Northern Eye 11 - Thomond on Thursday with his choice of Guardian pictures from England's better half

Early Spring ploughing this week near Rostherne in Cheshire
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for theGuardian

Greenpeace protesters set up a fake gas fracking rig outside the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne's constituency office in Knutsford, Cheshire - close to the heath where Martin Bell and the disgraced Conservative MP Neil Hamilton confronted one another in 1997
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

The imaginative protest included a solar-powered matrix board which broadcast messages and Tweets in support, while petrol-heavy 4x4s trundled past. One of the UK's only two showrooms for the luxury McLaren sports car also faces the Conservative HQ. Several exploration licences for potential gas-fracking have been granted in George Osborne's Tatton constituency
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A point simply made by slinging a hi-viz jacket over the sign for Gaskell Avenue. The protesters also put up fake signs on the nearby roundabout, saying that its flowerbed was sponsored by 'Frack & Go Ltd'. You can read more from the Guardian in the north here.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Inspector Tim Newton from Lancashire police out in Blackpool town centre, in the week that a report from medical charities called for changes in the minimum price of alcohol and a limit on marketing. You can read more about this from the Guardian in the north here.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

The new Costa Coffee branch at Mapperley, Nottingham, where 1700 people applied for eight jobs. You can read more from the Guardian here.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Inside the Mapperley Costa
Photograph: Christopher Thomond from the Guardian

Eight full and part-time coffee serving jobs attracted 1700 people who wanted to don barista blouses
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

The pieces 'Water' and 'Fire' from Yinka Shonibare's newly-opened Fabric-ation exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Read more here
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Wind sculptures from Yoki Shonibare's new exhibition reflected in the windows of the Bothy Gallery at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Professor Alan Spears packs up his kit at the end of a day's fishing on Ladybower Reservoir near Sheffield
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Local angler Ed Hodgson fishing on the first day of the trout season at Ladybower reservoir near Sheffield
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Andrea Duggan at home in Yorkshire with her son Vinny who suffered brain damage after medical errors at Doncaster Royal Infirmary in 2010
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for theGuardian