Breathing   S  p  a  c  e  s

What a privilege to hear Jason Minsky talking the other day about some of his projects including Pick Your Own. Jason was artist in residence at The Greenroom a few years ago (before the sad closure of that Manchester institution, a place of experiment and innovation in art and theatre) During the Greenroom residency, Jason carried out a survey of green spaces in the city centre. Manchesters suburbs are blessed with numerous parks and gardens, but the centre of the city has p

Yesterday saw the opening of Brian C's exhibition in St Luke's Church, Longsight. A series of twelve artworks of Churches, Houses and Transport that Brian has been working on in St Luke's Art Project. Well done Brian - it looks absolutely fantastic! The exhbition can be seen by arrangement on Tuesday afternoons - call 07767356302

How fleeting are the blossoms and seasons changing... On the first of May we walked down to Ardwick Green to see the cherry blossom (see our previous blog post and featured partnerhsip workshop: It was cold and windy but beautiful to see the blossoms in their full bloom, everyone felt uplifted and enthused by our walk. One week later on the 8th of May most of the blossoms had fallen into a carpet beneath the trees, it was windy and wet and people voted not to walk out in the

We have really enjoyed a couple of Mindful Marks workshops with Naomi - this is definitely one of Manchester's precious quiet spaces and well worth taking part in - a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Here is the information: "Mindful Marks is a Wellbeing workshop inspired by mindfulness and drawing techniques, it has been running for three years at Manchester Art Gallery. The workshop gives you the opportunity to take time out of your day to enjoy noticing different mu

The BBC Radio 3 Slow Radio broadcast of Nightingales responding to six soloist muscians played on Monday early morning this week is now available to listen again: Click here for the program As part of the same slow radio series you can also take part in their quiz to see which bird song you can recognise - click here to test your knowledge Listening to this Nightingales responding to musicians in Surrey also put me in mind of one of the first ever field recordings of wildlife

"This global event began in 1984 when wildlife enthusiast and local broadcaster Chris Baines, decided to celebrate his birthday by inviting friends and family to listen to wildlife wake up with him at Moseley Bog. The event grew and was promoted by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, where Chris Baines was Vice-President. The annual event now takes place on the first Sunday of May and hundreds of events are organised around the world." Now people across t

Wrapped up warm and walking briskly we set off from St Lukes Church in Ardwick and walked down the Stockport Rd to visit the Cherry Blossom at Ardwcik Green, Certainly a good hour spent appreciating the little oasis in the approach into Manchester City Centre. Once a private garden for residents, Ardwick Green is a restored and well used green public space. We came back with our spirits soaring and ready for Carol's hot dinner! Please click HERE to see the full post in our Pa

Check this out - tonnes of interesting research, posts and images: http://www.mappingedges.org Image: Rae Story

This Sunday is the first Sunday in May, in recent years this has been the date for International Dawn Chorus Day As part of Mapping Manchester's Quiet Spaces we have organised a Dawn Chorus event this Sunday 6th May, so watch this space for reports of what we get up to! Many people aren't able to get up and join us at such a time on a Sunday morning - so one option is to set an alarm for about 4am and get up, open your bedroom window and then go back to bed and from the comfo