messing about near some water

It would appear that our default setting for a photo walk is a trip down the Leeds Liverpool canal (local bit anyway!), which seems to go off in all directions round here thanks to offshoots and junctions. We started last year to try and walk all the different parts in order, but now seem to have fallen into joining it randomly depending on how we feel and the weather. The towpaths vary so much from almost paved ones to completely undeveloped and very muddy ones.  The undeveloped parts can be a nightmare to walk on with thick mud churned up by cyclists and horses and what would appear to be much bigger vehicles using them. A walk down the path turns into a trudge through thick mud resulting in very muddy boots and clothes!

 One of our favourite places to join the canal is behind the Fredericks Ice Cream shop on Bolton Road, on the approach to Chorley. Anyone who lives in the vicinity will definitely have taken a trip to Fredericks and sampled their ice creams. The shop has been there since the 1890's, so there has been plenty of time! The legendary shop (locally anyway!) always has a huge variety of flavours some traditional and some just strange! The queues in the summer on warm days can stretch all the way down a very long Bolton Road, which no doubt causes the locals considerable parking angst! If you follow the path at the side of the shop it takes you down past the factory where they produce all their ice cream (tiny place - don't expect huge smoke filled industrial buildings!) to a seating area and the canal. Left takes you into Chorley and right leads you through a canal side residential area. On a warm sunny night this is a magical place full of houseboats and fairy lights - people sitting reading and eating at fires with fantastic views of Winter Hill and beyond behind them. Horses in the fields, beautiful reflections - it looks like an idyllic way to live and always makes us want to 'drop out' of our current way of life and try something different - a life on the waves (albeit very gentle ones!)! Second only fantasy to the travelling the world in a camper van one - we're hardly original!

​So a cold, damp January Sunday led to a bracing, windy walk through piles of mud down the stretch of the Leeds Liverpool  between Appley Bridge and Parbold. It was a real trudge, the mud was really thick and the wind was blowing a gale!
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I was convinced I had nothing of interest on my camera at the end of it- nothing had inspired me - I was cold and tired and very muddy! Tree lined canals are very bleak without their leaves and a dull sky didn't help. But, as is often the case, something that doesn't look that interesting is transformed after a little experimenting on Lightroom!

Shot of the day by far was Chris' mean and moody bridge. He loves black and white! I must try harder next time - although I'm secretly pleased (and a little bit shocked) with some of my efforts!

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