A summers day in the summer house

A summers day in the summer house

cats crafty stuff enjoy garden

Hello. Thank you all for your questions yesterday, it certainly gave me something to blog about didn't it, ha ha. Today has been a laid back kind of day. After taking Bailey dog for a walk this morning, I spent the afternoon in the summer house. It was lovely and hot, I think summer has arrived. Some stitching was done. 

There isn't much in here at the moment, a table and a chair, and this vase on a stand with artificial flowers and monkey puzzle tree pieces in it.

Three mugs and a cat ornament on the shelf. A bit of dusting is needed to remove the cobwebs, and the glass in the doors needs cleaning to spruce it up a bit. The roof hasn't leaked it's all dry inside despite the gaps in the walls.

Heidi cat is doing a bit of sunbathing on the shelf in the corner.

Another portion of soup made from the rest of the cauliflower leaves, with frozen peas and frozen spinach added. I put in half a teaspoon of curry powder to give it a bit of a zing. 

Someone asked about stick blenders. This is mine, I got it from Tesco with my points vouchers. It's very sturdy and robust, I've had it a few years and it's great.

I'm off to bed now, I took some books out of the library yesterday so I have plenty of reading matter. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Homebird

Homebird

cats chitter chatter enjoy

Hello. What a change in the weather again, no two days the same. Damp and drizzly and overcast. I did the Jade dog walk this morning, and was glad to get back into my comfortable house. After lunch I finished off the six bags I started the other day. The fabric is not bright and jazzy, but when I saw it at the Scrapstore I thought that will do nicely for bags. 

I was thinking the other day that I haven't been out in the evening for ages, except for the WI talk I did the other night. Can't remember the last time I got my glad rags on and painted the town red. I think town centres are to be avoided at night, they seem to be geared up for boozy youngsters partying. I am too old for that sort of thing. My social life is virtually nil.

I shall be going out next Saturday night however, been invited to a birthday party at a pub in the next village. My good friend Helen is celebrating her 50th, it will make a nice change. I won't be stopping long though, about an hour will be fine. There is a band and as you know I can't cope with noise, I also won't drink, have to drive home. 

Nope, not much socializing happening here at the moment. My nights are spent in my comfortable living room, on my super comfortable second hand sofa, the whole suite cost me all of £50 from my friend who emigrated. A brilliant buy. Reading a book, listening to the radio, or watching something on yooootoooob, just me and my kitties. Trouble is, I put my feet up, and it doesn't take long for me to drop off to sleep. Reading always makes me drowsy. 

Bugsy has a choice of dinner as usual. Now what shall I eat first, Felix or Gourmet Gold. A quick lick of both and he goes for the milk. It's a good job he has, I've ground the tablet to a powder and mixed it in. I started by giving him the tablet whole but it was so stressful for both of us, it's easier to dissolve it in a drink. You should have seen him earlier on today, he scoffed every bit of his food. I reckon I will come downstairs in the morning and most of this will be gone. Only two more tablets left for tomorrow, then we'll see how he goes on after his medication has finished.

Right, time for relaxing on the sofa. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon
Toodle pip.

More Hull City of Culture 2017

More Hull City of Culture 2017

amazing arty stuff enjoy

Hello. A few more pics of my visit to Hull on Thursday. The main attraction was the amazing light show in Queen Victoria Square. I saved this experience for last. Glad I did, because a lot of people were heading out to The Deep when I was coming back into the centre of the city. 

The three main buildings were the screens for this epic show. They all had the same images and sound playing simultaneously, so no matter which way you were facing you didn't miss any of it. The story of the last 70 years of Hull's history was played out in fabulous sight and sound panoramic views. I stood facing the Maritime Museum. As well as spectacular it was also very emotional to watch. 

A shame that part of HULL was missing in the doorway of the building.

By the time I had watched this I was shivering with cold and thought it best to make tracks for the bus station. I would have liked to see it on one of the other buildings but I was cold, and there was an hour in between bus times. I caught the 6.25pm bus. It was busy with passengers from the South Bank all making their way home.

If you want to watch the whole show, it's here on yoootooob, thanks to Adam Reeve's excellent video. Thanks to Lesley for sending me the link. Put it on full screen, it's very emotional.



I must get on. Dog to walk. Thank you for popping in. Have a nice weekend. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Hull City of Culture.

