Going to the Moon

 Almost a month ago, CBC and I were in Hexham for the half term holiday. We were going to stay with and see his Mum and hoped to get out and have a few adventures.  Alas for us, the weather was dire so much of our time was spent inside.  One morning, we decided to take a trip to see The Moon!

Hexham Abbey has been playing host to the Moon

Luke Jerram's Museum of the Moon is a travelling installation which is hosted in Cathedrals and large churches.

It is a massive 6 metres in diametre and it has very detailed imagery of the surface of the moon as photographed by NASA.  6km  of the moon's surface is scaled down to 1cm.

There is also a variety of works with a theme of the moon and a soundscape created by composer, Dan Jones.

I gained a free-viewing on Sunday morning at the service but didn't photograph it then.

CBC and I came to visit on a particularly rainy day.

I had a glance down into the crypt.  This is also worth a visit too.

I enjoyed the lighting and sound and it was really interesting to gaze upon the moon from different angles.

The midday service started when we were there and I enjoyed hearing it as I walked around.

In Hexham, they held a variety of events connected to the Moon such as a Pink Floyd concert, Dinner under the Moon and other events.

In the services, the organist has been sneaking in moon references as part of his improvised recessional/processional and linking music.  We heard Moonlight serenade as the priests came in on Sunday morning! I sniggered to my friend Jane who I was sitting with!

More info can be found at:

https://my-moon.org/ 

If it comes to your area, would you pay a visit?

Something different

 I have been interested in poetry from when I was a child. One of my favourite books was Brian Pattern's Gargling with Jelly.  I grew to like it more through Enid Blyton's mystery books as there was a character called Ernie Good (nephew of PC Good) who tried to write poetry. His poems were always improved by the clever "Fatty" (Frederick Algernon Trotteville).  When I was around 13, I started writing my own poems in a pretty floral notebook I was given.  Life became busy after that into my teens and I didn't really write any. Then I commenced Teacher Training and began writing a few poems, inspired by the poems I was teaching- I even shared a few in the early days of this blog (not labelled so hard to find and labelled later. and here (not the best poems but soothing for me to write).

I bought some poetry books in my 20's.  A friend of my Grandad's, from his violin making classes called Roger Downer had published 2 poetry books and he gave me some copies.  I started learning some poems by heart when I got to know my Father in Law, the wonderful WOMOTM.

We had a push on poetry in school and I started setting some poems to music for the children in Singing Assembly to help with the push on poetry from a musical angle. I wrote a few poems as well.

Again, life became busy but I started to see poems around me.  Do any of you remember the hilarious blogger, Lakota- Faith Hope and Charity Shopping?  Well, we are still Insta buddies and she has been publishing her brilliant Children's poetry on her insta and in some publications.  A musical friend of mine, Kate Wakeling is a published poet of 2 children's books (and adult ones) and we got in touch through Insta.  I bought her two books for school- Cloud Soup and Moon Juice- both of which I really enjoyed.

On Sunday, I saw on her Insta, an advert for this event:

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Poetry had come up again in a recent Reading Inset and so I really wanted to sign up for it- Poetry, as I said, has always been something I enjoy.

I mentioned it to Kate to ask about timings and she said it would be lovely to see me so I enrolled onto it. It ran from 4pm-5.30pm via Zoom. I joined in at school as I wouldn't be able to get home in time.

Ah, it was lovely to have poetry read to us, to talk about techniques and what works well. How the mundane can be made magical, how deep feelings can be explored, how feelings can be personified, how the ordinary can be made absurd and how ambiguity can be used well. Also how free verse can be really a great way into poetry and not getting too bogged down in a particular style.

We had 2 creative tasks based on 2 of Kate's poems, I shared my first one with the group which was based on Kate's Paeon: 11 uses for a Pea.  My one was 9 uses for a Whiteboard pen lid.  It was really enjoyable to sit and write and think  in a different way and to hear how other people's creativity sparkled in the tasks- I really enjoyed hearing the voices and the words of this group of people I didn't know.

I came out of there feeling positive and inspired and looking forward to trying to get myself writing again.

It wasn't intended as such but felt like a nice early birthday present to myself.  I had a million other things I should be doing but somehow this felt important!

If you are interested in Kate's books, children's poetry, writing events or general poetry,  head over to the Emma Press to find out more!

https://theemmapress.com/events/ 

xx

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Belated Fireworks

This year, not only did I go the overly crowded local fireworks display but my Dad invited CBC and I over to partake in fireworks and a meal with them and my sister, her husband and niece. It was a delight to see them and enjoy such fun revels but just being there together was great. My dad has been really supportive over my house-buying questions and queries which is always such a comfort!

Anyway, I had mislaid my battery charger for 2 weeks so I was super glad to finally find it on Saturday! I took a variety of fireworks photos which I am rather pleased with!

 I love the corkscrew path of this one.

 The bokeh effect of these two was pleasing!

 This one was a complete fluke as my shutter speed was really slow and it took about 7 seconds for the camera to actually capture a picture so I had no idea what was going to come out!

 This one below reminded me of a flamboyantly-dressed ballet dancer with her arms in a rather droopy 3rd position, pointing her toe to the right.

 The eerie shadows of pyrotechnics made for a rather atmospheric shot!

