September Life Update; Manchester Bee Trail (Part 2)

Hi readers,

It's been a few weeks since my last post and I've some more bee statues to add to the collection. Most of these were taken a few weeks back when my boyfriend and I went to do more of the trail on the other side of Manchester. The rest were the day before that or in the weeks that have followed.

I still have lot more to find! I'm hoping next weekend, which will be the last one, to visit whole bunch we missed. Before that, maybe on Thursday, I'll drive around to see the others that are outside the city centre. Then in October to go to the goodbye event and see all the bees together! 

Before we went back to the centre, we visited Heaton park which is local to me and a place I use to have Sunday family walks around. We took my dog, though I don't think she was that impressed! There where two bees here and we found them both. The first bee was outside the new bee keeping section around the back of the old Heaton Hall. The second was at the boating lake, which was busy with people eating ice cream and being out on the lake in rowing boats. There was also two of the little bees in the cafe!

The next day, I had planned out a route for us to visit the bees I watched to see. The route on the map is a little confusing and has you zig zagging around the centre. We had all ready seen a few clusters of bees, so I wanted to do the ones that were furthest away and including a few at the start of the list! Then we were to walk back towards the car park. 

We got the free bus to Piccadilly train station. The first bee is right outside!

We then weaved our way towards the Gmex, Bridgewater hall and Deansgate station. We saw lots of bees, including three that I hadn't planned to due to getting lost! 

The next photo is not a bee but a sculpture in memory of the man who invited vimto which happened in an apartment close by here. Vimto is one of my favourite drinks! It's a strong and fruity, black current base which you add water - cold or hot to. I did know before hand it was made in Manchester, but I didn't know where. Now, thanks to the bee trail I do.  

We were mostly weaving through streets at this point, heading to the art gallery and Princess street. It was there that I found what has become my favourite bee! It's hard to pick one out of the 101 and though I like the one outside my work, the one below just really got to me. I really like the colour wash, like a sunset and the positive quotes and images. The wolf and the dreamcatcher paintings drew me too. 

We then headed over to the Science and industry museum which is one of my favourite museums. To get to their bee, you had to go inside and into the courtyard at the front. They had built a bees' garden there and it was a nice place to sit for a few minutes.   

We then walked to Deansgate and had lunch before seeing some more bees. Though we almost didn't as I really hadn't thought about how much walking we would do. I knew it would be a lot but it was so much! I don't think you could do all the bees in the city centre in a day, it's just too tiring. We did decided to carry on though and we saw a few more bees. There was about 3 or 4 in this area we didn't see. I had gotten too tried. 

I really like this bee above as it's steampunk like! 

The second to last bee we found was this one called Shellbee which is inside a theatre. It's super different to all the others as it lights up, makes sounds and has a fluffy coat. It was made for kids with disabilities and was designed by a special needs school where my sister in law works at. I really liked Shellbee and it was nice to see a very different take on the bee statues. She was super popular and it was hard getting photos!   

I know the next photo isn't a bee but I just had to take it. I saw this musical at this theatre back in like 2016. I really liked it and it was a nice reminder of a good evening out. Plus, Little Shop Of Horrors is super good!

On the way back we stopped and saw this bee at a church in Collyhust. It was the last one of the day. It's close to the bee at my work and I'm glad to have ticked it off the list as I've been trying too for awhile! 

The last bee for this post is this one, which we missed last time, though I'm not sure how, guess we had walked on the streets either side. I spotted it today on the way to the cinema and had to add it to the collection! 

That's it for this post. Next week, will hopefully be part 3. 

Thanks for reading!

August Life Update; Manchester Bee Trail (Part 1)

Hi Readers,

Currently taking my home city of Manchester, England, by storm are these amazing bee statues. I've been excited about them since I first heard of them and this weekend I got to do little bit of the bee trail! 

The trail covers all of Manchester city centre and some of the surrounding towns. It would be hard to do in a day and though I'd like to see them all, there's a few I know I won't get too. But there is an event close to the end of September which will see all the bees together in one place and I hope to go to that to get the bees I've missed. That's why this post says part 1 as it's a subject I'll carry on updating throughout the next month.

I had already seen about four of the bees before yesterday, including the one above which is outside the building where I work! All the bees have names and this one is called Harpurbee which is very fitting as it's named after the town it's in. I get to see this bee often and I enjoy watching people admire it. Each bee has a placard which says its name, who designed it and sponsored it.

To me it feels like the bee statues are bring Manchester together and getting people talking. They are interesting works of art, each created by different people and groups. The bee has been a symbol of Manchester for years as the Victorian workers were described as hard working bees and it's become the national animal of Manchester. During the aftermath of last year's Manchester Area Bombing the Manchester bee came a symbol for everyone to show support and hope. The bee statues don't have anything to do with this but I like the connect in my head.

These two bees below were the second and third bees I saw as they were next to the Comic Con event back in July. 

There are 101 bees all together and yesterday I saw 15 of them, so I'm up to 19 off the list now. There are also lots of little bee statues which sit inside public places like libraries, museums and art galleries. The area my boyfriend and I did was around the Arndale Centre, Piccadilly gardens and some of the northern quarter. We stopped first in the bee pop up shop to get a trail map and postcards. Then we set off! 

