Manchester Mosiacs

I visited Manchester recently.

While there, I followed a Royal Geographical Society audio tour on Victorian Manchester.

It started at the newly refurbished Manchester Victoria station, with its marvellous tiles, and brought me to see buildings relating to how newly industrial Manchester cared for its poor and destitute.

Outside one brick building, I felt a surge of emotion about that institution helping those who were being left behind in the Victorian industrial metropolis.

Each brick, to me, symbolised all the small kind acts taken place there.

My fanciful notion aside, Manchester is a place full of brickwork and tiles, a city made of mosaics, the many making the whole.

Country + Continent Cards

I've been making a lot of cards recently from maps and recycled paper - take a look at some below - showing map shapes of countries and continents.

I love how recognisable some countries and continents are, simply by their shape. But I also wonder why some countries are not?

Next Saturday morning, I will be selling these cards - and my Christmas and Valentine map cards - and notebooks at a table top sale at The Dog House pub in Kennington.

The sale is in aid of people who have haemochromatosis, so do come along and say hello.

Transbritannia

Flights from London to Iceland fly over a lot of water, a little part of Iceland, but mostly over the length of Britain.

Take a look at these aerial photos of mountains, valleys, islands, cities and towns - mine are mainly of Scotland and the north of England, because it was cloudy down south.

Glasgow airport

The Firth of Forth, and Forth Road Bridge

 The iconic Forth (rail) Bridge is just about visible in the background, behind clouds.

River valley in Scotland

 I haven't been able to identify this one.

Stornoway and Isle of Lewis

Stornoway is in the left middle-ground.

Loch Linnhe

 Two photos of Loch Linnhe - one of the north-western edge, and one where its two sides nearly meet.

Robin Rigg wind farm

I identified this, as it was the only wind farm with 60 turbines.

Liverpool, the Mersey and Birkinhead

Liverpool is in the lower half of the photo.

Cork to London, from above

I've been flying back and forwards between Cork and London for nearly 6 and a half years now. Inspired by my last post with google maps screenshots of geographical landscapes, here are a variety of aerial photographs taken on my many flights between Ireland and the UK.

Britain from above

The first book I have read from my New Year reading list is Never Eat Shredded Wheat, which is all about the geography of the UK.

As the author described various features, like oxbow lakes, moraines, cliffs and so on, I looked them up on Google Maps (because aerial photography is great).

So here are some screenshots of fantastic British landscapes from Google Maps - I didn't keep a record of where these all are, but if you want to guess, leave a comment.

UK to Spain, from above

I took these great aerial photos on a flight from London to Gibraltar, and then the return flight from Seville to London.

London to Corfu, from above

I took these great aerial photos on a flight from London to Corfu, passing over France and Italy.









And on the return night flight, we passed over Paris - spot the Eiffel Tower in the left lower middle ground.