Pineapples, bins and sulking parrots

I decided to join a walking tour of Manchester this morning. It covered the street art and history of the Northern Quarter, a place I know well. It was nice to just go along on my own instead of ‘hosting’ the event for one of my groups. I met a lovely lady who arrived from Australia the day before and had a lovely chat with her as we walked around.

Within the first 15 minutes, I saw things I’d never seen before - even though I now look up more often, obviously just not in the right places.

There’s a huge pineapple in the Art Gallery but I’ve never seen its partner on top of a building. Apparently a sign of wealth, people used to hire a pineapple and place it on their table when hosting a dinner party to show how rich they were - and then return it after the party.

The rubbish bins made me smile.

We went to a mosaic that replicates the outline of an old cottage. The mosaic contains buttons, lace and jute imprints, reference to the river Tib and animals that were all sold in the pet shops of the area. Old letters had been found in the pet shop which were incorporated into the tiles. One related to the purchase of a tiger, and another from 1920 reads “Macaw arrived but I find it has only one eye and it has also an imperfect wing so could not keep it under such conditions, so if you would be as kind as to exchange it for either of the other parrots, the Amazon preferred, I would pay carriage both ways. Or if you have sold them, the dog …’ 

I will save the sulking parrots and blip them another day :).

Quote for today:
Be a pineapple: stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside.
- Unknown