Photo Safari I - Manchester Cathedral

I hope this is the beginning of a series. Brendan took these brilliant shots of the Manchester Cathedral on our first walk around town. There is SO much detail in these things, that it's hard to represent it well. But I think he did a great job. We didn't take any of the inside. The stained glass was not remarkable, and we didn't want to be disrepectful of the tombs. But the choir stalls were SO ornate. We stood and stared at them for a long time.




Gargoyles are always my favorite part of the exterior. Did you know the word "gargle" comes from the sound the rain makes coming through those down-spouts. I hope you can see these. The other two are of saints and angels. There were many empty niches around the outside. I wonder if the statues have been lost or if they've been intentionally left open for generous benefactors to have a chance at putting their likeness there for posterity.

Of course, it's Church of England, very similar to Episcopal in the US. Since it was the closest church, I visited on Sunday morning for the family Eucharist service. They have a small choir, maybe 20-25 children and adults, but they filled the worship area and the tall ceilings with clear, beautiful tones, all in Latin of course. I remembered a few phrases from my choir career, but not much. So I didn't try to follow along. I closed my eyes and just listened. Then, I was doubly blessed by a concert from a South African Youth Choir - WOW! Their short concert included works from Russia, Scandinavia, and finally South Africa, which I enjoyed immensely.

I have to say, there's much more available to do in this size city than there ever was in Northampton. Brendan and I are going to help build the "Carpet of Flowers" in Albert's Square in front of town hall next week. It will be similar to the ones they do in Belgium, on a smaller scale. It's a great chance for us to be outside and useful and meet some locals.

Our Room With A View

New location. New urge to journal. If this blog is supposed to exercise my brain, my gray-matter's gotten flabby.

We're back in England, this time in Manchester, living in a corner, top-floor flat in a Victorian building that was probably a cotton mill in city centre. We're here for eight weeks while Bill does contract work for Cooperative Financial, one of the largest companies in Manchester. It's a great opportunity to come back, we never thought we would, and re-aquaint ourselves with British-isms, like four-wheeled shopping trolleys, and looking right, then left, before stepping off of the curb, and taking three hours to do a load of wash. It's different being in a city. We don't have a car, so we're working on figuring out the tram and buses, and are doing much more walking. Smoking is not allowed inside public places anymore, so everyone steps outside to take a drag. Weekends are busier than weekdays, especially at 2:30 in the morning when the bars and pubs close, turning out all the noisy drunks onto the streets.

Two sides of the flat are lined with nine large windows that look out over the roof tops and give us a birds-eye view of people coming and going on the street, on the tram, and on the buses. I enjoy looking out at different times of the day to see what dramas are unfolding. It would be easy to become a voyer if I had a good pair of binoculars. Here are my favorite views.

Happy Trails

This is one happy cowpoke. He has been wanting to ride a horse since he was about seven-years-old, but every time we try, something seems to get in the way.

This year for Spring Break, we booked three nights at the Mayan Ranch in Bandera, Texas. It's a 300 acre dude ranch run by the Hicks family where the food and the horses are the main attraction. We got to go on trail rides twice a day. My bum was sore by the end of the first day, but Brendan just had to ride, and he wanted me with him (one of the rare times anymore), so I sucked it up and rode.

People from around the world come to the ranch for that "true cowboy experience" - and they dress in funny boots and hats, too. There were people from Germany and a family from Japan there during our stay. Even in the winter/spring, before things really green up, the countryside is beautiful. The ranch is bordered by the Medina river which is great for tubing in the hot summer, and when you ride, you get to go all around the ranch, up the hills, through the trees, etc... You get to see wild deer, turkeys and peacocks. We stayed in a rustic cabin, took a hayride to an outdoor cowboy breakfast, and toasted marshmallows over a bonfire at night. We fished in the river and played tennis on the new courts right outside our cabin.

The food was excellent - bbq brisket, sausage, steak, chicken with all the fixings. We were always entertained with authentic western music and old cowboy tunes. We missed Mexican night, with margaritas and mariachis, which really bummed me out, but we couldn't stay the whole week.

Each afternoon, there were snacks and entertainment. We had a trick roper, who cracked a mean bullwhip, and a man who brought out two young bison. There was a magician for the kids and a man who told Wild West stories and passed around replica guns.

I was a little disappointed that there weren't more organized things to do during the day. Perhaps that was intentional so there would be some down time. It was too cold to swim and the kids ran a little wild. They had one horseshoe pitch, which was broken, one ping-pong table and one shuffle board. And there was only one bbgun to go around for 30 kids in the bbgun shoot. I found out they weren't running a full week-long schedule, like they do in the summer. According to the website, there should have been archery and a talent show. Perhaps that happened on the weekend, when we weren't there.

Overall, we had a great time. Brendan couldn't get enough of the horses, and we were only ten minutes away from my folks. Who knew such a gem was hiding in the hills on the other side of town. Yee haw!