Not Art

I've mentioned before how I like to make small books after a special day out and often give them to friends and family after the event. Last Friday, we took Bettine (Mark's mum) to the V&A, to the Couture Exhibition and then went on to have lunch at Bibendum with Edward to celebrate his 23rd birthday.

This afternoon, with my Mum very much on my mind, I needed a distraction so set to and made two small books, quickly, without too much fuss or faff.

I used cutouts from the exhibition leaflet and photographs I'd taken whilst there. I printed out "typewritten" captions and stuck them in higgledy-piggledy. The end result was fine and the rubber stamp I used on the back cover particularly apt on this occasion.

Of course, there was considerable "fall out" by the time I'd finished.

But now I'm getting used to working in my new studio, in just five minutes, look!

I think that's a record.

At home

A day at home and I'm taking a chance to potter around, putting things away, sorting out a pile here and a heap there.

The pile of Christmas books is there on my worktable and I wonder, should I put them away or leave them a while? Which one to start? So many goodies, I think I shall take one at a time and enjoy it before putting it away on a shelf where I'll forget all about it. Once it gets up there with the others, it'll blend into the background, just like my copy of the Vogue Knitting Handbook.

You wouldn't happen to know where I put that, would you? I now have a list of lost things, including my Oyster card, a bank card and my jewellery making tools. I did find the other slipper yesterday though...

Book details on my LibraryThing page, if you're interested.

At the Pier

For reasons too lengthy to go into here, Edward's muse has always been Minerva. So, it was apt that today, on his 23rd birthday, we should find ourselves spending an hour at the Pier in Hull and the Minerva. The weather was amazing - bitterly cold but clear and sunny.

The kind of day we always think of as a "New Zealand Day", in fact.

The long slope in the photograph is the old "horse wash" where working horses would be taken at the end of the day, for a bit of a splash.

This is the pier from which the ferries used to depart for "New Holland", that mysterious place on the other side of the River Humber, where the yellow bellies live. Not many people from Hull used to take the adventurous journey, so it was quite an occasion when I took the 32 small girls in my class at Tranby Croft on one of the last crossings.

Of course, there's now the Humber Bridge, just visible upstream in this picture.

Part of the old wooden pier still stands however and there's still an ice cream parlour - albeit a new one - and the ticket office is converted into flats.

And there are fish underfoot. Love them!

On the other side, downstream of the River Hull on Sammy's Point is The Deep, quite remarkable architecture and still attracting the crowds, which is a huge relief to the city. Further on, the ferries which depart for Zeebrugge and Rotterdam are berthed in the Humber now they are too large to go through the lock gates into King George Dock as they used to do.

Tied to the fence are some sad reminders of the close seafaring connections here, for this is about the closest place to those cold, muddy waters.

This amazing sculpture "Voyage" and a sister sculpture in Vik, Iceland, symbolise the bonds between the two countries and those who have lost their lives in the North Atlantic.

Time for a pint and some further reflection in the Minerva pub then. Cheers, Edward! Happy Birthday!

Overheard

Heard at my local GP surgery this morning:

"It's well worthwhile coming to wait here simply for the quality of the magazines on offer"

Only in Gloucestershire...

Hope the quality of the shared viruses and other lurgies is of similar standard.

New blogsib

I've just opened another blog for a daily photo project to share with a few friends. I'm not going to write anything there, simply post a photo each day on "An Elegant Sufficiency 365"

Watch for a new blogring appearing soon.