Chilly in the Ginnels

Today is the first official day of my 'Street' series. I vowed on a forum challenge called Re-April-itation, started by feathers14, to get more streetsy. The challenge is about changing photographic and blip habits, not about street per se.

So, is it just because today's April 1st that the street is empty, it's a bank holiday, and its snowing again?

I could've gone to town, though half to two-thirds of the shops would've been closed. I could've gone to Waitrose, but I thought I'd hang around my own street first to see what happened. One of my near-neighbours came out, Steve P, whom CleanSteve blipped the other day. He told me about a tractor he'd got going again that been sitting in Randwick Woods for 30 years. Generations of children had played on it in the woods, so everyone in the community was amazed and delighted to see it on the road. Mrs B then came along with her dog,Tilly. Her dog was all over Steve P; he walks her, and has lost a couple of stone as the result of the increased exercise.

Then I went down to the play area inside the inner triangle of houses that makes up our estate. (See the map if you're curious about these triangles). It's a back green rather than a front area, and is supposed to be for play, but lack of public money and will to change things for the better between the housesthat back on to it has meant that it's neglected. The fences that border it have become higher and higher. There were some ancient garages there, but they've been knocked down.

This little ginnel (a Lancashire word, not from Gloucestershire) leads down from the bottom end of the play area to Bowbridge Lane (with car) and Field House. I have written about The Field Estate elsewhere, and, along with Park House and the house called The Field, this house formed one of the jewels in the estate's crown. I first knew it as the HQ of the local Territorial Army, with razor wire around the walls, but it's now been subdivided into flats and forms part of a small private estate called Field House Gardens. The fortifications are now on our estate, seen on the house on the left. Ours is the Highfield road estate, built 1935-36. CleanSteve thinks this path is an old trackway that led to the fields, when there were still fields here. Rodboorough Hill and Butterow can be seen in the background.

Just to show I'm not being shy and ducking out of this street-blip thing, I went and spoke to a couple who were looking around the play area. I asked them if they were considering the house for sale that backs on to it. They said they were, but they'd also look at houses that back over the valley and the Heavens, the area I blipped yesterday. I tipped them off about one with an extension that's for sale in that part of the estate, with silly money being asked. They went down to have a look, and I went home because it was freezing! I did actually take a picture of them, but they look like matchstick figures in a wasteland.

This one was taken with the dramatic filter on (yes, my camera really does has 12 built in filters, one of which is called "dramatic" ) which is why it looks even grimmer that the weather really is. I had been taking some arty shots of rusting play equipment, and I forgot to alter the settings afterwards.

I have created a set of images around the theme of play. You can see them in my blipfolio.

Get yourself a funky jumper and sing! Dark End of the Street.