Shadow Sunday: Piccadilly Gardens

This week's shadow shot is one I found when I was looking through my archives of photographs and dates back to March 2003.

It was taken in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.

View more shadows this week at Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (23): Ashton Market Ground

This week's benches are on the market ground at Ashton-under-Lyne. The photograph was taken yesterday in pouring rain.

In the background is a stall set up by the Royal British Legion under the Town Hall selling poppies in readiness for Remembrance Day.

My favourite benches discovered last week include Rune's in The Forest of Canada, Barbara's in Edmonton, Rupert's in Old Catton Park, Neil's in Belmore Park and Cezar and Léia's on the Champagne Trail.

Skywatching for Mandy

The Tree of Remembrance is a sculpture in Piccadilly Gardens.

It was commissioned by Manchester City Council in memory of the City's Civilian War Dead 1940-1945, and created by Wolfgang Buttress & Fiona Heron in May 2005.

Looking up, as a bird flys by, I remember an old friend Mandy Smith who has recently gone into a hospice. She was a regular reviewer for New Hope International Review.

More than 300 blogs regularly contribute to Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday - P is for Piccadilly

Manchester's Metrolink tram network has been undergoing renovations and for several months it has been closed as can be seen on sithenah.


That work is now complete and trams are running again through Piccadilly Gardens.


I managed to get a seat at the front for the short journey from Piccadilly Gardens to Piccadilly Station.


As the tram waits to cross London Road into Piccadilly Station we can see a 192 bus on its way to Stockport and a train leaving the station towards Oxford Road Station and all points West.


Finally we arrive at Piccadilly Tram Station where you can walk out on to Fairfield Street opposite the old Mayfield Station or take the escalator or the lift up to Piccadilly Mainline Station.

In two years time you'll be able to take the tram to Oldham.

For more P posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Sunday: Southport 2003

I was looking through my archives and came across this. It was taken in Southport in April 2003.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (22): Nuuk

This week's bench is a follow-up to my earlier ABC Wednesday and Shadow Shot Sunday posts.

Outside the Atuagkat bookshop you can stop and help yourself to a steaming cup of coffee gratis.

My favourite benches discovered last week include Marley's in Cheltenham, VP's in Bath, Dimple's in an office and Sylvan Muse's at Houghall.

ABC Wednesday - O is for Oldham Mumps

Oldham Mumps station on the Manchester Victoria to Rochdale line, photographed on a rainy day in September 2008. The station is cut off from the town by the bypass and access is via an underpass. The rain was so heavy that day I took these two photographs and caught the next train back to Victoria.


Here we are looking back along the line towards Manchester.

Oldham Mumps along with other stations along the line closed on October 4th 2009 and will be shut for two years. When it reopens it will be part of the Manchester Metrolink network. More information can be found on the GMPTE website and the Light Rail Transit Association website.

For more O posts visit ABC Wednesday.

John Light: Chimerical City

The writer pretending to be a poet, snapped by his wife pretending she's a photographer, in a folly pretending it's a temple of art (but the hat was real).

John Light's latest poetry collection is Chimerical City, a series of poems about London where the author was born. My favourite two poems from the book are reproduced here, as well as the photograph above (a version of which appears on the back cover), by permission of the author.

London Travellers

On the underground
no one speaks to anyone else;
in the dark depths of the metropolis
life is serious;
people read or think lonely thoughts,
thoughts not to be shared with other faces.

But in the sunshine
of summer streets above the ground
bright buses are like caravanserais
of antiquity,
noisy with gossip and laughter,
sharing the commerce of a great city.

***

Summoned by Betjeman

Morning train from Tring to Euston,
Underground to Stepney Green,
Climbing stairs to sunlit pavements
So unlike the Chilterns green.

Journey from the tree clad hillsides
To the city clothed in stone,
From the little lanes long winding
To the broad straight streets wind-blown.

Through the blue vault, slowly drifting,
Come white clouds from western shires.
Sunlight glints on broken bottles,
Sharper than the woodland briars.

I love hillsides green and graceful,
Where wild flowers skirt the roads;
Yet I write of darkest London,
Where humanity implodes.

Chimerical City: Poems of London by John Light
Photon Press
37 The Meadows
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Northumberland
TD15 1NY
UK

ISBN 978 1 897968 37 6
£4
Website: www.photonpress.co.uk

Shadow Sunday: Nuuk

This week's shadow shot is a follow-up post to my ABC Wednesday N is for Nuuk.

