Destination: Telly Land: A Wander Around the Garden of Dreams

I like wandering around MediaCity, I figure it's good for the soul and since I live only a 15 minute walk away from the place, I haven't come up with a good excuse not to. Today was one of those days when I just wanted to go and stretch my legs but today I also had a very specific reason to take a trip to this most hallowed and wondrous place. On Thursday 23rd February (only four days ago), Princess Anne went to a very special function within the MediaCity complex. This wasn't just any function, this was the grand opening of the new Blue Peter Garden.

The Italian sunken garden complete with fish pond, sundial and the
hand, foot and pawprints of past presenters and pets

Unfortunately I was unable to get there on the day due to work commitments but I knew I couldn't put it off for long so today I trundled off with my camera to take some cheeky snaps of the northern incarnation of the garden of dreams. For those of you who don't know, the Blue Peter Garden had been set to move up to MediaCity along with the rest of BBC Children's ever since the BBC made the announcement that they were moving a whole load of departments to Salford. However, the logistics of how exactly they were going to relocate the garden obviously proved to be a bit of a challenge. At one point they were considering having a rooftop garden situated on top of The Studios building but it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago when the press release confirming that the garden was going to be in the Piazza, which is completely open to the public, was issued. Features from the original garden at Television Centre in London were transported to MediaCity including the Italian sunken garden, the statue of Petra (the first Blue Peter dog), the sundial, and the hand and footprints of past presenters - Lesley Judd, John Noakes and Simon Groom along with pawprints of past pets - Shep, Goldie, Jack and Jill and Fred the tortoise (although I'm not too sure if tortoises have paws as such).

As the garden is in a completely open space, obviously the question of how they are going to deter people from trashing the place was at the forefront of my mind but rest assured dear readers, there was a security guard watching over it when I got there, which was handy because I roped him into being my photographer's assistant) and he promised me that there will always be someone on duty standing next to it at all hours. Below are some photos I took to preserve the memory of the first time I visited my own personal Mecca. I'm sure there will be other occasions and I apologise for the lack of sunshine but hey, that's Manchester for you!