 My favourites were these Golden showers ones!

 And the aftermath of a fireburst was this sky of glitter!

 The drama of this one was a delight.

 Swooping, soaring and fizzing in a frenetic manner, there was not a dull moment!

 This flimsy-looking one was a complete contrast to the others.

 After the display had finished, sparklers were sought and lighted by blowtorch!

 It was rather fun to work with such a slow shutter speed!

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!

xx

Steampunk millinery and other costumes

As I explained in my Tuesday night post, the day I visited the Langdon Museum of Power, it was for a special Steampunk extravaganza.  Sophie and I talked beforehand and thought we wouldn't try to go in costume because we werent sure exactly what steampunk fashion entailed and didn't want to have to go out and buy anything. It was therefore exciting to get there and feast our eyes upon the array of amazing outfits and compare the sartorial choices made by our fellow visitors.  Sophie took some amazing pictures here, mine are very much more grainy, inferior and poorly lined up/positioned, but I'll post them anyway!

The things I noticed about the steampunk were 

• Opulent materials: tweed, taffeta, 
• Bustles, feathers, ruffles, silks, hanging bits
• Hats- top hats, tricorns,some bowlers
• googles/binocular-type contraptions
• Cogs and wheels and cogs and other machinery embellishments
• Victorian and Edwardian-looking garments
• Dark colours
• Bodices and waistcoats
• Quirky accessories or weapons
• Frockcoats, capes and corsets
• Canes

It was all very dandy and elegant!

 Leather details and ribbons were in abundance.

 Feather, chiffon scarves and lavish embellisments

 This man had embellished his hat in a myriad ways- clock face, feathers, bincoulars, cogs, keys, ribbons.

 One of the events of the day was a reading of a novel by a Steampunk writer who read extracts of her book- loved her goggles and bustle

 One of my favourite hats was this musical collage- netting, musical notes and ribbons aplenty.

 I loved this fancy lace bustle

 The engine driver cap look featured highly too!

 Let's take a closer look at her vintage wine carrier.

 And there were several examples of piratical chic too!

I forgot to mention some of the fun events you could sign up to:  Umbrella jousting, biscuit dunking, altered art books and steampunk brooches. I managed to bag a place on the Steampunk brooch workshop but it was quite late and so CBC didn't want to stay so my place was given to one of the many of the waiting list.

As I dressed that walking (very late, we woke up late- I had wet hair which then turned fluffy), I'd thought I'd like to try and at least make a nod to the steampunk look. What did I go for in my wardrobe?

A mock tweed cropped blazer (Charityshopped), 

Black silk pussy bow blouse (Charity-shopped)

Cath Kidston clock skirt

 Which I noticed matched my Clocks handbag.

 Accessories-wise, I added this vintage mini-telescope necklace (it works) and wore some pocket-watch Disney Alice in Wonderland earrings.

Sophie took this picture of CBC and I when we went to Maldon later which shows it a bit better than my picture!/ 

I think it would be great fun to go the full hog steampunk-wise but I'm glad I had a look first!

What about you?  Have you heard of Steampunk? Have you dressed up in it? What would be your look?  Would you like to dress up?

xxx

New year's swing fling!

 I thought I'd better share the New Year photos before the sight of snowflakes and Christmas tree became too unseasonal - we didn't get many good photos of our new year's Lindy ball.

Here we are at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel near Heathrow.

 I wore my 2nd wedding dress- the one from Vivienne of Holloway- it was surreal that the last time I wore it was my wedding day.  I teamed it with some old white brogues from Primark, my Punkypins snowflake necklace and my Crown and glory white net wired headband!

CBC wore his tweed wedding waistcoat (he bought the waistcoat before any other part of his wedding suit because it has a lovely turquoise back to match the Bridesmaids) and tweed trousers plus his wedding shirt I think!

We enjoyed the dancing, we were a bit nervous at first because we didn't really know anyone (eventually I saw 3 guys I knew vaguely from my time at the Holborn hop class).  CBC is very good at dancing with new people and helping them learn some new steps. There were taster classes at the beginning but I think the more experienced people could do more to encourage and dance with the less-experienced. There's always a slightly clichey feel to  social dance floors.

The hotel was very nice, the dance floor was a good size and surface although  there was no bar in our function room.  When we headed down to the bar, the drinks were EXTORTIONATELY expensive.  The bar service was also appallingly slow- we were 3rd in the queue at the bar and STILL waited over 15 minutes to be served.  In that time about 20 people had queued up behind us.  When we came to pay for our 'Hendrix single gin and tonic' and apple juice with soda it cost £16.80!?!?!?!   I didn't buy another drink- just drank water from the free jugs outside. To be honest, that's what I prefer when swing dancing anyway!

The hotel room was comfy, I slept very well and breakfast was excellent, although I confess to wanting to murder the previous occupant of the room who had set 3 alarms on the radio for 6am, 6.10am and 6.15am which, after going to bed at 2.15ish, I was not ready for!  I had to hunt down the radio on the dressing table in the dark and try and turn it off whilst plotting the demise of this unknown person!!!!!


It was an enjoyable new year, we were glad, especially considering it was such a last-minute decision!

xxx


Linking to I will wear what I like with Catherine at Not dressed as lamb