At least a fortnight since I last posted and I cannot
honestly say I’ve much to show for it – must try harder.
I’ve been out enjoying myself in the last couple of
weeks. First, there was a visit to see
Pam Ayres in Southport. She was really
entertaining, I didn’t quite know what to expect but it was well worth
going. Last Friday, four of us went on a cruise
along the Manchester Ship Canal. We’d
been saying we’d go for ages and finally booked. What a beautiful day – we couldn’t have
chosen better weather. We started off
at the Pier Head on the Mersey Ferry ‘Snowdrop’ and headed for Eastham Lock
where we entered the ship canal. From
then on it was a very relaxing journey to Salford Quays. It took six hours in all and Liz and I spent
most of it leaning on the stern rail taking photographs while our husbands sat
or stood as the fancy took them. It was
great to see the Mersey from a different perspective than usual – it’s amazing
how the landmarks juxtaposed as we made progress up the estuary. There was lots of bird life to see – herons
by the dozen, grebes, cormorants, oyster catchers, swallows, the odd buzzard, and lots of swans. Needless to say Liz and I took hundreds of
photos but I haven’t even looked at mine yet!
We got to Media City in Salford at about 4 ish and then spent a happy
hour or two at the Lowry – as well as L.S. Lowry’s paintings and sketches there
was an interesting exhibition of portraits
by Jonathan Yeo – I particularly liked his Michael Parkinson and the Duke of
Edinburgh paintings.
The journey back to Liverpool was by coach and, by the time we
got on, we were absolutely exhausted, I think I nodded off! We had planned to stay in Liverpool for the
Mersey River Festival activities but, after a meal, we decided, partly because
it had begun to rain, to go home. We
all slept very well that night!.
Rain also put paid to another photography venture – we intended
to visit the Appleby Horse Fair but, on the day, the weather was absolutely
awful so we stayed home. We were a bit
luckier this week though, when members of the Maghull Photography Club went out
for a portrait workshop. Dave
Worthington, a local photographer, was the instructor and one of the members
had organised a friend to pose for us for the evening. The hope was to take photos using only
natural light and the evening was just right – fine and warm with not much
cloud. Dave is an inspirational teacher
and the model (and her boyfriend) was amazing.
Again, I’m ashamed to say, I haven’t looked at my photos yet – it won’t
matter if they all go in the bin, the evening was so enjoyable.
I have, at last, printed my birds of prey photos and I’m
really pleased with them – the weather was awful and so conditions were difficult. Now, at last I’m starting on
the Bruges photos – so I’m only about a month behind!
I’m still carding my sock of alpaca fleece when the weather
and time allows so I have spent a pleasant afternoon in the garden with it
today and hope to spin some this evening.
I’ve just finished one of the cot quilts I started a few weeks ago so I
am making some progress on the craft side of things. I need
to crack on a bit so that I’ve lots of new things for the Summer Arts Market at
St. George’s Hall on 19th and 20th July. Can’t wait!
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