May began with a trip to North Street to take in the Hit The North Street Art Festival, getting photos of the pieces of artwork as they were created, and then the finished artwork.
The following weekend, I treated myself to a trip to Scotland, spending most my time in Edinburgh, getting photos of Street Art (of course) and walking up Arthur’s Seat and going for a stroll in Colinton.
It would have been rude not to go to a football match, Livingston v St Johnstone being my match of choice before a day trip to Glasgow saw me get more Street Art photos and visit Cathkin Park, an abandoned football stadium.
Towards the end of the month, it was all about Friday nights, first of all winning a ticket to see Ulster v Sharks.
Then, the last Friday of the month, I went to see Queen (well, half of Queen, but it was still so good) at The Odyssey.
April began with a football free Saturday, so I headed to Scrabo Country Park, got lucky with the weather and got lots of nice photos.
The rest of the month was all about football, the next two weekends saw me attend Linfield’s matches against Cliftonville and Glentoran.
With two Public Holidays for Easter, I decided to go for walks up Cregagh Glen and then up Cavehill.
That was then followed by Linfield’s matches against Crusaders, Larne and Coleraine.
Just hours after seeing Linfield winning the League against Coleraine, I headed to Custom House Square to see Echo and the Bunnymen, my first concert of 2022.
The first weekend of March 2022 saw me visit Carrick to see Linfield win a rearranged game, then the following morning, head up Cavehill.
Then the rest of the month was Linfield matches, against Ballymena United, Crusaders, Dungannon Swifts and Warrenpoint Town.
With the match against Warrenpoint Town being a lunchtime kick-off and the weather being nice, I decided to head to Warrenpoint Beach for some photos. I also headed to Carlingford, but I didn’t get any photos there though.
The month ended with my first Northern Ireland match in over two years, the friendly at home to Hungary.
2022 began with a trip to Dungannon on New Year’s Day to see Linfield win 6-1 at Stangmore Park.
On the Bank Holiday Monday that followed, I could have had a lie-in, but I decided to head up Cavehill instead.
I then visited a new football stadium for the first time, very exciting, going to see Harland and Wolff Welders take on Annagh United at Blanchflower Park, which had opened a few months earlier, this was my first chance to visit this ground.
The rest of the month, was Linfield matches, against Larne, Ballymena United, Glenavon, Cliftonville and Coleraine.
This was a proper lovely walk. So proper and lovely, I actually did it twice.
I’ve been a semi frequent visitor to Lisnabreeny Hill over the past two and a bit years, but I really wanted to go up at Sunrise.
I did have an attempt at Sunset in August. I got some nice shots but I messed up the timings so I was limited in what I could shoot.
In October, I tried again. The sky was bright, I was ready to go, then the sky changed to torrential rain. Think i’ll give it a miss.
So I had to wait until mid November for my next chance to get Sunrise photos.
The problem with getting Sunrise photos is, and it’s a big problem, that you have to get up early.
Even in Winter, when it is later.
There has actually been a decent run of Sunrises and Sunsets recently. No use for me though as I have been stuck in work.
This time, I made the effort and got up early. However, I would be held up getting there.
I got caught out by the weather, and my car was frozen so I had to Deice it, which wasted valuable Sunrise photo taking time.
Eventually I arrived at around 7.30am, bypassing Cregagh Glen to go straight to Lisnabreeny Hill, parking in Four Winds and walking along Manse Road to the starting point.
Unusually, I managed to get some photos on Manse Road as I was walking up, as I didn’t want to miss out the red sky.
By the time I got to the top, the sky was now golden. Perfect, just what I was looking for. Time to go snap snap snap.
There’s just something about that early morning Sunrise glow. It made for perfect shooting conditions. I had to make the most of it while I had it.
Eventually, I headed back down to the American War Cemetery to get some snaps of that. There was some frost on the ground as I was getting photos.
Between that and the deicing incident, a reminder that Winter is here.
And there was me thinking it was nice and mild.
Once that was done, I headed back up to the top of Lisnabreeny Hill just to have a second go of some Sunrise photos as it was still rising.
It was an enjoyable walk, although I did regret not getting up earlier. Just ten or fifteen minutes could have made such a difference.
As I said earlier, the problem with trying to photograph Sunrises are that they take place too early.
If I was being picky, I would have loved it if there was some cows or leaves that could have been used as props for my photos.
I definitely plan on being back up soon to try again, possibly at some point in December.
When I do, I might incorporate Cregagh Glen into it as I haven’t walked there for a while.
It was the start of a week off work for me. I had a lot of Annual Leave to use up, so the opening week of the World Cup sounded like a good week to use some of it up.
How coincidental you could say. The truth is, I would have had to take a week off in November. This wasn’t a bad week to be off.
I was intending to use the mornings to take in some hillwalks closer to home.
With no 10am match on the Monday, I decided to head to Blackmountain, where I had only been once this year.
As I left the house, it was dull and dark. I could live with that. The photos wouldn’t be good but at least i’d be getting up Blackmountain.
Driving there, a little bit of drizzle. I can live with that. I could change my plans and go up Divis Mountain instead.
Nope, as I parked my car, torrential rain started to fall.
I had some errands to do, so I turned around and did them instead.
There’ll be other opportunities to come in December so i’ll try again then, weather permitting.
On the Tuesday morning, I headed to Minnowburn.
My intention was to try and get some Sunrise photos.
I think my bed was too comfy as I missed the best part of it. There was a glorious red sky as I was getting in the car.
As with visits there, I covered Minnowburn, Terrace Hill Gardens and Giant’s Ring, but in a different order, starting at Minnowburn.
That was because the Car Park at Giant’s Ring doesn’t open until 10am, so I had no choice but to park at Minnowburn.
