Last week (Friday 25th June 2021) I visited Manchester for the first time since the pandemic began - so that is well over a year now. I live on the edges of the rural beginnings outside of the city sprawl, but in an area which is all too quickly being engulfed by it. The break has given me an opportunity to consider what it really is about city life that I value. I had come to the conclusion that it was the museum, the libraries, and the art galleries. It was an odd atmosphere that Friday - the delta variant of the coronavirus is running rife and there is a big effort to suppress that. It was raining, though nothing unusual there. It seemed eerily quiet in places, not the city I remembered at all. This is when I took these photographs. On the next day though, a Saturday, I came back through the centre. Today the sun was shining, it was gloriously warm and the streets were rammed, full of the city’s youth enjoying the sun and their lives. I make no judgement here about the situation r
This was a reward for the habit I am trying to get into when I'm popping to the shop in my town - via the scenic route of course - the habit of slipping the camera into my pocket. I feel like I should be on commission for this little Lumix TZ70 camera, but I still can't quite get over having this much imaging and telephoto power all wrapped up in something that in the old days we would call 'the size of a fag packet'. It is a nifty bit of kit and won't break the bank either. Today the heron was happy to pose and diverted me for no more than five minutes on the way for a lunchtime snack. Me that is, not the heron. It was most accommodating, I can almost forgive it for eating my trout.