The sheep in the photograph have been keeping the grass down in the church yard and are being led away for their next job.

You can read an account of my day in Nuuk on my Cruise Journal.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (21): Brooklyn Park

Today's bench is from Brooklyn Park, Cheadle, near Stockport, Cheshire, UK.

It is a follow-up from last Sunday's Shadow Shot.

The full-colour version can be viewed on Geograph and the top of a birch tree in the park on sithenah.

My favourite benches discovered last week include Julie's at Pedra Branca, VP's stocks at Moreton in Marsh, Barbara's at Place Ville-Marie, PERB's at Claytor Lake, Three Rivers' on the Hidden Marsh, Jim's at Oystermouth andJenny's in Stockholm.

ABC Wednesday - N is for Nuuk

Previously on this blog I have brought you to Qaqortoq. Now we journey further North past the icebergs to Greenland's capital Nuuk, once known as Godthåb.


Like anywhere else, when you visit the bank, you tie your dog up outside by the nearest litter bin.


while tourists stare
a dog shadows its master
on main street


on their way home
dashing past dandelions
schoolgirls chatter


On one of the hillsides is this sculpture by Aka Høegh.


This is looking down at the Colonial Harbour. On the left is a museum. On the right is the statue of Hans Egede. Between the buildings you can see the queues of cruise passengers waiting to return to the ship.

There is a photograph of some of the souvenir sellers on sithenah and a fuller account of my day in Nuuk with other photographs on my Cruise Journal.

For more N posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Sunday: Brooklyn Park

Autumn shadows in Brooklyn Park, Cheadle near Stockport, Cheshire, UK.

See a wider view of the location on Geograph

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (20) : Every Street in Manchester

These benches can be found at the end of Every Street in Manchester.

Let me clarify; not every street but the one Every Street that runs between Ashton New Road and Great Ancoats Street.

This "garden" consisting of two benches around a tub of flowers was probably erected in the run-up to the 2002 Commonwealth Games when the route to Sports City was "beautified".

My favourite benches discovered last week include Rune's at Kristiansand Zoo, Tom's in a local park, Barbara's at English Bay, Christchurch Photo Diary's in the Botanic Gardens and Baruch's alongside the Kohimarama Esplanade.

ABC Wednesday - M is for Mayfield Station

Look South as you enter or leave Piccadilly Station, Manchester on the train and you will these old sheds. They are in fact the covers over the platforms at Mayfield Station.


Across Fairfield Street from Piccadilly is the once-grand entrance to Mayfield. A lower-resolution version of my photograph is included in the Wikipedia entry on the station.


As this photograph taken from Platform 14 at Piccadilly shows, the only building between the two stations is the Star and Garter public house.


Mayfield station was built alongside Piccadilly in 1910 to handle the ever increasing number of trains using the station. A short viaduct diverts away from the Piccadilly line into the terminus at Mayfield which was mainly used by suburban services to the south such as Buxton, Crewe and Macclesfield.


In the late 50s, it was used as an overspill during electrification and modernisation work at Piccadilly Station. When work was complete all trains used Piccadilly and Mayfield closed for good.

It was converted into a parcels depot in 1970 when Royal Mail constructed a sorting office on St Andrews street on the far side of Piccadilly. An overhead conveyor bridge connected the two buildings. The parcels depot was closed in 1986; Mayfield has stood silent ever since.


This view is from the bridge over the River Medlock on Baring Street. Although signs and street maps name it Baring Street, the plaque on the bridge commemorates the reconstruction of the Boardman Street Bridge by the Corporation of Manchester in 1907. An internet search for Boardman Street only revealed a reference to Boardman Street in this area in a 19th century census.

This last photograph from inside Mayfield Station is © Copyright Phill Davison and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. There are many more photographs on Phill's account of The Ghost Station of Manchester.

For more M posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Sunday: The Wizard of Christchurch

This week my contribution to Shadow Shot Sunday dates back to 2001 when we joined the crowds in Cathedral Square, Christchurch, New Zealand to listen to the Wizard.

