Month: January 2021
A winter walk through Wilton Quarry
After overnight snow on Friday and more of the same on Saturday morning it finally came nice at lunch time so with plenty of blue sky and sunshine I took myself off for a walk. Not wanting to go too far from home I decided to go to Wilton Quarry, just a mile up the road and somewhere I’ve never been in the snow, though knowing it would probably be very wet and muddy up there I left the dogs behind.
Fifteen minutes walk up the road and reaching open fields with one of my favourite views I crossed over to take a couple of snaps and it was soon after that when things went rapidly downhill. Not only did the sun disappear behind a huge bank of cloud but I got the most unexpected and unwelcome surprise when a car driver deliberately – and I mean deliberately – drove his 4 x 4 at speed through a huge puddle by the side of the road and drenched the front of me literally from head to foot in a wave of slushy snow and water; I was soaked.
Only a mile from home I could quite easily have gone back to get changed but in view of the sky clouding over somewhat I knew if I did that I wouldn’t want to set out again so I decided to carry on; the climb up through the quarry and a brisk walk along the road from the top would stop me from getting cold.
The path into the quarry was more of a stream than a path and I was glad I had my wellies on, though as I got further into the quarry itself it did get better. That was until I got up to the next level where I had to pick my way cautiously through clumps of waterlogged muddy grass and several pools of ankle deep water, though the path from there to the top, although steep, was fairly dry and after the most strenuous part of the climb I reached the stone memorial seat known as Aileen’s Bench.
Unfortunately the drenching I’d got down at the roadside hadn’t only affected my clothes and hair. Some bits of slush had also got down into my bag and in spite of keeping the lens cover on the camera I found that somehow the lens itself had spots on it. I had nothing to wipe it with only my wet jacket sleeve so I took my photos as I went along, wiping the lens before each one, and just hoped for the best.
Walking along the road from the top of the quarry I decided to have a look round Bryan Hey fishing lake where I should be able to get some nice snowy shots but when I got there I found that both entrances off the road had been fenced off, so I retraced my steps a couple of hundred yards and set off across the fields towards Horrocks Wood. By that time things had brightened up considerably and I got a reasonable shot of the moon in a bright blue sky.
As I’d been walking through the fields my left foot had gradually been feeling rather damp and by the time I’d reached the pyramid stone near Horrocks Farm it felt positively wet; the snow from my drenching must have gone further down my wellie than I first thought. Someone must have lost a dog lead recently too as there was an orange one draped over the pyramid stone; with a shot of the stone and a nearby corner just off the path I made my way down through the farm yard and down the lane to the main road where I headed back for home and a much needed change of clothes.
When I finally came to take my wellies off I realised why my foot had suddenly become so damp and it was nothing to do with the drenching I got. The wellie had split at the back near the ankle and the snow had obviously seeped through the lining and into my sock; fortunately I do have another pair of wellies but I’ll still get some new ones when I can.
As for photos, the ones on here are the best out of a total of 30, and all the shots from the start of the quarry path up to the moon shot have had to be drastically cropped and edited to get rid of the worst of the blurred bits. Strangely though, the moon shot and those following it all came out perfectly clear so maybe, even with a very damp sleeve, my continual lens wiping had eventually helped. I’m just glad though that the camera had been in my bag when I got soaked – if it had been round my neck I could have had a bigger problem than a few spots on the lens.
Friday photo hunt – Moon
The word for this week’s photo challenge is ‘moon’ and luckily I didn’t have to go too far back in the archives to find some suitable photos. Some readers may remember one of my posts from May last year when I’d taken several shots of the moon at different times within the space of an hour, mainly to test my camera’s capabilities on long range night time shooting, so as the photos fit the topic I’m repeating some of them here.
The sky clouded over after 10.09 shot and stayed that way for a while so I couldn’t see the moon at all, however the clouds eventually started to disperse and I managed to get a few more shots before my self-allotted hour was up.
Admittedly the quality of some of the shots isn’t the greatest but they were really only an experiment anyway, though they came out better than I expected at the time and they do fit this topic nicely. Next week’s photo will be one of my own choosing and I have something rather nice in mind so although I don’t want to wish the time away I’m looking forward to posting that one.
Manchester street art 2020 – Day 2
Just one week after my foray into Manchester last summer I was back again to find and photograph some more street art. Heading from Victoria Station towards the Northern Quarter it wasn’t long before I found my first mural. On a double gable end wall it was huge and although it would be visible from the nearby main road I only found it by chance as it was tucked away down a dead end side street behind the site of the old wholesale fish market.
After forgetting the names of many of the streets I’d walked round the week before this time I’d mapped out a bit of a route for myself and as a reminder I photographed the name of each street where I found a mural, although not all the pieces of artwork included their creators’ names.
The door shutter and the following four murals, variations of the same face, were on the side and back walls of Afflecks indoor market and emporium on the corner of Church Street and Tib Street. Affleck & Brown was started as a drapery business in the 1860s with the original premises in Oldham Street eventually growing to occupy the whole block between there and Tib Street and becoming one of Manchester’s principal department stores. After WW2 a gradual decline in business over the years led to the eventual closure of the store in 1973 then in 1982 it was re-opened as Affleck’s Palace, with units and stalls which could be rented at reasonable rates by entrepreneurs and small businesses on a week-by-week basis.
