My ways and By-ways – Slawit in January

Slawit in January is usually a very cold place to be. We’ve had it all this month, clear skies and sub-zero temperatures, grey cloud and drizzle but above average temperatures, then freezing fog, and to cap it all, some snow as well. Not much though, it was blizzard conditions early doors when I was fighting my way through it to the train station, but by the time I arrived back in Slawit after work, there was a covering of ice, where the last bits of snow had frozen.

Happy New Year from Slaithwaite, and a freezing cold, but bright start to 2017.

On a trip to the bottle bank in the village, with all our post- Christmas recycling, I noticed this long mural painted on a wall in the car-park depicting aspects of Slawit life – cricket club, Moonraking, musical stuff, the clock on Marsden Mechanics’ Institute…a green man and Marsden’s fire festival to celebrate Imbolc.

It snowed a bit.

And a bit more.

Train station and station steps

Apparently a small food outlet is being built on the site of the old Public Conveniences next to the Shoulder of Mutton. I can’t say I’d be overly thrilled at purchasing takeaway burgers cooked where toilets used to be…

Now just to deviate slightly, 162 million miles to be approximate, Venus has been visible in the early evening Slawit sky for some weeks now. To be adventurous, and see what my camera did when pointing Venus-wards, I decided to experiment…

Her Ladyship clearly visible in the sky above the streetlight, taken from my front garden.

Venus as the glowing, cloud-covered ball of light you would expect…

…and a pitted golf-ball which you wouldn’t.

Hang on, Venus shouldn’t look like a pizza base…

…and neither should you see a cratered surface. It appears that this is probably an interesting optical illusion caused by pixilation due to the extent of the zoom, stuff floating about and enlarged, in the atmosphere, and over-exposure as it was dark. Please comment if you have opinions on why these images look like this.