design and life
Everyone round here has a coal shed in their back yard. I doubt anyone still uses it for coal. Mine contains bikes, tools, and cobwebs, but the deep dusty layer on the floor is black all the way down.
Just before Xmas I went to Bollington, a small town near Macclesfield, not too far from here. Its notable landmark is White Nancy, a small, sealed, slightly lopsided folly, perched like a Pope’s hat on a hillside above the town. Here is some history.
I’ve been doing some work helping to set up a local community orchard. The trees have only just been planted, so we won’t see any fruit for a year or so, but it’ll be great to see it come to fruition, literally.
And it certainly makes a change from the film industry…
One evening every year this town congregates at one end of the gorge on which it sits and shuffles through it, carrying homemade willow and tissue-paper candle-powered lanterns…great opportunity to say hi to the neighbours, witness some amazing fire sculptures, eat drink and generally be merry.
Clearly we had angered the gods, though - this year it culminated in an impressive downpour - fortunately the assurances that tissue paper lanterns are more-or-less waterproof were correct.
Went for a great long walk on Sunday, about ten miles taking in Cown Edge and Lantern Pike. At the former, I noticed a plume of smoke appear in central Manchester.