During the 1990s, when local bands were at the height of their popularity, Affleck’s Palace was the ‘go to’ place to get oversized flared jeans, tie-dyed t-shirts and all the latest underground dance tunes of the time. In March 2008 the market and emporium ceased trading but re-opened just one day later under new management and simply called Affleck’s, with an eclectic mix of 73 small shops, independent stalls, boutiques and cafes. The emporium’s popularity continues and under normal circumstances can attract an average of 24,000 shoppers per week.
On the corner of the dingy and narrow upper reaches of Back Piccadilly and the equally narrow Little Lever Street I came across Mother Mac’s, for decades a typical no-nonsense back street boozer popular with older locals and football fans but which underwent refurbishment in 2016, hence the decoration on the side wall. Dating from the 1870s the pub was formerly The Wellington but in 1969 was renamed Mother Mac’s after Mary Maclellan, a former landlady.
In 1976 the pub became the site of a rather macabre murder when in June that year the landlord at the time, after being given notice by the brewery to quit, murdered his wife, his 6-year old daughter, and his step-sons aged 11 and 13. Unfortunately the cleaner innocently walked into the carnage so he killed her too then set fire to the pub to destroy the evidence, but he was never brought to justice as his own life was claimed by the fire.
Those four door shutters were the last photos I took on my walk round the NQ but heading for home I managed to get my final snap as the train passed through Salford Central station. Taken through the train window it’s not the best shot but hopefully the mural will be there for a while so I can get a better photo of it on a future trip to Manchester.
Friday photo hunt – New
As far as shoes are concerned, and unlike many women, I don’t have dozens of pairs stashed in my wardrobe. My footwear needs are simple and casual – trainers or sandals in summer, trainers or wellies in winter, with a couple of pairs of ‘going out’ shoes with heels for if I ever do go anywhere which needs me to be ‘dressed up’. As far as work goes it’s trainers all the way and as I recently bought a couple of new pairs I thought they would do nicely for this week’s photo hunt topic.
Just over twelve months ago Michael’s girlfriend came over from Ireland to stay with us for three weeks and just before she went back home she bought a pair of boots from our local Asda store. Unable to try them on before purchase she found when she got back here that although they were supposedly her size they were a bit too small, so not having time to take them back she passed them on to me.
Although the boots are actually two sizes too big for me they are such a small slim fit that with a pair of insoles they do fit very well although I haven’t been anywhere in them yet. I suppose theoretically they are really second hand as I didn’t buy them myself but as they have never been worn since purchase then I’m classing them as ‘new’.
Well there you have it, a simple post to end the week, and I’ll be hopping over to Kate’s blog later to see who else is taking part in the challenge and what photos they have chosen for the topic.
Manchester street art 2020 – Day 1
Although I can neither draw nor paint to save my life I’ve become really interested in street art over the last couple of years. It all began after I came across, quite by accident, a huge tiger mural on a double gable end wall during a visit to Manchester’s Cat Cafe in 2019. I was so impressed that back at home I did some Googling, made a ‘street art’ list and returned to the city the following day to track down as many street art examples as I could and since then I’ve photographed artwork in Blackburn, Dublin, Limerick, Morecambe and my home town.
Knowing that after a while many murals get painted over and replaced with something else, last summer, once circumstances allowed, I made two more visits to Manchester. Some of the murals I’d already previously seen but thanks to some ‘inside knowledge’ from my blogging friend Paul, who lives in the city centre, I was able to photograph many I hadn’t seen so my Monday walk this week takes in some of the main roads and side streets of the Northern Quarter although I can’t remember all the street names, nor have I been able to find out who all the artists are.
The first two shots are of plaques on the front wall of the City Pub on Oldham Street; not exactly street art and definitely worse for wear but I liked them enough to include them, especially the one with the lion and unicorn. The following four images, taken on the corner of Spear Street and Hilton Street, were all by Kelzo and the next four on the corner of Spear Street and Stevenson Square were by Tankpetrol, a Polish stencil artist based in Manchester.
The next mural, on the wall of a redundant substation, is quite significant. Painted by Akse it’s a portrait of Manchester-born Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of Facebook for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Diagnosed with the rare blood cancer Follicular Lymphoma in November 2016 she underwent chemotherapy and immunotherapy then in November 2019 she established the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation to raise funds to find an effective treatment and give support to other people diagnosed with the condition. The mural was painted to help raise awareness of the Foundation and a video of Akse completing the artwork went viral, being viewed millions of times. Also on the walls of the same building are two artworks by Ketones6000.
The next mural, at the corner of Thomas Street and High Street, replaced the tiger one I saw in 2019. Painted by the same artist, Jim Vision, it’s my favourite one so far.
Across the main road from the Northern Quarter into Ancoats I came across the Waterside Coffee Bar facing a section of the Rochdale Canal on Redhill Street, and though the window decoration wasn’t exactly street art it was pretty and I liked it enough to take a photo of it.
Life In The Mouse House 