Looking Up and Down

…in Poole, in the rain

Look Up Poole

Look Down Poole

Poole Town Trail

Poole Town Trail 75

I noticed a number of these pretty brass plaques (head down, in the rain!) but it wasn’t until I got home I found out what they were all about!
They form part of the Poole Town Cockle Trail, you can get a leaflet from the museum and follow the numbers learning some of Poole’s history.
I couldn’t find number 75 but I did find this about the Antelope Pub

The Antelope has a 500 year history. It was a coaching Inn with its own horses, coaches, smithy and even funeral vehicles, and at one stage even brewed its own beer. In the 19th Century coaches left here for Bristol, Bath and London. This building also shows evidence of its earlier origins with a massive stone fireplace in the bar and wooden beams…

Another weekend away following the town trail then?

Look Up Look Down is inspired by Helena.

A Simple Moment

Wednesday 15th May 2013
It is just before 1.00pm.

The tree ‘surgeons’ (!) are busy in the garden. It is a warm and sunny day with hardly a breeze in the air.
We have decided to have the leylandii that runs along one side of our garden cut to the ground. This is a drastic move but we are both tired of trying to keep the thing in check. We keep talking about having it done but not making the decision until today.
Our house was the ‘show house’ for the estate and had an instant garden of trees and shrubs planted. Sounds lovely doesn’t it? 30 years later it has become a nightmare.
Over the 14 years we have been here we have had one or two trees down most years and the hedge cut every year. Some of the trees and shrubs have died of old age, most have grown out of control, cutting light and lifting pathways. I know the birds love them but we have other trees and ivy growing on the side of the house, I will put a notice up directing them over to it.
The chain saw and the shredding machine are incredibly noisy, I find it too hard to concentrate on anything much but I wanted to do this monthly practice of recording just a moment in my life.

I have a hair appointment this afternoon; I will be leaving shortly, hoping for some quiet in the salon. Just a few minutes then, long enough to say that despite the noise, Pepsi is fast asleep!
1:07pm

Muscari

2.20pm~At the hairdressers.
I planned to write my moment here but didn’t know if it would work, which is why I wrote a little earlier at home.
I took my notebook anyway and am writing while waiting for my colours to set.

The local radio station is on, I am trying to ignore the chatter; there seems to be more chatter than music, but at least it is quieter than at home.
The salon is light, bright and airy. I am sitting in a new area called ‘The Colour Bar’ It is exactly that. There are 4 stools on one side of the lovely, high-gloss white counter, behind the bar are shelves, mirrors and cupboards where the girls keep all the products they need for colouring, cutting and styling. There is a sink and the tea and coffee is here too.
You can watch the girls mixing up your colours, it is a very social area and of course it frees up the mirrors for cutting and styling while your colour sets.
Today I am having some highlights in my hair to liven me up for the summer!
There is one other lady at the bar today, we having been chatting about all things hair and nails, a very ‘girly’ conversation.
The stylists here are very friendly, always happy and love nothing more than having their hair changed and oohing and aahing about your hair. They make you feel welcome, relaxed and special.
The salon has a number of therapists that offer massage, facials, hot stones, waxing, manicures and pedicures, all beautiful, occasional treats necessary for my sanity…
This is where I will be tomorrow for a new colour on my nails. Now you might wonder why I didn’t come on the same day? That’s another story…

Alexa at Trimming the Sails hosts this lovely monthly practice. I hope to get my moment linked but as I am away for the weekend I won’t be able to read yours until Monday. Ooh!, unless I take my iPad and have signals and it lets me comment. It doesn’t always let me do that.

Have a lovely weekend whatever you have planned.

Bluebell and mauve

Looking Up and Down

…at the garage waiting for my car to have it’s MOT

IMG_1137
No, I didn’t lie on the floor, the car is actually suspended from the roof!

IMG_1138
and this was lying on the floor. Perhaps it fell over on the slippery surface?

My car passed it’s test (with just a couple of tweaks and pounds, ouch!) but hooray! another years motoring in it.

Thanks to Helena for the inspiration to make these pictures.

Liberate Your Art 2013

It is Kat Slomas Liberate Your Art Blog Hop this weekend. She has made a beautiful video of all the postcards she received: 1290 pieces of art, 216 artists, 11 countries. What an achievement!

The world needs more art. The world needs your art.
The Liberate Your Art postcard swap encourages you to create, share and liberate your art into the world, where it can do its greatest good.
Join participants from around the world as we liberate our art through the mail and brighten the day of those near and far. See what good mailing your art can bring!

So I did!

What a mammoth task Kat pulled off. I don’t know how she did it and keep us up to date with what was happening.

It felt a bit strange in the middle. The bit between sending my postcards to Kat and the fist postcard to drop through the letterbox, but the day the first card arrived was fabulous.
Over the next couple of weeks I received these beautiful postcards.

Deanna www.deannaswauger.blogspot.com
LYA001

Linda Mann http://mannhome.blogspot.com
LYA002

Kate Daniel www.etsy.com/shop/studiok8
LYA003

Jenny Cruise http://dancingcrowdesigns.com
LYA4

Beverly Dyer www.artprescription.com
LYA5

Kat Sloma www.kateyestudio.com
LYA006

Thank you all so much. I have loved being part of Liberate Your Art 2013, see you next time?
I am off to see where my cards landed.



Shadows and Reflections

I am endlessly fascinated by shadows and reflections and have been inspired by Helena’s Look Up Look Down post this week to post some images I have made recently.

On my windowsil
Plants7x5
B7W plants7x5

In the harbour
Reflection boats7x5

At the zoo
reflection.flamingo b&w

In the birds water bath
The reflections you see are reflected in the water which you can’t see, I wonder, does that make it a shadow?
Water bath

In the harbour
Bridge7x5

In the Park
Park 5x7

Rags to Stitches update: Nellie the Elephant has wandered off…It may be next week before I track her down. Apologies if, like me, you are now humming that song!