Girl In The Pretty Dress

Last weekend I visited Manchester Art Gallery - one of my favourite places in Manchester. It's not particularly big or prominent (as art galleries go) but it's well worth a visit. The 'Vogue 100' exhibition recently transferred here from the National Portrait Gallery and I wanted to take a look. Vogue is synonymous with fashion but I didn't realise the scale of artistic influence in it's pages until I saw this exhibition. It was fascinating to wander back through the decades and see the work of some of the greatest artists and photographers lifted from it's pages. Sadly photographs were prohibited within the exhibition - so you'll just have to visit it for yourself to see what I mean. (Entry is free.) If you're not in the area, don't worry... you can see much of Vogue's centenary celebrations online. Including it's back catalogue of covers here . I hadn't planned on seeing much else while I was there - but I was directed out o...

A couple of weeks ago I put my National Trust membership to use again and visited Dunham Massey . I'd never been before and I'm so glad I got to see it. The parkland and garden are just wonderful on a summer's day and the house is hosting an interesting exhibition on how it was used as a hospital during the First World War. I didn't spend too much time indoors however, as there's so much to see on the outside. Each of the blocks is inscribed with a patient number representing one  of the  men treated here during the First World War.