ABC Wednesday: "I" is for iWonder at the BBC

Taking part in ABC Wednesday: the innards of BBC Quay House at Media City.

I was invited to the BBC in Media City last week to give my views (as a blogger) on the new BBC "iWonder?" tool that they are developing. It's a cross between social media and a BBC Wikipedia, and would enable anyone to pose questions and stimulate debate. Interesting. Watch this space.

It was also a good opportunity to see inside Quay House with its cool meeting hubs and workspace, not to mention BBC radio and tv studios etc. 

Strong & steadfast as she goes: The Anchor @AnchorCoffee

After the tour featured on yesterday's blog post, we popped across the road to the Anchor Coffee house on Moss Lane East for a late lunch. It's a former pub nicely refurbished which now does a  good line in bagels: houmous and sun-dried tomatoes for me and a peanut butter one for my friend Rachel (who alerted me to yesterday's Whitworth Park tour in the first place). It's a lovely cafe with a good vibe which opened two years ago on the edge of the curry mile. I will happily pay a return visit soon.

Monday Mural: Whitworth Art Gallery

The Whitworth Art Gallery reopens this autumn. I went for a tour of Whitworth Park last week, which proffered great insight to the gallery and the park's histories. It was special to be on a tour which was led by an artist. 

Once the extension and refurbishment are completed, there will be a sparkling cafe overlooking the greenery, which I look forward to pondering over a cup of something warm in.

I have fond memories of the Whitworth as I think it was the first Manchester gallery I ever went to. The pop art and spaciousness of its southernmost gallery filled me with happiness. Other exhibitions, textiles and 19th century glories bounce around in my head when I bring past visits to mind too. 

Taking part in the Monday Mural.

Inspired Sundays: Hidden gem

St Mary's is known as the Hidden Gem. This Catholic church in Manchester city centre was probably one of the dominant buildings in the vicinity when built in the 1790s, but developments around it led to it being tucked away in what became a back street. I posted a close up 20 months ago. Taking part in the Inspired Sunday meme.

The weekend in black and white: walkways

Manchester Town Hall's walkways glimmer in late summer morning sunshine. Taking part in the Weekend in Black and White.

Skywatch Friday: Marina morning @venetianmarina

The Venetian Marina is the unlikely name for this canalside location where narrowboats moor and boat dwellers live but, hey, they make up their own rules here on the Shropshire Canal, wending its way through mid-Cheshire.

Cast an eye over today's other Skywatch Friday posts.

Craft and food, music and dance, summer sings on...

Every day of September moves us further from that summer blissed-out feeling, as we gear up for autumn waiting in the wings with its darker nights and cooler days. BUT...the crafts and food market at St. Ann's Square started yesterday and runs through until the 20 something of September. A nice Emmaus charity vintage section - where yesterday I was tempted by a wonderful 1950s Pye Picnic radio (but I already have one), old suitcases (I have some) and characterful furniture (I've not much room...)

And a five minute walk away this Friday, Saturday and Sunday there is a Spanish Festival in Albert Square too, so there are plenty of late summer festivities still around to help keep your spirits up. 

ABC Wednesday: "H" is for the horrors of war

Dunham dusted: It's circa 1917 and young Roger Grey, a Lieutenant in World War I and 10th Earl of Stamford and inheritor of the Massey Manor, reflects on the horrors of it all.

Mancunian Wave is today taking part in the "H" round of ABC Wednesday.

In World War I, Cheshire stately home Dunham Massey gave up some of its vast space to become a military hospital for the wounded. The current exhibition on there is both moving and in places highly innovative. A ward of beds is seemingly devoid of patients but looking closer, beds appear to have invisible breathing soldiers in them.  An empty plaster cast lay on top of a bed, with notes about gangrene, emitting an appropriate stench. An operating theatre has life-size medics and a patient, all somehow body-less but wearing clothes.

Short vignettes are acted out, as if by ghosts from 100 years ago; a nurse is harangued by a shell-shocked bed-ridden patient; another soldier sits forlornly in a chair, his eyesight ruined, urging a nurse to take time out to re-read him a letter from home which also tells of the death of his brother, killed in action. The Stamford family are there too, a teenager daughter is a nurse at the hospital, while eldest son Roger* is back on leave. 

Record players and sheet music play and evoke the music of the era, signs from the time and tomes of history - along with information boards and children’s interactivity - all give the whole exhibition a sense.

* Roger Grey became a recluse, and was a Christian Socialist who never married or fathered children. On his death in 1976 he left Dunham Massey to the National Trust.

Footnote 1: Newspapers of the era are also laid out along the way, which should have been a powerful tool into the history of the day- although this is where my one gripe lays- they were all copies of the Daily Mail. It spoilt an otherwise memorable walk into history, cleverly done- copies of other newspapers would have given a better balance, and considering the location of Dunham Massey, the Manchester Guardian should be displayed in place of some of the London-based Daily Mail. Even more so when you consider Roger Grey's politics. It’s not too late for that to be rectified by the National Trust at Dunham Massey. ~the exhibition runs until 11 November, open Sats to Weds and also when the hall reopens next year (2015 dates tbc).

Parallel lines, a strip of blue

At Market Street tram stop, mid-morning, on a day when Metrolink isn't closed for improvement works. The parallel lines from the tram window, the department store and a lovely swathe of blue sky. It's going to be a beautiful day - as Mancunians (well, Bury-ites?) Elbow sing...

Taking part in Our World Tuesday.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Rust and Ruin

This 1960s' Morris Minor has been in the family for many decades. It's been parked here for the past 25 years or so which has enabled a magical woodland to grow around and across it. 

I did get some interest from Morris Minor collectors who would like to take it away to restore. Two problems with that are (a) the need to chop down a tree that has grown and boxed it in and (b) the fear that removal may make the car collapse completely- it is held together mostly by rust, moss and ivy. 

For many years it's been a storage space for old carpets and toddlers' toys. But that's not all - if you look closely you may see a little of the bonnet of another Morris Minor behind it! -  in a darker shade of blue.

It makes for a choice of photo that I could not resist posting for September's City Daily Photo theme day of Rust and Ruin.