Category: Travel / Out and About (Page 10 of 18)

Stoller Hall, Chetham School of music orchestra 

Introducing world famous alumnus Stephen Hough

The title of the workshop was From practice to performance- an evening illustrating how a concerto performance is fine tuned- Liszt Concerto #1

I got a great seat! I even caught a score- one of half a dozen which were thrown from the stage for interested attendees before the workshop began. It finished at 8:16. The hall is right across from the train station so I managed to catch the 8:26 train back to Hebden Bridge. People getting in the train to the west of the Pennines looked like snowmen but it was only sleeting in Hebden as I walked home from the station. Got home at 9:15, exactly an hour from being in the concert hall. Pretty good! 

From the bus today

Ripponden church

The pub’s buffet

Ripponden church. Since the door was open I stepped in and found myself in the midst of frantic comings and goings as people prepared the stalls for tomorrow’s craft fair. I was welcomed and encouraged to come back tomorrow when the entire town will be holding their Christmas fair. I asked if I could purchase a couple of items today. Fine, but I didn’t have any change. What a good excuse to go to the pub next door!

The pub’s buffet. There was only one other table in use, but only one table was available. all the others were reserved! Guess this is a popular lunchtime venue. 

Sense of humour. A house in Ripponden not named ‘My Repose’, or ‘Grand View’ – just ‘The Crumbling Old Wreck’

My find at the church fair

It’s like being on the sea front

Lunch in Manchester Cathedral cafe with my dear friend Katrina, was followed by my first visit to Bridgewater Hall for a concert

Handel by Candle – light

Festive!

Michael Bawtree CONDUCTOR – personable
Tereza Gevorgyan SOPRANO – amazing
Crispian Steele-Perkins TRUMPET – always a twinkle in his eye
Canzonetta Choir
Mozart Festival Orchestra IN FULL 18TH CENTURY COSTUME

We got centre front, second row seats – for twenty three pounds. 

Then a quick trip by train across the Pennines to see a conversation with George Costigan  (of Happy Valley and Educating Rita) and Willie Russell (who wrote Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine)

Preparing for a shopping spree

The newly refurbished organ in Manchester Cathedral – the location of many of our ancestors’ weddings. In the summer this organ was encased in plastic wrapping.

Remembrance Sunday

A group of first graders learning how to do brass rubbings in the cathedral. Sweet school uniforms.

Freezing in Manchester Christmas market!

Warming up with hot mulled wine. This building was constructed for the market and is taken down after Christmas

Christmas cappuccino in Primark

Primark shopping spree

An escape to the warmth of Opus One

Visiting her old dorm at Manchester Uni

Stunning fashions on Curry Mile

Waiting for the train home after a  lovely day out

Settling in after a 22 hour journey

Sound of a brass band  next morning got us running out of the house to see what was a- happenin’. It was the Hebden Bridge brass band playing for the march to the cenotaph for the remembrance Sunday parade

Then the bus up to Heptonstall for my favourite views down into the valley. It was barely above freezing with a strong bitterly cold Northerly wind blasting in right from the Arctic. The buildings below look like  a tiny model village.

Anna paying a visit to her great, great, great, great, great grandparents , James and Mally Wrigley –  so fitting for Remembrance Sunday. 

And now I have each daughter photographed in front of the same pillar in Heptonstall old church.

We did a 7 mile hike to gibson Mill in Hardcastle Crags. Despite the freezing temperature the cafe inside was packed – we had a wait in line! Other, more braver souls, were picnicing on the outside tables. We remarked on the many, many young children out with their parents on this sunny Sunday afternoon.  

My mum used to visit this former mill which became a tourist destination in the early part of the last century. It even had a roller skating rink inside. Anna is playing dress-up. Behind her is the pulley system for lifting bales of wool – just like in the ceiling of my apartment’s kitchen.

Lovely autumn colours

Reaching Hebden Bridge

A well-earned drink  – open mic in the White Duck (sorry, White Swan!)

Autumn colours in the park across from my apartment

On the road from Slack Bottom to Heptonstall

Silhouette

Looking across the valley of Hardcastle Crags to Old Town with its distinctive mill chimney

Allotments