Cherry Blossom...

We were out and about on Good Friday enjoying the time off and the warm sunshine. It's not often that the sun decides to join the party. The pink cherry blossom in Sackville Gardens looked wonderful against the blue of the sky and the red brick of the Victorian buildings around the little park. The blousy, pink blossom looks beautiful but there is no perfume and the flowers are infertile and cannot be fertilised so there won't be any cherries later in the year.

Few people sitting in this park will know that this area was once Manchester's original port. The Rochdale Canal passes by along Manchester's famous Canal Street. Where the gardens are now and the college beyond, there used to be wharfs where the canal boats would drop off raw materials and collect finished goods. Eventually the port was moved to where Salford Quays is today and the railways made the canal system redundant until it found a new lease of life as a leisure destination in our own times.

The wharfs were filled in to build the Victorian college and these gardens were created to show off the stunning university buildings across Whitworth Street.

Even the docks at Salford Quays closed but there are serious plans to create a new port along the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal again with goods being shipped up the canal again instead of blocking the M56 and M62.