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!

July Life Update 2: Leeds Trip!

Hi readers,

I decided to write about my trip to Leeds after all, only because I want to share these three places I found whilst I was there for two days. I'd planned everything out like I did for London and then I found out when I got to Kirkstall Abbey that everywhere was closed on Monday for cleaning ect. It's traditional for museums to be closed, but I don't think I knew that and also I never noticed that about places in Manchester.

Leeds is less then an hour away from me and I'm surprised that we've not been to these places before. They tick all the boxes for a family day out and fit in with what my parents liked taking us to during the summer holidays. Anyway, now I know where these places are I'll plan to visit them again and there's a steampunk fair at the Mill in October too!

I do actually like Leeds and there are lot are interesting places to go and visit. Last time I was there we visited The Thackeray Medical History Museum, where there was a steampunk fair and we also walked around a Christmas market, here's the post on that;
http://hailscrazyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/leeds-steampunk-market-and.html
I've also been to the Leeds Armouries Museum, which is a great place to check out. I also like the city center because there's a good choice of shops and there's the massive indoor market which dates back to the 1800's.

I actually went into the center and the market on Monday afternoon and I had a good walk around. I brought some stuff from the market too. Mostly sweets and some craft stuff, but also these knitting patterns. I saw this fluffy purple hedgehog and I really wanted it, but then I saw this rainbow one and the dragons and I brought both. Mum was fine with me adding them to the knitting list and we even brought all the wool! I'll post up some photos when they've been made.  

So, the first place I want to was Kirkstall Abbey. It was twenty minutes on the bus from the hotel we were staying in and there were bus stops close by, so it was super easy to get too. The bus goes to the city center too, so I got a day saver ticket to travel back and forth. The Abbey set in a large park area, so even though it wasn't open, you can still walk around the outside and you can see just about everything from that. It was smaller then some of the other Abbeys I've been too, but I still felt inspired by the place. I got to walk around inside the ruins the next day and that was cool too. It's free as well and the visiting center and shop are okay. The park area is really nice to walk in too and it seemed popular with local young families. Here are some more photos;

Stuck for lunch, I got back on the bus and went to the retail park I had past on the way. I got some stuff then went back to the Abbey and had a small picnic. It was really nice and I sat under some trees and also read my book. Then I decided to go into Leeds city center and try to come back the next day to see if I could have a walk around inside.

It me it was worth coming back for, but I didn't really see much more then I'd seen the day before. I did find out this Abbey was built in like 1152 and then it was abandoned around 1539 due to the dissolution of monasteries. Most of the stone was then re-used to make other stuff over the years then in 1895, Leeds council did some restoration and opened it to the public. The Wikipedia page also makes for an interesting read about it; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkstall_Abbey

I did get a few story ideas from this place and I do wish I'd had spent more time sitting and writing because that would have been fun. Actually the Abbey seems to have always attracted creative people as some artists are famous for drawing and painting the Abbey. Maybe I'll go back one afternoon and spend some time writing. Here are a few photos from inside the Abbey;

The next place I went to is Armley Mills. I found out about this place via Most Haunted. I'm not that big a fan of it now a days, but my chance it came on after another ghost thing I'd been watching and when they said they were in Leeds I got interested and then once I had the name of the place, I found it was it like a 20 minute walk from the hotel! I just had to go. I do love old mills because they normally have lots of interesting stuff in them. Also, they smell really good too!

So this Mill has a few working weaving machines but they weren't working when I was there due to being under repair. I learnt some stuff about the spreed of diseases though and about the working conditions. There were some other displays about making things and fashion. But I liked learning the history of the Mill more. Turned out the first Mill on the site actually brought down and they had to rebuild it. There was also stories of children and adults getting trapped in the machines. Always makes me freak out though!

They had farm machines and other stuff too, but I really wanted to see the steam trains as they are my favorite things at museums. But the Mill got flooded last year and since the engines were in the buildings near the canal, they were closed. There's a nice picnic area though and I spent sometime outside, having a snack. I really wish I'd spent some more time here because I ended up rushing through some stuff due to knowing I didn't have that much time- though really I did! Anyway, I'll go back for the steampunk fair.

 
The last place I went to was the Abbey House Museum. This was across the road from the Abbey and I'm so glad I went as the children's' toys and games section was amazing. They always have a Victorian style high street where you can walk into the different shops and the pub and look at the layout of things and the items for sale. Behind is also a side street of houses and it was just lots of fun to be transported back!

The floor above had crime and punishment and I found some of that interesting too. Then it was all the childhood stuff and the history of the house. There were lots of super old toys and games, some of which I did know! They also had lots of doll house furniture and two huge doll houses, don't think I've seen doll houses that big before! They had some creepy china/pot dolls too and I sort of avoided those, I blame all the horror movies/ghost documentary things for my feelings about dolls and clowns!

Surprisingly and like the Mill the museum was pretty much empty, so I got around fast. And once again I wish I'd spent more time, but I was hungry and tired and had been rushing around all day. Maybe I'll go back one day. They had a really nice garden area and a cafe, so I chilled out there for a bit then had to head back because my mum wanted to leave before rush hour traffic started.

Here are the photos and I'm sorry they didn't turn out that well but I wasn't allow to use my flash. I might have gotten away with it at some points, but I always try to respect the photography rules.

So that's it though I'm sure I'll be back to Leeds soon. Thanks for reading and remember to check out my other to blogs and come back here on Monday for a book review.