In my Journal The Land of the Long White Cloud I wrote

I wander off down to Cathedral Square to listen to The Wizard. Since 1974 he has been speaking in the Square and can be heard most weekdays from 1 to 2 p.m., November to March. Although the City Council were first opposed to him, he is now regarded almost as an institution. Described by some as a misogynist, today he expounds his theory that the cause of all the wars of this world is "women's need to go shopping!" He is in fact a congenial, accessible gentleman and not a woman-hater at all. After his oration, several of the crowd of three-dozen or so listeners, talk to him. He was born in the UK and I told him I was from Manchester. A young mother who'd been talking to him about the New Zealand education system, asks me where in Manchester I'm from. When I tell her I'm from Hyde, she reveals that she's originally from Dukinfield [the next town] — o what a small world this is! The Wizard tells us that he's heading off to Australia in the afternoon to avoid the New Zealand Census.

I heard later that the Wizard had retired but the Wikipedia entry for him indicates that he still active.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (19): Piccadilly Basin

Today's benches are to be found at the Piccadilly Basin on the Rochdale Canal in Manchester.

On Wednesday I showed you a series of photos of two narrowboats negotiating Lock 84, the last of nine inner-city locks from the Rochdale's end at the Bridgewater Canal to here at the Piccadilly Basin. A right turn here leads to the Ashton Canal.


My favourite benches discovered last week include Leatherdyke's at Strawberry Waters, Dina's outside Alrov Mamilla Mall, Rune's at Goathland Station, Barbara's at Tofino, Dimple's with reflections, Lynn's in Cheltenham, Rose's red bench in Nashville and Jarart's with a sculpture in Prescott.

ABC Wednesday - L is for Lock 84

Here I am looking down at lock 84 on the Rochdale Canal from Dale Street in the heart of Manchester. Ahead is the Piccadilly Basin. One narrowboat has already entered the lock.


There are now two boats in the lock and the men are opening the lock gates.


As the water fills the lock, the two boats rise up to the next level.


The boats continue on their way and the lock gates are closed behind them.



These boats are heading out of Manchester towards Rochdale. Their next lock is #83 followed by Lock 82.

They have already negotiated locks 92-84 (known as the Rochdale Nine) from the start of the canal where it leaves the Bridgewater Canal.

For more information about the Rochdale Canal visit Pennine Waterways.

For more L posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Sunday: St Petersburg

This week's shadow shot is from St Petersburg in Russia.

It was taken through a window in the Hermitage. You can see the original photograph from which this was composed on my photoblog sithenah.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (18): Gorton Lower Reservoir

Today's benches are at Gorton Lower Reservoir. The last time I took you there was on a freezing February day.


From 1826 to 1963 the reservoir supplied water for the City of Manchester, but now it is used for leisure pursuits.


The Debdale Outdoor Centre and the local Sea Cadets based here offer instruction in canoeing, kayaking and other activities.


My favourite benches discovered last week include Barbara's near Canmore, PERB's at a lightrail station in Portland, Runes's at Bergen Railway Station and Ken's in Washington Square Park.

ABC Wednesday - K is for Knightstown

We visited Knightstown on Valentia Island (NOT Valencia Island as marked on some maps) in April 1999. We were staying at Kenmare in County Kerry and had set off across country. The rain in Ireland can be fierce and as we drove into the town of Caherciveen the water was bouncing 18 inches high as it hit the road. We didn't take the ferry across but drove several miles to Portmagee where there is a bridge across to the island. We kept on driving until we arrived at Knightstown. Here we found a little cafe. We parked outside and decamped into it as quickly as we could. After refreshing ourselves I took this quick photograph looking down into town with its clock tower by the ferry to Caherciveen.


We returned in September 2000 on a sunny day and explored in more comfort.

The first transatlantic cable to achieve long term success was laid from Foilhommerum, Valentia Island to Hearts Content, Newfoundland on the 13th July 1866 by the largest ship of that time, 'The Great Eastern.' Queen Victoria and President Andrew Johnson exchanged congratulatory messages via the transatlantic cable on July 29, 1866 just two days after the Great Eastern arrived at Heart's Content.

A cable station in Knightstown opened on September 20, 1868 and was closed in 1966 by Western Union International. The cable station is now a factory and the cable houses are now private homes. The buildings are situated on the lower road from Knightstown to Chapeltown.

There is more information about this on the Atlantic Cable website.

Later we went back to Portmagee and took a boat out to the Skelligs from the Skellig Experience Centre but that's a tale for another day.

For more K posts visit ABC Wednesday.