Sun Day

The usual response when I tell people that I live/work in Cheshire is 'ooooh, posh!' or 'ooooh, with the footballers?', something along those lines. Just to clarify, I am neither rich nor a WAG. I did, as it happens, spend Saturday afternoon drinking in the sunny garden of an Alderley Edge pub whilst Ferraris and Bentleys drove by, but this is far from typical behaviour. I am just a poor imposter who likes to people watch.

Really, I think that Cheshire has a bit of a bad rep. Sure, there are footballers, mansions, fast cars, people with more money than taste and all that nouveau-riche tossery. But there is also a lot of beautiful, peaceful countryside that surrounds it all.

So yesterday, in search of something better, I went exploring Bosley Cloud (something I've been meaning to do for the last nine months!) It is 1,125ft hill on the borders of Cheshire and Staffordshire and gives 360° views of green fields, lakes and distant towns. Manchester appears just a little geographic anomaly on the horizon and for once I didn't resent feeling a million miles away from the city.

The landscape on this one hill is so varied; from the steep rocky climb up there (aptly called the 'Gritstone trail') through dense, scorched bracken that gave me that feeling of being somewhere foreign - whilst only being 30 minutes from home - and creepy woodland full of dead and disembodied trees, to flowery meadows that bring you right back to where you started out... and through which I was convinced to 'frolic' for photographic opportunities (see below).

All in all a lovely day and a welcome escape from the usual day-to-day grind of work/commute/sleep/repeat. Isn't it funny how everything looks sort of happier in the sun?