Shadow Sunday: A Cat from 2007

With all the rain we've been having, I've been browsing my archives for this week's shadow shot and found something from May 2007.

For more shadows check out Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (25): St Mary's, Stockport

Today's bench is to be found in the grounds of Stockport Parish Church, aka St Mary's in the Market Place.

My favourite benches discovered recently include Reader Wil's in Queensland, Rune's at Syltøy, Carlos' in Barcelona, Barbara's in Old Montreal and Barbara's along the South Saskatchewan River.

ABC Wednesday - S is for Stamford Park Boating Lake

Looking East over the boating lake at Stamford Park, Ashton under Lyne.

There is a view looking North on my photoblog sithenah.

Stamford Park also has a fishing lake of which I showed you a glimpse in July 2009.

For more S posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - R is for Rotorua

This week I've been looking through my archives and decided to post eight images from Rotorua 2001. They were taken with an early Olympus digital camera and are only 640 x 480 pixels but with the modern photo-software I now use I've been able to reveal more details than were evident when I originally downloaded them.


Rotorua was one of the stops on our tour of New Zealand which I describe in my journal THE LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD.


We reached Rotorua on Day 22


In the early evening we were just driving around and found ourselves at Kuirau Park. On the 26th January 2001, less than two months before our visit, an eruption occurred. Mud, steam and debris were thrown into the air. Notices warn visitors to enter at their own risk and not to cross the makeshift fences.


I went walkabout discovering ash-covered trees, small lakes of boiling mud, and large swamp lakes over which hot sulphurous clouds blew. It was the weirdest scene I had ever encountered. Beyond the park were modern buildings.



Much of the grass was green, but it was not a place for picnics nor football. The fumes, as long as one stayed away from the thickest clouds were not overpowering.


For more "R" posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ASTRO-METEOR POETRY SHOW-PROJECT

© 2009, Valentin Grigore (President of SARM).

Since 1997, the scientific lectures of the annual International Meteor Conference (IMC) have concluded with an original Saturday night Astropoetry Show, combining astronomical poetry, drama, humour, music, arts, improvisations, etc, attracting over time participants from 17 countries and 3 continents.

As the founder and director of the Astropoetry Show, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, had to remain in Romania to take care of his mother, hospitalized in a critical state of health and was unable to attend the IMC 2009 in Porec (Croatia, September 24-27), this traditional spectacle was replaced by THE METEOR POETRY POSTER, directed poetically by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and photographically by Valentin Grigore.

Another humanistic initiative, the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project, a periodic anthology published from 2002 to 2008, preserved in the electronic archive of the International Meteor Organization, was absorbed in 2009 by the project Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy.

Thus the 13th Astropoetry Show and the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project was merged into a celebratory electronic page, including a meteor poetry prologue, new meteor poems from the summer of 2009 from all over the world (which reproduce much of the content of the IMC 2009 poster), astro-thoughts from the IMC 2009 participants, photographs, and a commemorative post-scriptum.

***

SUMMER METEOR POETRY 2009-

MOTTO:

a dusty filament
drifts across Earth's orbit
raining light

-Gerald England (U.K.,
Editor of New Hope International
and Honorary Member of the International Artists and Writers Academy);
first published in Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project 5,
IMO-News Mailing List, 2005 June 21st-

***
was my own contribution to the poster.


A METEOR OVER SAND WALK-WAYS - artwork © by Calin Niculae (SARM).

The ASTRO-METEOR POETRY SHOW-PROJECT is a special page realized by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM with the support of some members of the International Meteor Organization, coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, Alastair McBeath and Valentin Grigore, and web designed by Florin Stancu.

Shadow Sunday: Moorside Place

On Hyde Daily Photo earlier this week I posted Homes by the Canal Turn, a view of the building work going on to construct an estate of new houses to be called "Moorside Place".

Just two years ago the site was covered by the old Automasters Factory. A year ago it was demolished.

Mo of Fresh Eyes on London asked "Is that shadow you?" so I've gone back to my original photograph and cropped out the shadow for you.

View more shadows this week at Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (24): Tallinn

For my bench this week I've dipped into my archives to find this long bench under the walls of Tallinn, Estonia.

This bench can be found under Loewenschede Torn. A path leads under the walls to Laborootiumi.

My favourite benches discovered last week include Rune's old bench, Barbara's at Lake Agnes, Leatherdyke's at Hartland Abbey, Zyzzyz's in Inverness and Stine's at Lake Ontario.

ABC Wednesday - Q is for Quick View

Quick View is a street at Hey Farm, Mossley on the Pennine hills above Manchester.

Hey Farm is a modern housing estate built on the old farmland. The street is so-called because it affords a view across the valley of the River Tame to Quick Edge.

Quick was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086 and until 1864 was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Together with its neighbour Roughtown it was merged with Mossley which itself in 1974 became part of Tameside Metropolitan Borough, Great Manchester.

There is much more about the history of Quick on the Mossley Community Centre website.

For more Q posts visit ABC Wednesday.

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.