Blue Pig

A peer inside the Blue Pig as I passed the other morning, its doors and windows allowing it to breathe after another heavy evening...

ABC Wednesday: "L" is for lacrosse's long shadows

We reach the letter "L" at ABC Wednesday with a leftover photo from last month. A lively game of lacrosse on a late winter's morning near Pott Shrigley in Cheshire, casting long shadows.

Tales from Sale @CorkoftheNorth

On a leisurely Easter Monday after a late breakfast and a walk around the creatively maintained and packed full of surprises Walkden Gardens, we stumbled across Cork of the North. It’s a great wine shop and bar which opened in Sale last week, on Northenden Road near the tram stop. In no time at all we were sampling their range of organic wines and chatting with the ebullient oenophile owner Mark.

There is a truly wide selection of good non-organic wines as well. You can browse, buy and sip in a quirky sense of style sitting at the bar or in refurbished seats from a theatre in Bradford which add to the place’s own individuality.

Playwright and author Robert Bolt (Dr Zhivago, A Man for All Seasons) used to live here with his parents so there is some nice heritage to the building too.

#CityDailyPhoto #MondayMural Enrich not exploit!

A Monday mural from Tib Street 

Blow your mind at HOME- Weekend in black and white

Above is my entry for the Weekend in black and white. We went to HOME yesterday to catch up with the amazing exhibition AL and AL: Incidents of Travel in the Multiverse

This included three films, mind blowing in different ways. through the 1954 door was an imagined film of Alan Turing and his amazing mind which led to so much of today (and tomorrow')s computing power and AI (artificial intelligence). It was very hypnotic, thought provoking, mesmerising and moving (ad(d)jective of choice here)

The film next door in 2054 (below) and the Icarus at the edge of time film were also thought provoking. Then there's the art itself to get your head around - something I'm still trying to process- complex stuff for my limited mind! Get there before it closes on 10 April.

Weekend Reflections: Ladybower reservoir

The start of the walk I've been blogging about all week- Weekend Reflections.

Skywatch Friday on Snake Pass

My contribution to this Skywatch Friday. Driving up along Snake Pass, drystone walling and snow on the peaks.

Y-shaped Ladybower Reservoir

...and continuing from Tuesday and Wednesday's posts, we strode up the hill to see breathtaking views such as this one of the Y-shaped Ladybower Reservoir in the Upper Derwent Valley.


Taking part on the always simplistic Thursday Challenge, which this week is long.

Resting point Derwent Valley

Carrying on from yesterday’s post, we walked along Derwent Valley and then started an ascent. Glorious spring sunshine (where has it gone to now?) meant for a warm walk and this barn, complete with a little poetry about summer on a plaque was a great stopping place to refresh with a snack of nuts and raisins.  A barn with a view.

Our World Tuesday #vintage #Austin #CityDailyPhoto #SnakePass

I thought I’d share my day trips from the weekend here on the blog over the next few days. On Sunday we made the most of the glorious spring sunshine and headed off down Snake Pass (for non-northern readers it’s a winding mountain/hill road between Manchester and Sheffield, always the first to get closed each winter). 

We parked up by Ladybower reservoir and on our way to tackle a wonderful walk in and above the Derwent Valley, came across this old Austin car. If it’s an Austin 7, which I don’t know, then it’s the same as my grandfather had in the 1930s – but I bet his was black.


Views from our walk tomorrow. Our World Tuesday.

#CityDailyPhoto #MondayMural - Mancunian mystique, magic carpet

A Monday mural from Tib Street with a mysterious figure ushering in a new season of hope- I have found there’s a spring in my step in all senses over the past two days.  I wasn’t on a magic carpet at the weekend but at times it felt like it. Join me tomorrow and the rest of the week here on Mancunian Wave for some out of town awe and beauty.

Spring is on the wing

In All Saints Park on Friday.

150 years of Manchester architects We Built this City #citydailyphoto

I managed to get to the final day of this exhibition yesterday. Some lovely historic drawings and paintings celebrating. At MMU library.

Sunshine and smiles

Following on from yesterday's post, the sun was out by mid-morning and so were the people to celebrate their Irish heritage. It's the last day of the Irish festival today and I see that Toss the Feathers are playing - I think at Chorlton Irish Club- I've not heard them for yonks. So the last of the winter festivals goes out with a flourish. It's finally spring on Monday!

