To the Spitfire

Recently we ventured up to the city centre to visit the Spitfire Gallery at the museum.  The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery can be found in what is signposted along all routes into the centre as The Cultural Quarter.  We also wanted to see the new library which had moved from its old 1960s building into one of the new buildings on the Smithfield site, an area where there used to be a pottery factory.

Before we went into the Museum we wandered around the newer buildings.

The new library opened at Two Smithfield last week.  It is quite spacious inside, fiction and children's books downstairs and non fiction on the upper level. There are lots of computer points and tables on both levels.  The archives part of the old library building will now be housed within the museum, opening in Spring next year.

 

Opposite the new library is the Mitchell Arts Centre.  Local man Reginald Mitchell (1895 - 1937) was the designer of the Spitfire hence the name of the cafe there.

 

Further along the road is the Regent Theatre.  Behind it is Victoria Hall a largish but not huge concert venue. I have to admit I've only been inside the Victoria Hall once when we went to see Simon Callow's one man show on Charles Dickens.   We've been to the Regent Theatre a few times but not recently.

 

Back on Smithfield - a new hotel.

 

One Smithfield was inspired by the designs of local potter and ceramic designer Clarice Cliff.  Talking of Clarice Cliff we recently saw the film 'The Colour Room' about her early years in the pottery industry.  I really enjoyed it.  Lots of it was filmed locally.

 

A small fragment of what is left of the old Smithfield Factory one of the city's most iconic shapes.  The bottle oven or pot bank.

 

The back of the Potteries Museum - the Spitfire is behind the large window.

By now it was well past 10a.m. and the Museum was open.

 

The Spitfire has been decorated with over a thousand poppies made by the 'Let's Make Jam' Women's Institue.

The WI have made the poppies from  wool, felt and paracord.

 

The poppies are sewn onto cargo netting except for the wreath.

The poppies will be on display until Sunday 12th November.

All for now.
 

 

The Last Few Days

The snow has gone now and has been replaced by wet and windy weather.  Before the snow finally disappeared we walked across the local fields just a street and a half away from home.  It's good to have so much open space between us and the city centre.

It was a beautiful sunny day even though it was cold.

There are lots of horses in paddocks up on the fields.

Signs of people coming to feed the livestock.

A view to the city centre.

Talking of the city centre we decided, once the snow had gone, to visit the Potteries Museum to look at an exhibition of wildlife photography by local amateur photographers.  There were some stunning photos.  No photos taken because of copyright but also because there were tables in the gallery ready for children to make clay sheep.

We had a cup of coffee and went to look at the Spitfire Gallery as well as the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition and the art gallery.  The two photos above are taken through windows either side of the gallery to the front and rear of the museum.

As we were leaving we spotted two large Herdwick sheep with their lambs in a pram.  They were performers called Flock from the Bread and Butter Theatre Company.  Heidi and Henrietta Herdwick were very popular with visitors.  Here is a - link - to more photos of Flock.

When we got home Mrs Fox came for a visit.  It was a joy to see her peeping through the hedge.  I think there will be fox cubs again this year.

At least whilst it is wet and windy I've had plenty of books to read.

 

I realised I'd missed a Louise Penny book and had recently read her latest one 'A World of Curiosities' before the one above.  

 

All for now.  Take care in the dismal weather, let's hope for more Springlike weather soon.

 

Five Since the Last Time

Somehow two weeks have gone by since my last post   Time is passing so quickly and I'm trying to hold on to the last shreds of Summer even though it is now definitely Autumn.

If I hadn't taken photos I'd have difficulty remembering which days I've done things on as all the days seem to be melding together.

Last week on Monday we took a few bags of things to donate to the local Wildlife Trust charity shop. We went in first to check that they wanted what we had before fetching the bags from the car and placing them in the little changing room at the back of the shop where they would stay for a while before being sorted.  Afterwards we had a wander around the town.  Leek has some lovely independent shops and also successful indoor, outdoor and artisan markets.  All well publicised by their 'Totally Locally' campaign.

On the Wednesday we met with friends at the village of Bonsall which is near Cromford in Derbyshire and visited the Cascades  gardens.  The garden is set in a quarry and is a meditation garden and bonsai nursery as well as offering Zen retreats in the old mill house.  

 

 

We spent quite a while in the garden before finding lunch at the nearby Fountains Tea Rooms.

 

Our garden has needed quite a bit of attention over the last week.  Areas of grass we had allowed to grow long have now been mown and the seat moved to the top of the garden where the old shed used to be.  

 

 

The red cabbages have done well this year.

 

As have beetroot and courgettes but tomatoes have been less successful.

Some of the flowers are still doing well too.
 

Cosmos

Clematis

The first Comma butterfly I've seen in the garden this year.

The Sunflower has had about twelve blooms on it.

I was able to collect two of the three books I had reserved from the library.  Luckily they both became available at the same time.

The third book I'd reserved came up as available to borrow from the e-book library so I had it from there and cancelled my reservation at the library as I was still quite a way down in the queue.

So far I've read the Ann Cleeves book and the Kate Ellis one and thoroughly enjoyed both of them.  I'm now looking forward to reading '1979.'

 

This week we ventured up to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery to see the newly  opened Spitfire Gallery.  Whilst the museum has been closed through the last eighteen months lots of work has been done and some galleries were closed as refurbishment is still taking place.  

 

There was much razzamatazz over the last weekend with a fly over from a Spitfire and many living history events.  We decided to wait until it was quieter to visit.

Reginald Mitchell, the designer of the plane, was born locally.

The plane has been refurbished and is now in a lot better condition than it was.

We sat and had coffee overlooking the downstairs bit of the gallery and then went to see the other exhibition 'Curiouser and Curiouser' which uses the museums own objects within the displays of 'Alice's Adventures in a Museum Wonderland.'

All for now.  Take care.