Bartimaeus

My first job for the day was to continue the hunt for winter gloves.  I found that there were two bike shops and an outdoor shop on Deansgate, so I headed off in the sunshine after breakfast.  I was too early for the bike shops, but struck a rich seam of winter gloves in the outdoor shop.  The ones I bought might be suitable for cycling, but they are certainly fine for helming – waterproof, insulated and with padded palms.

Before we set off we topped up the water again.  It is usually easy to get water, but it is also easy to forget you need to, so setting off from a water point without filling up is usually a poor idea.  Today’s weather was very pleasant for October.  There was bright sun and hardly any wind.  When we came the other way along this stretch of canal in August we both got cold and damp – not today.

As we came out of the centre of Manchester the graffiti thinned out.  One picture was strongly reminiscent of something I saw at the gallery yesterday. It was painted on the back of a boring green box, and the eyebrows were some sort of vent.

We stopped for lunch between Sale and Altringham.  I sat in the front cockpit basking in the sun for an online chat with retired colleagues.  The trams on the other side of the canal were surprisingly frequent and noisy, but the conversation flowed anyway. I had to go back inside to finish the call because I couldn’t see the screen in the sunshine.

We moved on in the warmth, pausing for a discount supermarket shop (other discount supermarkets are available) in Altringham.  As we moored up near Dunham Massey, in a tranquil spot with woods all around, I could see insects dancing up and down in the sunlight under the trees.  We went for a short walk before dark, including a quick preview of the park – even though the sign said it was shut for the day.

There was further confirmation that today is more like August than August when I found a cadis fly on the bedroom curtains as I was closing them.