Green is the colour... St Patrick's Day #citydailyphoto

I'm back in Manchester and in time for the last few days of the St Patrick's Day Festival. It was looking rather quiet first thing this morning though...

Skywatch Friday: Shelter tram stop

Blue skies through the tram shelter roof for another Skywatch Friday.

I'm off to Paris for a few days to cover the Radio Days Europe Conference. I'll be posting photos on my Instagram account. Au revoir until next Thursday!

Urban myths...of a grimy back street #citydailyphoto

This is the stuff that the "It's grim up north" myths perpetuated by some southerners stems from. Since the industry has long gone (and from which a degree of grimness did once emerge), the phrase is as redundant as most stereotypes of any region, wherever the compass points.

But any of the region's current day dankness can also have an opposite in its brightness: together this inspiration from the north-west creates music such as that of Mancunians I Am Kloot. Here's an oldie by them called Proof.

Greengate Square

The vegan Cowshed pop up on Greengate Square in the sunshine yesterday - named after 19 Century vegetarian campaigner Revd Cowherd.

Happy International Women's Day: Manchester People's Assembly Against Austerity

I wish you great success in whichever International Women's Day events you are supporting and celebrating today,  Tonight the public meeting of Manchester People's Assembly Against Austerity presents Sister Resisters Women and Austerity 7pm at Central Methodist Hall on Oldham Street.


"On International Women's Day, Manchester People's Assembly invites everyone to discuss the impact that austerity and cuts has on women and to celebrate the central role of women - sister resisters - in the anti-austerity movement, and other progressive movements.

Speakers:
Aderonke Apata - Human Rights Activist, Feminist, LGBT Equality Advocate. and founder of African Rainbow Family, an organisation that supports LGBTIQ asylum seekers and people of African heritage in UK and campaigning for the Repeal of the toxic Nigerian Anti-LGBTIQ Law.
Gail Heath - CEO Women's Aid
Sandhya Sharma - Safety4Sisters (Northwest)
Dr. Ali Ronan - historian and feminist activist
Nicole May - poet
Warp and Weft - yarn-bombing male statues with crocheted masks of women ignored by his-story

Everyone welcome! Be inspired! Take action! Take to the streets!"

Monday Mural: Panacea woman

Another tiled mural from Panacea bar on 24 February. Monday Mural.

"H" is for Happy Families? A John Rylands trio

ABC Wednesday reaches "H". An impressive trio at the John Rylands library. A family perhaps? I'm off to see my sibling and parents in the west country for a few days. Normal service will be resumed at Mancunian Wave on Monday 7 March. 

Don't forget to attend the Manchester People's Assembly Against Austerity evening at the Star Inn on the Cliff, 2 Back Hope Street, Salford, M7 2FR, this Friday night, 4 March. Their website doesn't show the event at the time I posted this, so check their Facebook page too. I'm sad to be missing out on it - have a drink for me!

You can follow my Dorset adventures for the next few days on Instagram.

#CityDailyPhoto Theme Day: Where do I belong? #Heimat

City Daily Photo's theme day for March is Where Do I Belong? 

"Where do you belong?  Where is Heimat for you? The Germans call it 'Heimat'.  English speakers can’t say it in one word.  Your homeland?  (Not quite).  Being comfortable and happy here?  Feeling that this is the place is where you should be?  (Getting closer)."

I have lived over half of my life so far in Manchester but could have ended up anywhere. I fell in love and followed that special person because they were already moving to Manchester when we happened to meet, in London. After a year of London to Manchester commuting by both of us, by plane, train, coach and automobile, I moved 220km north westwards. So Manchester became my home and with five years of blogging here you realise I love it. 

But part of my heart is often left in other cities too, not with people I hasten to add, but with falling in love with the culture, architecture, cityscape etc. I have felt this more so in recent years, being moved almost to tears by the beauty of Paris boulevards, Nice seafront, St Petersburg's 20th Century turmoil, Glasgow's grandeur etc.

So a homage above to just four of the cities I could happily live in other than Manchester. And who knows, I am still young enough to move on! San Francisco, Nice, London, St Petersburg, with a Manchester sign in the middle.