Having eulogised the plums and blackberries already this year — and for good reason — let us also add the glorious amount, and richness, of 2018’s apples as well — not to mention a second good crop of rhubarb. In this aspect, no one can complain about the year.
In the time I have been doing this blog, I have made two previous trips to this place, but it has not been documented here for some reason or another. Strange, actually, considering what The Forbidden Corner actually is, a gloriously imaginative folly, a labyrinth where (the first time I visited, at least) I had genuinely no idea what might be around the next corner (forbidden or not). The third trip today was made with my students from Manchester as I had decided that the FC would be a good place to start developing some team-building skills. Better than leaving them up on a moor somewhere, particularly on a rather dull and rainy day like today. Better than being stuck in an office on a Friday, too.
A morning meeting with a colleague, held in the pleasant surroundings of the Christie Bistro. I had my usual builder’s brew but she went for the mint tea option and I was taken by the appearance of the leaves suspended in the water. As you see here. (I mean, that’s what this blog is, isn’t it? I show you what I see each day…)
Also, a minor milestone — I make this the blog’s 500th Manchester shot.
This is one of those junk shops that has grandiose self-image and calls itself an “Antiques Centre” but we’ll let it off. I believe this object is an old typesetting tray, the kind of thing useful when typefaces came as hundreds of small carved pieces of metal. What practical use to anyone it is nowadays, I cannot imagine, but on the other hand it is a pretty cool lump of wood if you ask me. Not that I decided to lug it home or anything.
The idea for this shot came to me as I was listening to the last keynote speaker at the conference, and for me the last event of it, as I headed for Oulu airport straight after it had finished. It was a bugger to get all things in focus though, and when I managed it, he wasn’t quite doing the interesting things with his hands that he was on other shots: so they look a bit like a big lump here. Still, this is basically the shot that I was trying to capture.
End of the morning session — time for lunch. I chose this shot because I like the mixture of stasis and movement, some people are happy to stick around for a little while longer and chat, others (and I admit I am typically among this latter group) bounce up at the opportunity to be first in the queue for lunch.
We are getting longer platforms! And lifts to and from them, from the subway! It’s a miracle…. or will be, if we ever get the train service to match.
Don’t worry, I have not become Scarface. Not yet, anyway. But I was making blackberry jam this afternoon, and quite successfully too as it turned out.
Notes on laptop? Check. Camera? Present, obviously. Bag of plums for distribution? Check. Students? Well, some of them. Even if they are members of uni staff on the ‘Humanities New Academics Programme’. Here we go through to Christmas, either way.
In case you hadn’t noticed I am becoming rather tired of schlepping into Manchester on a regular basis — not work particularly, but the city, its endless building sites and general crowdedness. But that’s one reason I’m taking a sabbatical from January. So this will change, at least for the first part of 2019. For now, there are still some early mornings to be done. Note the ‘Queen Bee’ scuplture inside this, the Queens Arcade.
