Festive here and there

Places out and about are beginning to look quite festive.  Wednesday morning after I'd had my hair cut we popped up to Middleport Pottery for a coffee and scone and a little wander around.

There was a cool breeze but it was dry and sunny after Tuesday's wind and rain.

Inside the factory and shop was looking very pretty.  I love the Christmas Wreath above.

Dressed tables, white and green seemed to be a theme.

Trees with tempting parcels underneath.

Black and white wares on a black table cloth looked stunning.

Then it was up the canal to Westport Lake where a heron caught my eye.

It had it's beady eye on something in the shallows.  The sun kept shining for our walk around the lake.  We'd  put all the Christmas cards in a bag in the car so popped into Burslem where we knew there was a post office.

The new bronze cast statue of 'Lemmy' (real name Ian Frazer Kilmister) who was born in the town in 1945, stands near the town hall.  A member of the band Hawkwind and later front man of the rock band Motorhead   The work is by local sculptor Andy Edwards who is responsible for many notable sculptures including the one of The Beatles in front of the Liver building in Liverpool.

Last but not least we popped into the T G Green factory shop close by.

Such a colourful shop.  Year ago we liked to visit their factory shop in Church Gresley in South Derbyshire.  Usually when I was there researching family history. My father's family came from the area around Swadlincote and Midway.  My 5x great grandfather apparently settled there c. 1780 when he brought a gang of men, all from the Forest of Dean, to dig out test bell pits for the Gresley Family of Gresley Hall.

We treated ourselves to a couple of Cornish ware mugs, neither the blue or the red but the green stripey ones. 

Well, I think that is all for now.  

A Common Thread

 A Common Thread is the latest exhibition at the Brampton Museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

It is, in fact a three in one exhibition which celebrates modern textile art, home produced items from the museum's collections and photos and information panels about local textile manufacturers including hat makers.

The main exhibition has works from Dr Jack Roberts who is known as JPR Stitch.  In the top photo are the Daily Stitch Towers created over one year from daily stitch drawings.  Here is a -link- to the artist's website.

I always love to see costume in a museum and some of those on display were made locally and donated to the museum.   Above, on the left, is an Edwardian wedding dress with a handmade lace tabard.  The brown Victorian dress was worn by a lady called Ann Whalley for her wedding at St George's Church on Christmas Day 1870.  

Above a floral dress from the 1860s which has been altered a few times.  Perhaps so it could be passed on and worn by others.

It was a lovely display of all sewing crafts, tapestry, embroidery, lace making and knitting.

I was sure there were photos of me somewhere in dresses similar to the one above, I have found a couple of them and put them at the bottom of this post.

Lots of memories in these displays.  I still have my Mum's Singer sewing machine which is dated 1938.  She always had the Woman's Weekly delivered and often knitted cardigans, jumpers and toys from their patterns.

Such a serious little face.  This was taken at our house in Leicester before we moved away to a village in Derbyshire.  I would have been about four.  I still have the teddy bear.

Oh, heavy shoes and socks at half mast😊 This was taken in a London Park, I think. We were visiting my Mum's old school friend who lived in Stanmore in Middlesex.  I remember the bus journey into London.

Well, it's the first of December today.  I must start to think about Christmas.  We had our first card and present in the post on Friday so I must stop dragging my heels and write some cards, buy some stamps and add to the bits and pieces I've already bought to make up larger presents.

All for now.

Spotted

 Spotted Recently

Early Snowdrops at Trentham Gardens.  

A Hedgehog in the garden on one of the warmer days a couple of weeks ago.  It looked healthy. After a good rummage around in the grass and along the side of the greenhouse it wandered away into the hedges between us and next door.  I hope it has a warm home somewhere now the first frosts have appeared.

Again at Trentham Gardens beside the lake a strange fungi that looks like a cross between a cone flower and a fried egg.

At a local garden centre a Robin on the roof of one of the little 'gingerbread' cottages.  It flew in from the more open houseplant area into the decorated tree and then onto the little house.

Heron lurking in the branches of a tree overhanging the lake at Westport Lake, when it finally flew away another one flew out from the base of the tree and followed it.

A Kingfisher on the Trent and Mersey Canal between Westport Lake and Middleport Pottery. Paul managed to take a quick photo but the bird darted hither and thither.  It was so nice to see its wonderful turquoise blue feathers as it sped down the canal.

All for now.

The Ha-Ha Walk

 Last week's visit and walk took us to Biddulph Grange Gardens.  It was raining when we arrived so we decided to stop for coffee and a scone first and by the time we came out of the café the rain had petered out and there was a watery sun in the sky.

The Fuchsias in the urns down each side of the steps were looking wonderful.

We wandered down the Lime Avenue and discovered at the bottom that the Ha Ha Walk was open again.  We'd walked it once but then it seemed to close for quite a while .

The walk runs along between the sunken wall of the Ha-Ha and the metal fencing belonging to the country park.

The wall is a great haven for plants and wildlife.

Everywhere was leaf strewn.

About halfway along is a small diversion into a wildlife area.

Bird feeders and insect hotels

Lots of fungus too on fallen trees

The Ha Ha Walk comes out on to the Wellingtonia Walk.

When we first visited Biddulph Grange these were small saplings that had just been planted.

Look at them now after nearly thirty years of growth.

The steps and walk up to the Geological Gallery.

Above is the area where James Bateman's Music House stood.

Below, inside James Bateman's Geological Gallery.

All for now.  Take care.

Helios

 The latest of Luke Jerram's travelling exhibitions, Helios, has been moving around National Trust properties.  As we'd seen both his Museum of the Moon and Gaia installations  at Derby Cathedral we wanted to see this latest attraction and we found it was to be on display at Kedleston Hall, near Derby.  

We booked our timed tickets, necessary as it was showing in quite a small space compared to the other two.

Helios looked rather wonderful in the domed Salon on the first floor of the Hall.  The sun sculpture is named after the ancient Greek god of the sun.

There were seats around the outside of the Salon and bean bags underneath the installation. Helios is scaled so that each centimetre represents 2,000km of the sun's surface.

The accompanying music, by Duncan Speakman and Sarah Anderson, was calm and soothing, and there was a lovely atmosphere as people moved gently and thoughtfully around the room.  The installation has been touring National Trust properties through this year and Kedleston was it's final showing.

I've added below photos of both of the other installations.

 

The Museum of the Moon at Derby Cathedral October 2019

Gaia at Derby Cathedral October 2022

I've just noticed that we visited all three in the month of October as we saw Helios on 29th October.  The exhibition closed on 2nd November.

Helios was part of the Diwali celebration held at Kedleston each year.  This would take a whole new post but in lieu I've added two or three photos to give some idea of how impressive the festival of light was.

All for now.