It was a nice walk. I got some ok photos but nothing spectacular. Not as successful as the walk up Lisnabreeny. I’ll try again at some point in December or January.
You can see my photos from Minnowburn here.
My plan for Wednesday was to cycle to Whiteabbey but seeing the weather forecast for heavy rain, I decided against it, especially as I could hear the rain when I was lying in bed.
Of course, it was actually ok when I headed out on my bike, the worst of the weather seemingly over.
I decided to stay local, deciding to go for a cycle along Bog Meadows.
This was somewhere I enjoy visiting but I hadn’t been for a while.
No particular reason. It was just that I was busy doing other walking and cycling routes.
I’d actually forgotten how much I enjoy visiting Bog Meadows.
By this point, the sun had come out, it was a lovely bright morning. I really could have done with that two days earlier when I was planning to walk up Blackmountain.
With it being a weekday morning, I had the place to myself.
While cycling about, I had an idea.
At some point over the Winter months, i’m going to attempt to get Sunrise or Sunset photos here.
It’s a walk I can actually walk to, which is handy.
There are a lot of places where you can get some nice photos, some good composition and framing, and you can make the most of a good sun.
Be warned, if it has rained recently, there will be puddles everywhere so bring your wellies.
Finding out where to take the best photos will be trial and error, probably more error.
Hopefully, it works out as well as this photo adventure.
Having really got into hillwalks during Lockdown, I now intend to attempt one everywhere I go.
I had been to Manchester many times, but I had never attempted one when visiting the city. It was time to remedy that.
In Manchester for three days, I had planned on going up on the Thursday morning, but dull skies and rain put an end to those plans. I needed the weather to be dry for this trip.
It didn’t look like that was going to happen as I got up on Friday morning.
As I went for a stroll around Manchester, the sun burst out, so I thought why not?
Unfortunately, the train from Manchester to Mossley is only once an hour. Not ideal.
Especially as I faffed about wandering around Oxford Road and missed the 10.55am training, meaning I had to wait until 11.55am until the next train.
My flight home was 8.15pm, so I still had plenty of time to work with.
Don’t worry about me, I had a copy of Metro to occupy me.
I wish we had Metro in Northern Ireland. I just love Rush Hour Crush.
Can people walk into Pret without getting horny?
So, where is Mossley?
Just twenty minutes from Manchester, sandwiched inbetween Manchester and Huddersfield.
I did my research beforehand in terms of directions.
Go past the football ground, then look for a pub called The Billy Goat.
I headed upwards from Mossley Train Station, then saw signage for the football ground, followed it.
Hartshead Pike isn’t the most signposted place in the world, I took a bit of a hunch to go up one street, and by fluke I found The Billy Goat.
The starting point for Hartshead Pike is in the Car Park of this pub.
Getting to the top isn’t particularly demanding, around half an hour.
Just walk up, turn left at the field, walk across a field, then turn right onto a road until you pass a white house and there you are.
When you get there, you get some spectacular views of Northern England, and it leads into more pathways such as Oldham Way.
It was definitely worth making the effort, an enjoyable trek.
As I had mentioned previously, I have been to Manchester so many times, it can be a bit samey, so it’s always good to try something different.
There are still plenty of more walks in Greater Manchester, so hit me up with suggestions.
I was beginning to regret missing the 10.55am train, or even being even more prepared and taking a gamble on good weather and getting the 9.55am train.
Even though I still had plenty of time before my flight, I would have loved to have had more time to explore to other walking routes when I reached Hartshead Pike.
I would definitely go back up if the opportunity presented itself when having some spare time on a trip to Old Trafford.
On the way down, I managed to slip when taking a photo, mastering the Down Dog position, and even managing to take a video of myself.
I did delete it, destroying the evidence. And no, I won’t be posting it here.
With Manchester to Mossley being a once an hour service, it was unsurprising that the return journey was only once an hour.
I walked into Mossley Train Station to see how long to wait until the next train to Manchester, there was a drunk woman, who was so drunk, she thought she worked for Network Rail and started giving me timetable and platform information. Very helpful.
It turned out I had over half an hour to kill, so I headed to The Gillery for a lite bite.
I’m not planning on becoming a Pub Reviewer, but I give this a thumbs up.
Just as I give Hartshead Pike a thumbs up, even if there is a sense of regret that I didn’t have time to explore more of it.
I hadn’t been in a while, so I thought i’d use a football free Saturday to make a long awaited return visit to Giant’s Ring, at Sunrise.
Ok, well, just after Sunrise.
With the recent wave of decent Sunrises and Sunsets, I thought i’d go for it and drag myself out of bed.
My last visit to Giant’s Ring wasn’t an enjoyable one, in June 2021.
It was very untidy and unkempt, stingy nettles all over the place.
Not particularly nice, especially when it was shorts weather.
Other walks took priority, but such a negative impression meant that Giant’s Ring never came into consideration.
Fifteen months on, I thought i’d give it another try.
Arriving as the sun was rising, I was straight out with my camera, getting shots as I made my way across the field towards the path that leads to Terrace Hill Garden.
My photos were added by having some light frost on the ground.
The good news is, that Sunrises are going to be later and later over the next few months, so there’s more chance of catching some more.
I did my usual route, starting off at Giant’s Ring, then to Terrace Hill Gardens, on to Minnowburn then finally through Edenderry back to Giant’s Ring.
As the sun had just risen, there was a lovely glow on the grass, making for perfect shooting conditions.
It might just be me, but I seem to enjoy Giant’s Ring more in the Winter.
At some point over the next few months, I intend to make a return visit, but in reverse, starting at Minnowburn then working my way to Giant’s Ring.
Ideally, this would be at Sunrise or Sunset. We shall see.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 