Gargoyles' holiday

People are gearing up for the Halloween weekend. Even I have lots of invitations to ghoul-style parties and ghost walks.
Apparently Halloween, after being virtually a non-starter as a festival twenty years ago (on British shores) is now the third biggest holiday-excuse here - after Christmas and Easter.

Gargoyles, like these on St Edwards Church in Leek, will get the shivery recognition they crave over the next few days...

Gi-normous fungus

This fungus is huge – as big as a man’s head. I haven’t seen one as big as this for a while.

But what really impresses me is that it is growing on a tree in a residential road where every child in the district has resisted the temptation to reach up and pick it off!