Yesterday we went to Manchester on a ‘study tour’ of local painter, L.S. Lowry. We met with a friend for lunch at The Lowry, then went into a gallery to see his paintings. We were fortunate to be at the right time for an excellent talk on his life and career as an artist.

The movie was in a cinema complex nearby, with comfortable lounge chairs, we girls put our feet up and fought going to sleep, and gorgeous screen and surround sound. Of course, the sound was too loud, but only during the adverts, not during the film.

The film is based on a stage play and set mainly in Lowry’s mother’s bedroom. He was her carer for many years and the plot explores the complexities of the toxic relationship. Mrs Lowry and son.

I suggest that if you want to enjoy the movie it is best to do some research on his paintings and career as the movie only gives a glimpse of his long life. We had thought that we should see the movie first, then do the gallery, but afterwards agreed that we did it the right way round.

We went to a very modern part of the city which looked particularly bleak on a grey day. There is some beautiful architecture in other parts of the city which we saw on our tram rides.

We ordered large coffees at afternoon tea, but were surprised at how very, very large they were. Eversley agreed to having her photo taken with the cup.

All in all, a great day, with lots of time to catch up with our friend.

The top photo was taken well after sunset at the front of our house. We have power lines aplenty in our view over the valley, it doesn’t spoil it when you are here.

We went for a walk along the road and down the hill to the Hinchcliffe Arms, then up the hill to a reservoir. We hadn’t mean to do a long walk, but the promise of something to see keep us going. Setting off at about 4.30 and arriving home at 7.00 we felt that we had really had a workout, especially as the last part of the walk was uphill.

We had lunch at a cafe, then did some shopping at the Co-op earlier in the day.