and age).

So I passed twice through the station ticket hall, and was once again reminded of this plaque to the men of the Furness Railway who fell in the Great War. It was displayed in the Barrow Central Station until the station was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in WW2. The bomb-damaged plaque is now in the new station.