It was good fun walking around and spotting the bees. We hardly used the map as I knew the location of a few already and the way we walked meant we came past more. There were a few close to the end we had to look up though as they were not as easy to spot. I took lots of photos, but I picked the best ones below to share. 

I was sad when it was time to head back home. I really wanted to see more but we didn't have the time. We will have to come back another day to see some more! I have the map now, so I can plan out a route to see as many as possible next time! So that's post will continue at a later date. 

That's all for now readers, till next time.

March Life Update: White Scar Cave.

Hi readers,

I've been meaning to write for the past few weeks and then just not getting around to it! I've like three books I want to review on here too, so I really need to start that. Plus, I'm still job hunting and getting no where, though I'm sure you are all tried of hearing about that! Today, I thought I'd share with you my trip to a cave that I took with my boyfriend. He's really into them but it's been awhile since either of us visited any!

White Scar Cave is in the Yorkshire Dales next to a village called Ingleton. It was just over an hour's drive from my boyfriend's house in the Preston area. I was the driver for the day as he's not had any motorway experience yet but it was mostly countryside roads anyway which I've had nearly any experience off, whilst he - because he actually lives in the countryside, is kinda use to it. I was little scared but I did okay! Even when the SatNav took us along this single track, farmer's road and I almost ran over a dog that was sat on top of a hill on a blind bend!

We made it fine to the caves and back again though! And I got some more driving experience though, I really could do with some more countryside driving now! Sounds like some more trips to Yorkshire might be in the planning for the months ahead then. 

White Scar Cave has guided tours every hour, so you can't access the caves by yourself. I don't think you'd want to anyway, not because it's easy to get lost - it's a one track trail, but because the ceiling is really low and the sections of the cave do flood. You follow a natural fast flowing small river though the caves which was how it was first discovered. Walking above the river, you first go down then up into a really large area. You have to wear a helmet at all times due to the low and pointy ceiling. Here's my boyfriend and I modeling these nice red ones!

The tour is an hour and 20 minutes with the walk a mile and bit. There are a few different chambers to enter and lots of things to see. They had labeled some of the most interesting stalagmites and stalactites as well as other features. Here's a photo of the information map.    

The first thing we saw in the cave was this really loud waterfall! I've always liked waterfalls and this one was really cool. 

The Witch's Fingers and the Judge's Head below were pretty interesting to look at. It's weird to think there's are naturally created over time. 

This was the second free flowing waterfall further inside the caves. There was only a small spot at the side to walk passed if you didn't want to get wet! All the other waterfalls were going down the sides of the cave and not over like this one and the first one. 

This feature is called the Devil's Tongue. Water was dripping off it and there was little choice but to try and walk under without getting wet! The guide said if you did get dripped on it was seven years bad luck! We just about avoided it, I think.

After almost crawling though a really low section and going up almost 100 steps we made it the Battlefield cavern. Here there were a lot of stalactites, an ice age rockfall and a prehistoric mud floor. 

Just past that was this huge and really tall area. There were changing lights along the walls which made it so pretty. The guide said that cave explores had been in this area looking for another way into the cave as there's only one so far and it would be good to have another. It's also one of the deepest points underground too. At Christmas time, they have a Santa sitting here who gives out presents to the kids. - Sounds a really strange way to see Santa to me!

This is one of the upper tunnels which has been explored. People say they can see the outline of a woman's face on the left side of the image. The guide said she was know as The Witch. Below her at the bottom is the shape of her cat. 

We had a great time exploring White Scar caves and there was a lot to wow over. Afterwards we visited the cafe and had lunch. Then we went to the shop which was packed full of cool things. I brought some postcards, crystal animals, a piece of amethyst and an eraser for my collection. My boyfriend surprised me with a cute wooden bat keyring he'd brought whilst I wasn't looking! I'd not even seen those key rings, so it made it even more of a surprise!

If you are in the are then these caves are with the visit!


Since I've not blogged in awhile, I wanted to share two more things today. Firstly, there's been a lot of snowy weather in England recently. It does snow here, but it's been awhile since it's been this bad! I've not been enjoying it that much due to ill health. But I do love that magic feel snow can create. This is a photo of my back gardening, showing how much snow we had over one night. 

Then these are awesome icicles hanging off the kitchen window. Been an age since I last saw anything like this! They were really big too. 

And this is my dog, Patch. It's taken her sometime to get use to the snow but now she loves running and playing in it. 

Best though, she loves coming home and getting all warm and snuggled in her jumper and bed! I totally agree with her there.

I'm glad it spring has finally arrived now and I was hoping we'd seen an end to the snow. But it looks like we might get some more over Easter now! so maybe winter isn't just finished yet.

On another note, I'm currently reading the Harry Potter books again! It's been ages since I last read them. Probably, when the last book came out 2007 but then I might have read the third on again a few years later - that's always been my favorite! From my memory though, I've only read the last three books once. The other 4 I've read at least 3 or 4 times. It'll also be interesting to read them one after the other too.

Last night, I finished the first and started the second! I'm not sure if I'll do a review of them yet. Perhaps, I'll do one of the all together when I'm done.   

Thanks for much reading. Here's hoping I can get those book reviews up soon!

Please check out my other blog; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/ I'm taking part in the A-Z Challenge next week!

(Please note; all photos belong to me. Please don't use them.)