Nearly home again

 Once again plans made earlier in the year didn't work as hoped and we found ourselves on a campsite near Glouscester for a couple of nights. We are familiar with this area as we used to attend the Ukulele Festival GB in Cheltenham and the Tall Ships Festival in Gloucester.

This time we had time to explore both places a little more beginning with an afternoon in Cheltenham.

Followed by a full day in Gloucester to explore the docks and shops without the festival crowds.

The docks provide a wonderful open space in the city which people were taking advantage of to spend their time eating lunch.

As usual, the old buildings fascinated me,

Last crafty update of the holiday,

So, at last, we made it home. A bit tired, lightly tanned and sporting a rather wonky pair of glasses inspite of the best efforts of my optician 😂😂

I'll be back soon with the usual craft based posts xx

Uke Fest GB

Its taken a week but I think that we have now recovered from the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain which was held at the usual venue in Cheltenham.

There was plenty of beer, lots of ukes, 

 Some amazing artists

 a big busk with several hundred players

 and an open mic stage which proved to be too small for this group of uke lovers

I managed to make new friends and weave a mandolin strap during the weekend

I even managed to find a video on you-tube......look out for the lady holding the drop spindle in the opening scenes !
This is the third time that we have been to this festival and this was the best one so far!!

Uke-ing around...

I know I've not posted for a few weeks but I will probably make up for it over the next few days! Last weekend saw us in Cheltenham for the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain 2013. This is becoming part of our annual calender and we make more friend each time we go. The Festival starts on the Friday night at a local pub with people moving from group to group joining in playing and singing songs. Its also a good place to spot your friends and catch up on the gossip.

Saturday started with hubby attending a workshop at the town hall so I blagged my way in as well and set up my spinning wheel and settled down for a day of spinning. The concert in the main hall started at 1 oclock so I was able to easily spin and listen to the music.

I took time out to visit the music stalls although there were some interesting ukes there, I found out a while ago that it really isn't an instrument that I want to play.

 But this one looks like fun!!

One bobbin of yarn later and we headed back to the hotel to drop off the wheel and the ukes, then into town for a meal with some of the Nottingham Ukulele group and back to the town hall to catch up with the evenings acts.Not many photos of the evening acts, there were signs saying no photos but I don't think these two will cause any problems.

Sunday morning saw people gathering for the BIG BUSK in the centre of Cheltenham, some interesting caracters turned up and Sam Brown joined in on the balcony.

The afternoon was spent back at the pub with an open mic session with a lot of audience participation.

And I will leave you with some music from this guy, my own vid doesn't want to play properly though

 

Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave

Festival in Cheltenham

We recently attended a festival in Cheltenham....more about the actual festival in the next post. However I did manage to grab some spare time and have a wander round with my camera. I love looking round somewhere new, often focusing on the buildings and statues. This time it was the statues and art that caught my eyes,  from the Neptune's Fountain which was made from Portland stone in 1893 by a local sculptor R. L. Boulton and depicts Neptune being drawn by sea horses.........

............. To the graffiti found at ground level near the church.

The clock in the shopping centre reminded me of something similaar but for the life of me I can't think what!! OOhh , I've just looked it up and it was designed by Kit Williams which will be why I thought it looked familliar.
And it says 'Weighing in at three tons and boasting a mechanism 14 metres long, the Wishing Fish Clock is thought to be the tallest mechanical clock in the world. It's also very popular. Every year, over a quarter a million visitors watch its amusing hourly cycle, which culminates in a 12-feet fish blowing bubbles at the onlookers to the sound of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"
I didn't get to see it blowing bubbles though...sad face !

In another arcade I found a bronze bust of Brian Jones if the Rolling Stones who was born in Cheltenham in 1942. The Sculptor is Maurice Juggins.

Cheltenham folk certainly like to put artwork in their shopping arcades, I found this horse statue in one.

 I found this information on the Internet....

 The sculpture was made by PJ Crook and cast by 3DEye. The decoration and embellishment was applied by Carrie Reichardt and Nick Reynolds to turn it into a masterful Trojan horse. Its head has been transformed into a skull and the body is covered in intricate mosaic telling the history of the horse including thought-provoking facts about how people have used and worked with horses in the past.

And how about aeroplanes ???

 The plaque states ' Britain's first jet aircraft, the Gloster E28/39 which had its maiden flight on 15th May 1941 was built on this site. Dowty-Gheltenham's largest industrial group-supplied the landing gear.

Model made and presented by Apprentices of the Dowty Group.

 OOps, nearly forgot the The Minotaur and the Hare, a sculpture by Sophie Ryder.

There were other plaques and inscriptions dotted around the town but these were the ones that really caught my eyes on a cold and wet Bank Holiday here in the UK .

More about the actual Festival in the next post.

Have a good weekend x