Red Ways

The Red Ways of Milton Keynes are a great help to the commuting cyclist. Red Ways are for use by pedestrians and cyclists. The tarmac is not really red, but defiantly a shade of pinky grey. There are also bridal ways for horses although not so many of these. The Red Ways typically run along side the road, but are almost always totally segregated. Wonderful. But they could have been better by simply labelling up the Red Ways with the name of the road it follows. As a newcomer to MK, I got totally lost on them. The problem is that they defiantly don’t always follow the road, and can disappear into a housing estate. Trying to find your way out and recover your direction is a matter of trial and error. That said, they are far better than anything in my home town area, Manchester. Imagine the Fallowfield Loop, but all over Manchester. The thorny question of how to get a push bike across a roundabout is totally solved by bridges for the use of pedestrians and cyclists. This type of infrastructure could not realistically be retrofitted to Manchester. But, all in all, a pretty good solution for Milton Keynes. 
     

A Red Way cycle route with bridal way alongside.

  

Here is a Red Way / Bridal way crossing.

Sunset

Sunset over Grange Farm, MK.

Grand Union Canal

The Grand Union Canal runs through Milton Keynes. I cycled over to it and along the tow path for a mile or two. In fact, the first time I ever came here was on a narrow boat on this very canal, many years ago now.

Stormy MK

Wow, did it rain!

These two lads in this video were so wet, it wasn’t worth them hurrying.

Shots from my apartment window.

Concrete Cows

Ah, here they are. Hiding in the MK shopping centre - the famous Milton Keynes Concrete Cows. I’d not seen these before even though I’ve been through the shopping centre a time or two. Observant as ever!

The placard says that the cows were once cynically said to symbolised that MK is all concrete and that it’s not true.

Rubbish, it is true. MK is the most concrete happy place I’ve ever seen! OK, second only to Skelmersdale. There are plenty of green bits, but they are practically all of a municipal park style. Virtually nothing natural or wild. It’s not awful, just boring and predictable. Still, I quite like these concrete cows, they’re funny, and I have to say, these are not predictable.

I don’t think anyone from MK has seen this blog, if they had, I’d have been told off by now.

Nut & Squirrel

Good exercise!

Cycled all the way to this strange building, what ever it is.

A sculpture

What a laze blogger.

There was a placard below it, but I didn’t read it. Thought I’d get lots of better pictures. I didn’t. So, it’s just a sculpture.
My English teacher, Mrs P Schofield of Uppermill Secondary Modern, would have written, “Must do better”. And she’d be right.
Taken in the square infront of the station, again.

Ronald Rae

O. Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast

Handcarved Scottish granite

1984



Inspired by a poem by Robert Burns



‘O, wert thou in the cauld blast

On yonder lea, on yonder lea

My plaidie to the angry airt,

I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee,

Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms

Around thee blow around thee blaw,

Thy birld should be my bosom,

To share in a’ to share it a’

Purchased by the Commission for the New Towns


...


Well, I think that’s what it say’s.

Midsummer Boulevard

So here we are. A view down Midsummer Boulevard, in the centre of Milton Keynes.

In this picture is a boring office, a Chinese Restaurant, a pub, and a hotel and another boring office.

But can you find them all?

Corporate Milton Keynes

Well I was going to try and jazz the picture up a little. Perhaps loose the stray flag on the left, but my new Photoshop Elements has gone on strike. All the tools have just stopped working. All looks well, but nothing functions. Very frustrating.

Oh the picture is from the main square in front of the Central train station.

Milton Keynes

Another enforced blogging layoff. My excuse, well I’ve moved to Milton Keynes, following a new contract.

It took ages to get the new broadband connected, also I was a bit lazy with sorting it all out.

I might struggle to get interesting pictures, as much of MK looks like any other bit. There are some exceptions, but it’s certainly not anywhere near as diverse as the Manchester area.

So first things first. These pics are of my new apartment in Milton Keynes.