As you probably know by now, I like to get my evening miles in Manchester by wandering around town and walking home. Well, it was from media City to town in the summer months and now it is from town to home. This is mainly due to lighting.
Are you finding it a challenge to get outside?
If you’re like most of the people who I speak to, you might be finding it a bit of a challenge to get outside. Whether it is because it is too cold, dark, wet or windy. There really isn’t an excuse I haven’t heard. I want to share my wanders and tips to help inspire you to get outside more and not only when you have to – like going to work!
Walking instead of waiting
The other evening I walked to the bus stop to head into town to meet Jit. Our buses have been pretty unreliable recently and sometimes my 15 minute journey has taken well over an hour including waiting time. So when it didn’t show up, I started walking towards town.
If you’re anything like me, standing around is not only boring, it gets cold very quickly. I find that the standing and waiting for the bus and listening to everyone complaining about it does nothing for my feel good factor. So my solution is to get walking. Not only will you warm up, you’ll have the head space to think of better things than whinging about the state of the bus services and honestly, you’ll probably beat the bus and feel good for it too.
This was exactly how i started out my evening miles in Manchester the other night. I even beat the bus, which made me feel rather chuffed to say the least!
Seeing the beauty
Seeing where you live at different times of the day and night can help you to see beauty that you never noticed before. I always enjoy the huge gas drums for some reason – I think it is the engineering and strangely beautiful appearance – and seeing them at dusk just really changes the look of them. You know what? I’m not the only one either, the day after I took the picture I found that a fellow Instagrammer @Dunsontherun likes them too and shared a very similar picture!
Street lights and setting sun
Although I am not keen on the light pollution from a lot of the street lights, I do enjoy the warm glow that seems to enhance the setting sun in the sky. That warm amber hue that makes everything seem so different to when you see it in daylight. Kind of magical, I think. And at this time of year it actually matches the colour of the leaves.
Which reminds me – if you’re not already taking part, I run a free Weekly Photowalk Challenge to encourage you to get outside and explore while grabbing a photo or two to match the weekly theme. Find out more here – the theme this week is leaves so you’re going to have to be fast as they are disappearing fast!
My evening miles take me through Ancoats and past the marina. For so long I have been trying to get a nice picture of the unusual street lights down by the Marina which I finally managed to get – well, not quite what I wanted, but nice all the same!
New Islington Marina to Great Ancoats Street
Most mornings when we are getting in our early morning miles, we tend to wander through the marina, so getting to see it in the dark is lovely. Even the most colourful of boats seem to blend in and the new buildings beam from afar. I’m always impressed how long the constructions workers are on site there (my friends on the Marina are too – but for other reason!)
Looking Up
When I am out on my wanders I can’t help but notice, especially in the evenings with the glowing faces, how many people are looking down engrossed in the digital world that their phone provides. My other tip for enjoying getting out and about more is to have some tech free time. Put your phone away (on silent) and to spend your time looking up for a change. Exchanging smiles with the other people wandering and checking out the things that you normally miss – just look at this tucked away beside Primark!
Putting my phone down
It may seem that I have my phone handy for my whole walk, but I do pop it away and only take pictures of the things that I want to add here or spot that is new or different. It is a fun way to record my walk. One thing I don’t do is answer calls, check my social media or emails. The time for my wander is for taking time out, getting fresh air and enjoy the company and connection I have i.e. chatting to Jit or making new friends.
The walk home
We like to change things around for our route home so that we don’t tire of it. One thing I have realised is that if we do the same thing over and over, we are likely to become bored and fed up with it – making it a chore to do. So breaking up your walk, taking different routes and looking for different things (like in the photowalk challenge) does shake things up enough to make them interesting and have you carry on.
I’ll leave you today with the final picture of my walk, which I took for posterity really. It is land that we once knew with houses, then with just grass and will soon be houses again.
Enjoying what you have now is one of the most important things – keep your eyes open, look up and get outside! You’ll thank yourself for it!
What would encourage you to get out more often?
Let me know in the comments below 🙂
