wash......and glow

Last week I spent most of my wednesday at Wash nd Glow (because your car's worth it) near Manchester Fort on Cheetham Hill Road. Hosted by the very friendly owners, brothers Amir, Irfan and Imran. It was fascinating to hear the story of how they built up their business, expanded into other initiatives and their visions for future enterprises. All the while, they fed me and gave me cups of coffee in the very pleasant waiting area / cafe bar. They even made my car glow! I met some of the men and women who work on various aspects of car washing and also those who run adjacent businesses that serve the passing customers: a phone outlet, a steak take-away, a garage and a barber. Wash and Glow seem to have created a fun and pleasant atmosphere for customers, whilst stringent standards are paramount and the washing of cars is taken very seriously, with each car being checked. Workers I met represented a wide span of the globe and surely a good cross section of Cheetham Hill's diverse communities.

Sketching Field Trip

Explore Great Horrocks, (a secret garden in cheetham hill?)
a sketching afternoon

Wednesday 2nd June
meet at Buddleia Space, 573 Cheetham Hill Road  2:30pm - returning by 5:30
weather permitting - call Alison on 07767356302 if in any doubt or with any questions
(look for the premier newsagent opposite the old library)

we will be walking for around 30-40 minutes to get to Great Horrocks and using steps and over rough ground.
Please bring your own sketching materials - paper / sketch book, pencils, charcoals, pens, paints etc and something
to sit on if required.

return to the secret garden the day before the election

yesterday I returned to my "secret garden" and found it full of birdsong. I entered via the bridge, found off Collyhurst Road, just beyond the weir on the Irk. I remember another railway bridge in my childhood - an abandoned RAF camp near our home was my playground - overgrown and a great place to play, to discover oneself, and it was entered via a similar bridge - intriguing graffitti, ignored corners piled with dust, weed clogged crevices, odd pieces of litter - a torn cardigan, crushed beer can, patches of burnt grass

There was frenetic birdsong, a distant mobile tannoy from a political party roaming the estate across the river valley goes in and out of earshot; a tinny radio somewhere with its jingles, and the clang and drone of the metrolink depot. Occassionally a distorted amplified call to someone on the shopfloor of some works on the Irk or from the back of The Fort crackles loudly. Someone taps a hammer, tinkering with a fairground ride in the caravan site. The air is damp but warm - and I smell a familiar sense of chilly summer afternoons. I sketch and try to spot birds.

It seems that my secret garden reaches all the way up to Queens Road - but there are no footpath signs from that end - I've emailed the council to find out why - and I've also asked who might be responsible for the footpath that skirts the caravan park, which is littered with junk and unpassable...
I stand on the ridge which over looks a re-claimed meadow. There are these vents which indicate this has been contaminated land - I wonder with what and how safe it might be and what the plans for it are...click here for a map of the area
The view from the ridge is panoramic, the surrounding hills, the new flats (apartments) and the skyline of familiar CIS, Arndale, Piccadilly Hotel, Beetham Tower, Urbis...Its the iconic skyline Manchester dosnt have from anywhere else perhaps...

drawing the scene slows me down, breathe in the air, look harder, think better, hear everything - brings me into the moment.

I'm hoping that some of the folk from St Johns will join me on a sketching trip up here sometime soon. I'm sorry I didn't drop in yesterday there, but I was trying to think something over - so, next week I hope...