Be Happy ………… Manchester ….. 1979

With the passage of over 40 years I have no memory of who or what this group of clowns was doing in St Ann’s Place.

I didn’t ask, and they never said but I can remember thinking it was fun and I had to take some pictures.

Today I might be a little more circumspect at snapping strangers, but I rather think the older me would be bolder and would engage them in conversation.

But I didn’t and that is my loss.

Still I do have the images and remember the expressions of puzzlement on the faces of the passers-by.

Today, such scenes are far more common place, although they do tend to happen on Market Street, which given the large numbers of people makes sense.

They may have been from Drama Department of the Poly, but I don't know, and it would idle speculation to try and determine where they were from.

That said someone might recognise themselves.

We shall see.

Location; St Ann’s Place

Pictures; Be Happy, circa 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Strange goings on …… at Beech Road

Early morning can throw up surprises.

The sun was up and offered an opportunity for one of those “arty” images of a reflection of our house in the upstairs window of next door.

All was well until the cloud drifted across the scene slowly obliterating everything.

Now, I have friends who are novelists and who will be able to weave the arrival of that cloud of mist into a dark, mysterious tale which conjures up much from Mary Shelley, Edgar Alan Poe, and Dickens.

Me …. Well I will just report that at the moment I took the first picture, the boiler fired and the exhaust fumes hit the cold air and continued for a while.

And the rest as they say is a slow moving wisp of a thing.

Which reminds me of countless B movie Science Fiction where clouds drift in from the sea bringing death, destruction, and more than a few scenes of screams and disappearing walk on actors.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; That cloud, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When mannequins choose to hide …..

I like Bronwen’s picture.

She told me “It was taken in a well-known shopping street in Montreal!! This store window fascinated me, but we were hurrying along Rue Ste Catherine, a very popular shopping street, as we were searching out the mural to Leonard Cohen in Crescent Street Montreal”.

Well I hope they found Mr. Cohen, and I am rather pleased they passed the mannequins.

Location; Rue Ste Catherine, Montreal, 2022, from the collection of Bronwen Woods

Playing with time ……… silly really

Location; Beech Road

Picture; Playing with time, 2023 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

What’s been hiding in the blue bag? ……….. silly stories

It appeared in the early morning and was gone by midday.

Quite a few people were curious enough to look inside, but no one took it away with them, and then it was gone.

An abandoned sports kit?  A collection of unwanted shopping?  Alas I will never know.

But the railings in front of the Rec are home to heaps of discarded things, from coats, to toys, and even on occasion an empty champagne bottle, but then this is Beech Road.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; the blue bag, …… 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson