A Good Friday Adventure

With Easter being this weekend, the last day of school this week was Thursday. This means having a free friday! After sleeping half the day away, I decided this was an excellent opportunity to get out, get some sun and explore. I went to Saltaire. I have to say, I was surprised at how many places were open today considering it is a bank holiday.

I've been there once before. I was only my way back from Skipton in January. It was all snowy and gross. To be honest, I didn't really like Saltaire when I was there the first time. I took the train (which I do like) but you don't get to see much when on the train in Bradford. So this time I took the bus. The weather was sunny, the temperature was fairly warm compared to what it has been lately. All in all, it was a good trip and a good day.

Off for a walk!

I spent the first hour just wandering about random streets enjoying the nice weather. I took a little walk in Robert's park and even saw some early spring flowers starting to make their way into being a colourful part of the world.

Evidence that it is Spring!

River in Saltaire

 Once bored of being outside I headed in to see what Salts Mills had to offer. I was aware that there was a book store in there, but I didn't really explore inside last time. Turns out there is a lot more. I spent a good portion of time in the book store area. The I found several books that I was very tempted to get. The book I really wanted was a knitting book. The Big Book of Knitting is quite thick, very heavy and full of absolutely gorgeous full colour glossy pages with instructions and information. I want it so much. It is a beautiful work of art about knitting. I didn't get it though, because even though I wanted it, and the price wasn't all that bad it is far too heavy to take back to Canada with me, whenever I go. I think that also, it would be too much of a shame for me to leave something like this behind when I move too. Therefore I shall forego owning it until I am more settled in the world.

 There was a section in the store that was on grammar, writing and literature. I even found a book on literary theory. I picked it, read the front and back covers and seriously thought that I should buy and read it. The crazy thing is that literary theory and criticism was the bane of my existence in second year of university. It was hard (not challenging), confusing and incredibly frustrating. It was like reading hundreds of pages of nonsense that was important for me to know about. But now that I'm done university (still have the books from that horrible course) I'm looking at a book on the exact same topic and considering buying it? I must have lost my mind.

Cool giant hook centred over one of the book tables. I assume it is a leftover from the original mill (trying to create ambiance) 

 In addition to the book store, I found a shop with things for the home. It is really a very gorgeous shop. There are a lot of really quirky things in it as well as kitchen gadgets, furniture and other things. My favourite thing that I saw in this shop was the teddy bear banks. The sign encourages people to stop saving their money in old fashioned piggy banks but instead be more modern and use a bear bank. I like that they were decorated in fun colourful designs. There were mini bear banks on the other side of the display, but I thought the full size ones were cuter.

"Off-side coat rack" for all those football fans. 

 In another area of the building is a gallery that has watercolour paintings of scenes in Saltaire. Some of them even depict Sir Titus Salt, the founder of Saltaire.

Here are a few snapshots of the history exhibit that was in the gallery just off of the one with the paintings. They have some interesting facts in them and some scary ones....no main drainage until 1863? No wonder lifespans were short and there was a lot of disease!

 There are two things that I like about this second snapshot. One: "the squalor and filth of Bradford" is a very flattering way of saying that Bradford was a really terrible place to live (locals no use a more colourful term that I won't put in writing). Two: "The bowl of Bradford was not the living embodiment of Blake's "Dark satanic mills!" Again, very flattering isn't it? Yup, this is where I live. These descriptions do not fit Bradford now, however I wouldn't have wanted to have been about in the 1850s since it sounds pretty disgusting and terrible.

Beyond the historical gallery, there was an antiques shop. It had a lot of interesting things in it. There was also a lot of what I thought was junk. I guess though there is always that saying that one man's junk is another man's treasure. There were some neat pieces of furniture, some very nice and unique jewelry and some cool looking pottery. I also saw an coat stand. I had to take a picture of it. I really liked it. It's one of those things that I look at and think "some day when I have a house or a place that is mine permanently then I'll have a coat stand just like this."

Check it out, a giant chair! The seat of the chair was at my eye-level. 

 Now naturally, as a part of the textile industry, the mill would need to have a tribute not just to its history, but also to the industry. On this wall is a mural collection that depicts the journey that wool goes through from fibre to fabric. It's quite neat. I don't think that the pictures do the art work justice, but you get the general idea of what is going on.

