Tag: city

Two Geese Take A Trip To Town

This weekend’s challenge on Weekly Prompts is Two.

My contribution is two (ahhh double fulfilment) shots of a pair of geese that I saw casually strolling in the Manchester city centre.

It’s the geese that were casually strolling, not me. I was on my way home from work (I work in the office one day a week.)

Geese are not an unusual sight in Manchester, they occupy the city’s canals (the other day, when out photographing, I witnessed what I’m pretty sure was a geese marital argument), but they don’t come to this location, Piccadilly Gardens.

I wonder what they were doing.

Christmas in the City 2021

I like a Christmas post every year, so here it is, and it’s all about Christmas in Manchester. Christmas markets are back after last year’s absence.

MCR is short for Manchester, and bee is a symbol of the city, in case you’re wondering.

Above and below shots are from inside Printworks.

Tree in my neighbourhood, outside a Methodist church.

Bonus – just for fun, I am forever amused about how the actor Adam Driver reigns over the stalls in Piccadilly Gardens. Not literally, it’s just a perfume advert!

This is probably my last post before Christmas, so if I don’t see you before then, have a happy holiday time, or peaceful holiday time, whichever one you prefer.

Manchester During Pride

Pride, the LGBTQ+ event, takes place in Manchester every year on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Last year it was cancelled (because, you know), but in 2021 it’s very much back on track. For this occasion, the city gets dressed up in rainbow flags.

This is the bridge in Castlefield.

The couple on the bridge remind me a bit of Joe and Jill Biden.

The sunny weather–not exactly a regular here–makes everything even better!

Manchester In Lockdown

I took a few pics of Manchester after lockdown while I was still going to work (I’m classed as a key worker).

Piccadilly Gardens:

Pigeons have now taken over the town (I’ve seen that happen before, albeit briefly), though I wonder how they’ll get fed, as with no people in town eating, there are no crumbs left for them.

Is there any better sign of the bleakness of the times we live in than a closed McDonald’s?

Market Street:

Written in chalk on the pavement:

Entrance to Arndale from Exchange Square.

Printworks–I’ve never seen it shut down in all the 17 years I’ve lived in Manchester.

Well, here’s your gloomscapes, the Universe whispers to which I respond: I did not want this! I only like it when it’s fictional! I only to like to imagine it!

I used to joke often about the upcoming end of the world, never did I imagine it would happen for real. In the future, we will talk about the before and after. Everyone will know someone who has lost someone to the virus.

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Bastille, Pompeii

The only way is to hope that the world will change for the better–and work towards it.

Pigeon Takeover

More pigeons!

Last Friday (3rd May), Piccadilly Gardens, an area in Manchester city centre, got evacuated due to a suspicious package. The police and bomb disposal squad were called, did their thing, the device was not viable, nothing bad happened and the culprit was arrested. So what has this got to do with pigeons?

I went out on my lunch break to see what Piccadilly Gardens looked like when it was empty. It was empty of people, but not of all living creatures, as you can see on these shots.

This wasn’t more than half an hour after the evacuation. It’s amazing how fast they took over once people were gone. But that is more of a topic for my Gloomscapes series.

Liverpool – Albert Dock

This entry is a repost with added material.

Today I will share with you some photographs from my trip to Liverpool, more specifically the famous Albert Dock.

Albert Dock is a complex of dock buildings and warehouses that was completed in 1846. It enabled ships to be loaded from warehouses directly and was the first structure in Britain built without wood using cast iron, bricks and stone. Today it’s a popular tourist attraction.

The above three pictures appeared previously in my post Wanderlust. This was my participation in now dead WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. I have now added three more:

Liverpool has some sick museums, seriously. I’ve not been to the Museum of Liverpool that is shown on the last pic, but I have visited the Merseyside Maritime Museum and also World Museum that is near the Lime Street train station. And there is, of course, the Beatles Story, because you can’t mention Liverpool without mentioning the Beatles!

The reason for the repost is that I felt that Albert Dock, or anything Liverpool really, is too good and too big to be hidden under an entry titled “Wanderlust”–when I don’t use that word anywhere else on this blog–and part of a challenge that has long since been killed by WordPress (RIP). It deserves its own properly titled post. So here it is–with three more pics.

I guess it’s like what a music artist would call a remix.

The Pigeon Conferences

You see them everywhere.

You live in a city, you’re familiar with the sight of them.

Yeah, I know.

The above three photographs are from Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester.

I took this from the bus, as you can see. Somewhere in Salford.

This is the statue of Edward The Black Prince in City Square in Leeds. From my trip to Leeds.

Speaking of pigeons on statues of royalty, there is a statue of Queen Victoria in Piccadilly Gardens (which I’ve never taken a picture of) and, well, let’s just say Her Majesty would not exactly be happy.

What can you do but shrug? Pigeons gonna pigeon.

Leeds

I visited this West Yorkshire city one Saturday and here I share with you some pics from there.

Leeds City Museum

The Electric Press

St Anne’s Cathedral

Corn Exchange

Some old house?

City Markets Hall

Leeds is only less than an hour away from Manchester. This was my second time there–on the first occasion, I didn’t get much chance to see the city, as it was an anti-Brexit march.