Hull City of Culture.

amazing arty stuff enjoy

Hello and good morning. I enjoyed my visit to the Hull City of Culture light show yesterday. Even with a huge hoody parka jacket on it was bloomin cold. I drove to the next village where I caught the bus, easiest way to get there, no looking for car parks and no Humber Bridge toll to pay. There seemed to be more passengers than normal, so the journey took a bit longer with all the stopping and starting. Everyone had the same idea, lots of people from the South Bank, using their bus passes to have a free couple of hours entertainment. 

At the bus station there were volunteers in their distinctive blue uniforms to hand out leaflets with maps, showing where all the attractions were. I set off crossing the busy Ferensway and went down Jameson Street to Queen Victoria Square. This is where the big light shows take place. I was too early as it was still light, so I carried on down Whitefriargate. There were a few shop windows to look at which had been filled with relics from the past, a trip down memory lane. 

Along the route I came across some people left over from the Sea of Hull a blue art instillation which was photographed last year. You may remember I wrote about hundreds of volunteers who had stripped off and were painted blue. 

Along the way I walked across the new Footbridge. I quite liked this cloud formation which reflected a red sun going down.

Arriving at The Deep I was lucky enough to get a shot of this amazing sky just as the sun was dropping down below the horizon.

Opposite The Deep was a building loaded up with a bank of high powered projectors waiting for the sky to darken enough to allow the show to begin. All around were Lots of speakers which would tell the story of how people from all over the world  made the journey to Hull.  

This is The Deep, my picture from a previous visit. It's one of Britain's biggest aquariums. As you can see a perfect canvas for a light show. At the top of the pointy bit were spotlights reaching up into the dark sky.

I took lots of snaps, but discarded a lot of them. Here are a few of the best.

The story starts in 1800 and goes through to the present day, depicting who came to Hull, how they arrived here, and where they came from. It was fascinating. It was on a loop, I watched it twice. It's a shame that the tide was out and there wasn't very much water in the channel below. The reflections would have been a whole lot better.

I looked to the side and got this pic of the tidal barrier. Love the light reflections in the deep mud.

Now to cheat. Adam Reeve has done a very good video, it's on yooooyooob. It's 13 minutes long, with sound, well worth a look, and the tide is in.



There are too many photo's for one post, so I'll put more on tomorrow. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

A day out at the Festival of Thrift.

A day out at the Festival of Thrift.

crafty stuff enjoy free holidays/days out recycle reuse Scrapstore

Hello. Yes, I was in Redcar yesterday for the Festival of Thrift. Apologies to those who live not far from the site, Cherie and Brenda and anyone else up in the north east, but I did not make up my mind to go until 10pm on Saturday night so there wasn't time to make arrangements. I had been mulling it over for a few days, ever since I saw Max tweeting about it. I considered making it into a two or three day jaunt but was undecided. 

Then I had a closer look at the festival web site and thought a lot of the activities and entertainment was geared up for children and families. Also advertised was food, workshops, films, talks, and shopping, none of which I am particularly interested in. The only things that did interest me was the arts and crafts and the upcycling, not really enough to warrant the time, effort, and cost to get there and back. 

However, when the tweets started coming in after the first day, with reports in the local media, I thought I might give it a whirl. My Saturday was a bit boring so I thought perhaps I ought to get up off my backside and just do it.. 

The event practically took over the whole village of Kirkleatham. When I arrived at 11.15am the road was blocked by a massive queue to get in the car park. It crawled along at a snails pace. I was not best pleased after driving almost two hours. The road to the main entrance was closed to all except disabled and trades people, so I followed the signs straight on for the car park. Just as we were coming to a roundabout I could see the queue stretching a long way into the distance, I hate queuing. Just off the roundabout to the left is a Business Park, and being a Sunday no one would be working so I thought why not park there. Good move, others had the same idea. It was a few minutes walk back along the road to the entrance. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded paying £5 to park, but I wasn't going to sit in that queue. 

The event practically took over the whole village of Kirkleatham, it was spread out over several fields, and there were stalls and suchlike inside the Museum buildings as well. It took me a while to Find Max McMurdo next to the big green Gumtree bus. Those of you who saw Shed of the Year will remember him as being one of the judges. His face regularly comes up on the TV as inventor and upcycler on other programmes. Max has a book out, his first upcycling book and it appears to be very popular amongst thrifty people. If you want to have a butchers at it, click on this Amazon link. No I am not getting a cut in sales, I just think he is a thoroughly nice guy who works very hard. 

With a steady stream of visitors waiting to speak to Max, I hovered for a few minutes and watched him dish out his words of wisdom to enthusiastic upcyclers. 

