Middlewich and The Great War

I haven't posted much about my working life for some time, as much as anything because I've been busy... working. The bulk of time at the moment is taken up with Middlewich Heritage and building up the Great War project part of their website. It's no small task as the project involved many parts of the Middlewich community and all very thoroughly recorded. This wide involvement produced a massive amount of historical data as spoken words, documents, photographs and video, all of which needs to be added to the website in some kind of order.

Middlewich Town Council and Middlewich Heritage have accumulated a great deal of experience in putting on festivals and the such like, so when the Great War project culminated in the Great War weekend it was no surprise that it was a brilliant success. The weekend generated more material and in addition to involving the community in remembering those that gave so much it invoked a modern day feeling of community too. That must be a good thing.

It's been a bit tricky getting on with all this due to having tendon release surgery on my left hand but I've managed; it's held up my model flying a lot though. So the the plan is to get this work done and then take it a bit easier so that there's some leisure time available.

Winter Forest Walk

The New Year came in not too cold, bright and cheerful so an extra day off on 2nd January to enjoy it was hard to deny. A family trip to Delamere Forest for a round trip walk starting from Barnes Bridge Gate on Ashton Road was the order of the day. The trees gave plenty of protection against the light but cold breeze and the sunshine brought out colours not often associated with winter.

It was good to have both of children with us as they have busy lives too and we don't spend as time together as I would like. Our route took us to Blakemere Moss, a small mere in a direct line from Ashton Road to Station Road. A closed path caused us to divert along the side of Blakemere Moss which turned out to be a good thing as it was very picturesque. From there we headed back to and across Aston Road along the back of Hatchmere Wood. A turn west joined us up with the Sandstone Trail and back to Barnes Bridge Gate. A pleasant 3.75 miles, just about the maximum I can manage at the moment. 

The timing was good too, pushing 4pm when we finished with sun just setting and the breeze dropped we'd had the best of the day but I wasn't ready for home so we headed of to the Hollies (a large farm shop & cafe cum bistro) on the A49 at Little Budworth for coffee and toasted tea cake, very nice.

Needles to say I took a photograph or too, it would have been terrible not to record such a lovely day.