Looking for the Penketh Kingfisher....

 We go regularly to try and see a kingfisher on the brook nearby.

Never have.

But  often meet up with those who have...and feel a bit miffed that it's so elusive for us!

The brook is first seen at the bottom of the lane by The Potters House Penketh on Heath Road.

We stand at the bridge and gaze over...but though the view is lovely...no kingfisher.

We walk through the housing estate to the brook as it travels ever down to the Mersey...

No kingfisher...though this morning a post on social media rejoiced at the sight of it flying across the the water!

So the best I can do is post this poem written after another unsuccessful lockdown search.....

               

 Kingfisher

I went looking each day    for the kingfisher

where it had been    when it was seen

no sign   no joy   when I went looking

 

I saw the skinny long-legged fisherman

his steely presence   stately gaze

coiling his neck in a waiting game

but never the fisher-king

 

by park   canal   by river and brook

no splash of water   no flash of blue

nor was it seen on the brim of my ken

when I went looking

 

I saw swans glide and paddle   their full-wings

poised   posing for artists   cygnets behind

in a frothy wake   by some willow herb

but nowhere the Penketh bird

 

I am abandoned   covet the sight

long for his beauty   cut to the quick.

Geraldine Snape Jan 2021

 

All Change..Winter Walks

 

The Mersey

Today couldn't have been different weather wise from my last blog post...

...mist sent a low sun skimming across the river and playing peekabo through the bare trees. 

It was magic and mystical and completely right for the season of The Magi.

...I'm just waiting for Aslan to appear through the woods.....

 

...the alders are already putting forth their pretty little catkins...nothing showy and big for the alder trees...

...people appeared and disappeared into and from the mist and silver sun shining through the woods...low and sweet...

...is that a winter sun being born from a sparkling twig?...

...noone around..we kept to the quiet paths..just we two...

...I'm always a wee bit late for the iconic pic...this was where the swan made it's path through the river...leaving these sparkling waters....

Better late than never.

Another Penketh Winter Walk.

 It's honestly taken a pandemic and half a lifetime to recognize that I live in a most wonderful part of the British Isles.

Penketh

The word is old English "PEN"...an edge..and "KETH"...a wood.

Burtonwood

Burtonwood was once a forest north of the Mersey.

Probably Penketh before the Romans arrived.

We park by old Marsh Lane...which tells you a little about the geography of the area.....

...it runs alongside a  field where you can view the Ferry Power Station for another few months before demolition.

And then  pass this beautiful ancient willow on the edge of the railway...

..across the line...

and this is the edge where Burton Wood and the internationally known river...

"The Mersey"

meet.

Today again we started our walk at the canal..... the first in England.

We call it The Sankey Canal...though St. Helen's would assume to own it...

...but as it came from Sankey Brook/ Penketh Brook...enough said!

In the distance..Ditchfield Farm....

One of the first mentions of the Penketh family was William de Penketh who was witness to a charter in 1240. In 1280 Gilbert and Robert Penketh became joint lords of the Manor of Penketh.

...then right turn on to the muddy path back to the canal walk...past the Penketh Brook sluice gate 

...and always a shadow pic...

just to say

"We were there"

Back to the canal walk where bikes and dogs rule...

...love a "bokeh" in a pic!!

...the sun is low and the canal water catches  gold on the ripples from  dabbling ducks... 

Birthdays and other things...

 Today these two tree climbers are 19 years old!

Snape Twins

Izzy and Esther.

Where did that time go?

Oh wait...it went with fun and meals together with the family...

...it went at High School and now work and university..

...it went with laughter and tears...

It was great!!

...always cake here at The Potters House..

A chocolate cake was baked and on behalf of both...Izzy blew out the candles!

Their mum and dad isolating at the moment missed the traditional blowing of the light!

...celebrating A level results this year...

...and here are some flowers from the garden....

..in the summer when things were easier all round!!

Taking the road to Widnes along the Canal.

 

The bottom part of Sankey Canal is overgrown with these wonderful winter reeds that rustle and sway in the light winds coming along the water..

We didn't walk too far today..the weather is chilly and an hour was quite enough for us.

We wondered what would happen to the areas fenced off behind the large pipes leading from the power station.

Would it be recognized as a wilding area by one of the universities?

Nobody has civilised this for all those years that the station was pumping out energy for our homes.

Moss and ferns clothe the pipes and birds are free to nest and breed.

I'm sure there are foxes, badgers, squirrels and moles aplenty in there.

Everywhere there is water both under the reeds and also along the length of the pipe.

When the power station is being dismantled is the railway going to be used to take all the technical machinery away? I should think so.

Here's the wooden signalman's hut on the rail link to the power station that used to have the coal wagons trundling though the day and night..now surrounded by birch saplings and reeds...it would make a great summerhouse!!

We've lived with these sculptural shapes for so long that to envisage the landscape without them will be strange.

Already the landscape..the reeds...the wild trees are enveloping those towers...

Here  some wild flowers and ferns filling the area behind the green links and spilling out on to the path.

Mersey light by the Ferry Tavern

 Late afternoon light in November,,down by the banks of the Mersey river...

...and the sun breaks through the stormy clouds.

Sankey Valley Park...Lockdown Walks

 

We walked along the far side of Sankey Brook this afternoon ..a muddy path under trees with  fallen leaves blackened underfoot...made me think of Robert Frost and "Two Roads."

We discovered this sculpture...probably the last people to do that!

The paths are well used.

Reeds were whispering in the soft winds... and a rainbow arrived...full bow..over the hospital.

The third I've seen today.

Down to the seven arches where the Liverpool train crosses..

......and ducks and water fowl nest in the reeds...

...a beautiful tree in winter attire and  the brook now clogged up with only the canal to make its way on to St. Helens.

..the sun goes down earlier each day..and so being low catches the light through the bare trees and the water...

...sunset and bokeh over The Sankey Canal