That was tempting, the weather was hot and I could have murdered a pint of cider, but knowing that I had to drive home I supped the watered down apple juice in my bottle brought from home.

There was much to see and do. The solar powered cinema was closed for lunch, and as I didn't fancy being squeezed into a box with other sweaty people I decided to give it a miss. Nice idea though.

Lots of wood about. Two owls for sale, can't remember how much they were though.

There were stalls with all kinds of craftwork. Blocks of wood with letters carved into them, £6 per letter. I did think of getting my name but I am much too tight to part with £30 on an impulse buy.

In the stable block there were artworks from local artists. I must say though that there was only one which looked interesting. One stable had nothing in and was lit up with a coloured light. Another had a moving film of horse racing projected onto the wall with a makeshift steeple chasing jump built of branches in front of it. And two others were empty. It was a bit gloomy in there, with not much to look at. 

There was a little courtyard with vintage camper vans, which was nice.

This one was for sale, 7,000 quid if you are interested. Looks fully restored on the outside but you will have to put your own innards into it. Mind you, thinking about it, it has an 02 number plate so it could be a kit car built from scratch.

Lots of vintage stalls to browse. One thing I can't understand is that once something is given the 'vintage', label how come the price rises, and rises, and rises. Baffles me that people will pay silly money for old tat, when probably family members will have cupboards full of the stuff stashed away somewhere. 'Spose it's a bit like antiques, the older something is the more valuable it becomes.

There were various cooking smells wafting around, and long queues at the stalls. If this was a thrift festival, why didn't more people get organized and take their own pack up from home and have a picnic. It was the ideal weather for it. 

Jam making demonstrations here, and if you took your own fruit you could turn it into jam yourself and take it home in a jar.

The church was used for sewing sessions. Make a patchwork block and it will be added to a quilt.

Choose your pieces of fabric and sit at a machine, someone will tell you what to do. The little girls seemed to like this activity.

I had a peek in the museum while I was there. 

This old dear looks happy enough perched on her stool, with the cooking pot on the fire. Fish for tea tonight.

How about a swing in a hammock. Looks very relaxing, the young lady is gently rotating the line of swinging hammocks on a turntable.

Hairdressing was popular, get your hair done in a vintage style by ladies wearing forties dresses, outside their vintage caravan.  £5 a go.

My overall view of the festival was that's it's a great day out, and if you live close enough you could easily find enough to do for two days. There is no entrance charge, free to get in. The entertainment is free, and a lot of the childrens activities are free. There are drop in sessions if you want to attend some workshops. If you have money to spare there are plenty of crafty type stalls which will gladly relieve you of it. I picked up some cards and have checked out web sites which you might like to take a look at.

Sarah Turner makes hand made lighting, sculptures, and artworks upcycled from waste materials. Mainly plastic bottles and cans. www.sarahturner.co.uk 

Sarah Oatley is a textile artist using a wide range of fabrics, mainly recycled and vintage. www.drawnthreads.co.uk

Abigail Lagden creates fabric sculptures and mixed media canvases, using Powertex.
www.curiously-contrary.co.uk

Scrapstore was there, only they call it Percy Creative Reuse Centre. It's at Commerce Way Middlesborough. Here is their link if you want to check it out.

I left about 3.30pm and decided to take a look at Redcar seafront while I was there, but I'll leave that for another post. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

A perfect night out.

A perfect night out.

enjoy entertainment

Hello. I'm just back from a fab night out. The Scunthorpe Male Voice Choir were joined by similar choirs from steel towns in the north of England. It was a full house, tickets were sold out months in advance. I had a front row seat, and Leslie Garrett was right in front of me. It was brilliant. 

There were songs for all tastes, it was hard to pick a favourite. The choirs sang I Dream a Dream, and I immediately had Susan Boyle's voice in my head. They sang it beautifully. Unchained Melody, and The Rose,  are also two of my favourites. Lesley did opera, I don't know how she reaches those high notes, and she did some smashing songs from the shows. There was a medley from The Sound Of Music which she starred in, in London.

I've found a video of Lesley with the Peterborough Male Voice Choir, singing You'll Never Walk Alone, she sang this as a closing number tonight. The combination of a female opera singer with a male voice choir are just perfect together.



I've just noticed that it's past midnight, so I'd better get to bed. I'm going to adjust the date to the 21st, ha ha. My birthday treats are over, and I've really enjoyed myself.

Thanks for popping in. We'll catch up soon. Toodle pip