Post Salts Mills I decided that it was getting late and I needed some tea. So I stopped in at the Victoria Tea Rooms.  It's a cute little place. It's now on my places to return to. It was fairly quiet when I went since it was the end of the afternoon and they were soon to be closing. It has a really nice atmosphere, calm, cheerful and warm. I had tea and a slice of chocolate fudge cake. It was really good. The cake was very fudgey and rich and the tea was warm and perfect. 

Well that's it for today's adventure of exploring really. I have to say, taking the bus to Saltaire definitely allows you to see more of the Bradford countryside and the layout of the area. In this instance, I preferred the bus to the train. With the better weather, and the lack of snow, I much enjoyed Saltaire. Its a niice place to go for a relaxing afternoon outside or just wandering about. 

Reruns of life

After some fairly inactive months in which my focus was in the wrong place, I'm now focusing on me. With this comes the importance of my health. All around health is important, and I think that I forgot that for a little while. You can't choose your family unless you're adopting family members, but you can choose your friends and choosing the wrong ones is a waste of time. It is important to choose them wisely, rather than settling for the first people you meet. With this realisation comes the inclination to return to the positive decision I made almost a year ago: get more active and get outside.

So, the running has once again begun. I must say, since I have begun running again I feel much better all around. The fresh air does me good, and the exercise does as well. There is definitely no reason for me not to continue running. While out today, I was thinking about when I stopped running in the fall. I know that a big part of it was connected to how I was feeling when I came down with a really bad cold. Then once I moved into the busiest part of town I didn't have a route that wasn't full of people. I could go on, and then point out that as time passed and winter started, it was just too cold. Realistically though, winter here is not that cold. Most of the time there was no snow or ice on the group on the weekends. I could have easily gone running every Saturday or Sunday, but I didn't because I was focusing on the wrong things.

 I've gone three weeks in a row and I'm extremely proud of myself. I haven't settled on a route yet, but going for a run Saturday morning is a great way to explore parts of town that I haven't discovered yet. Running here is a lot like running back home. There are hills just everywhere here. In fact, so far I'm finding that if you want to do a 5k run without having to run in tiny circular routes several times during one run, then you can not avoid hills. I think that I'm in better shape now for it. I'm almost seeking out hills in order to push myself harder.

Speaking of being in better shape, I was in better shape than I thought I would be. My first weekend back into running I thought would be hard, really hard. But it actually wasn't so bad. I managed to run in intervals of ten and one (one being the walking). I couldn't believe it! I was incredibly impressed and it is a really great feeling to know that after almost six months of not running that I was able to just back into the activity without an excessive amount of difficulty.

A happy discovery on today's run.

The man himself: Mr. Lister 

                                         

Must be spring, the daffodils and crocuses are starting to grow!

View from where I entered the park. 

Today on my run, I became a bit sad as I was running up a hill. This was a fairly steep hill and it reminded me of some of the hills that I used to run in back home. Following the train of thought, then I started to miss my favourite park to run in back home. After I reached the top of the hill I was pleasantly surprised. Across the street from where I stood was a park. It was a decent size and I decided to explore it. There are different areas in this park, including a botanical gardens and an art gallery. There is also a sports section to the park but I found that bit less interesting. I decided to run through the botanical gardens since the idea of it reminded me of my grandparents.

Botanical garden's waterfall. 

Pathway in Lister Park. Great place to run.

Even though it's just the beginning of spring here, and the weather has been quite dreary, I found the gardens quite beautiful. The park was beautiful in fact. After leaving the gardens, I discovered that this park also as an Art Gallery. Out front of this gallery there is a giant rabbit and another sculpture as well. I am not too sure that the other giant sculpture was. But it was quite large.

Art gallery inside this random park. Well I know that the park was planned and not random, it's only since I didn't know that the park was there that I think it is random. 

Giant rabbit sculpture

Piece of art outside the art gallery. 

The art gallery wasn't open when I was there this morning. It doesn't open until 11 on Saturdays. I didn't feel like standing around waiting for the gallery to open, so I will have to go back at another time to see the gallery.

Now I know this park is there, I may make it part of my running route. Yet, on the other hand, I have been enjoying discovering a new route each week. Only time will tell.