Snow on Holme Moss

We've had a couple of days this week when it's snowed and as usual the road over Holme Moss has been closed. Fortunately it had been re-opened by Friday night because my youngest daughter, her boyfriend and I went to see Jimmy Carr at the Manchester Apollo and came back this way. Although it was dark I could see that there was still a bit of snow, so I decided to go out on Saturday morning to make a few more photos.

When I got up to the car park it was deserted but I took a few photos from near the car park and then set off across the moor in the direction of Black Hill. The snow had a layer of ice on top off it and it made the going quite hard, especially as I strayed well off the main path as normal. I didn't go all the way to Black Hill but spent a bit of time wandering about looking for interesting shapes in the snow to photograph. Unfortunately because I'd taken a lot of photos last week of the frost on Black Hill I'd used my portable card reader and forgot to put it back in my back pack, so once I'd filled my two memory cards I'd run out of space for any more photos.

I had room for 7 more photos when I set off back towards the car park so I could only take a few more as I walked back. As I walked back I spotted a guy running from the direction of Black Hill. I noticed that he kept stopping and looking at a map after he'd gone past me. A little later I saw him on the ridge above me heading back towards Black Hill. I shouted up to him and asked him if he was lost. He said no, he was looking for an orange ribbon. Apparently he was doing a sort of treasure hunt where he and his friend took it in turn to leave the ribbon somewhere and then pass the grid reference to the other to find it and put it somewhere else.

We chatted for a while and he told me he was also a photo enthusiast. I used my last 3 shots taking his picture. He was looking straight into the sun and unfortunately on the other two he had his eyes closed. I gave him my name and asked him to look at my blog and website so I've made sure to add the photo here. If I ever get around to updating my website again I will have to add all the photos of people I've met as I've wandered about. I must also have some cards made so I can give them to people I photograph.

Holme Moss television mast


Snow on the moor

More snow

A frozen pond in the snow

Heading up the valley

Nearer to the top of the valley

More snow

OK, yes more snow

At the head of the valley the snow was quite deep and drifted in places

More drifted snow

They are doing some work to try and prevent erosion of the peat bog on Holme Moss where there are lots of lengths of netting held down with pegs and wooden stakes. In this photo only the wooden stakes can be seen above the snow

Self portrait

The running guy. Unforunately I forgot to ask his name, but if you do read the blog thanks for the photo and if you'd like me to send you a copy of the full size file send me an email.