Something In Tents

The Spiegeltent has come to town for a few days. I must admit that I have never heard of such a thing before, but according to Wikipedia,  they are large travelling tents that were first built in Belgium during the late 1800's and the word means Mirror Tent.

The one that landed in the Old Market Square on Monday is called "Salon Perdu" and the opening is tonight. I popped in during my lunchtime to have a look round. There were some people dressed up and playing some sort of tag game which I didn't really understand.

The tent is massive, and holds 300+ people. But when I was there, there were only about six. There were indeed lots of mirrors around, and stained glass windows to let the light in.

Didn't see tonight's show, but will pop in tomorrow lunchtime, as there is meant to be some sort of dancing event on So it might be a good photo opportunity.

Don't Fence Me In

Part of the Old Market Square has been fenced off again, as a new attraction rolls into town, which I'll show you tomorrow.

While I was taking photos of the mystery object, this old chap stands next to me, to look at the same thing.

I thought it was quite a good opportunity to take a photo of him, so I just waited until he had finished looking at the scene in front of him, and while he turned towards me, I pressed the shutter.

Do you think he noticed?

Wires Across The Sky

Another fantastic sunset tonight, across nearly all the Beeston sky.

Instead of looking out of the upstairs window, I tried a few shots out in the street.  Fortunately we live  on a relatively quiet road, so I could stand in the middle of the road, and not worry too much about being run over.

I think I should have taken it about 10 minutes or so earlier, as the sky might have been a little brighter. But I think that it is still an amazing sunset. Hopefully it will be another sunny day tomorrow.

Sun Day

A busy Sunday in the garden and garage. Some tidying up and sorting out, so I didn't get to go on any photography expeditions.

And also being busy, I forgot to look out for the blood moon, that was meant to be on show tonight. When I did look, it seemed to be the same whitish colour.

So here's a shot of something sunny for Sunday, our sunflower in our garden. The head is starting to die, which means that the seeds should be almost ready to harvest.

Off The Rails

Besides the visit yesterday of Prince Edward, another important event that was taking place in Nottingham, namely a wedding at the Council House.

The wedding party were using this old London bus as the bridal transport and were just climbing aboard when I arrived in the Old Market Square.

While I was taking a photo or two of it, a tram just happened to be rolling by, and I managed to take a couple of shots just as it was passing the bus. Lucky eh?

You may have realised that the photo is lacking in colour, except for the bus itself. That's because I set my camera just to record anything that was red in colour, the rest would remain in black & white. A neat trick. Partial colouring can of course be done in various software packages, but this is much quicker. And anyway, I only know how to do it in Lightroom.

Ed's Head

Nottingham had a royal visitor today in the form of Prince Edward. He was in town to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Theatre Royal.

I knew he was coming today, but had no idea when. So at lunchtime, I took a walk up to Theatre Square to see what was happening.

I was in luck as he hadn't arrived yet. A small crowd had gathered and the red carpet had been rolled out ready.  A couple of plain clothes police were wandering around. One bystander asked one of them when the prince would be arriving. She was told he was running a bit late due to traffic.   He was coming from Newark, where he visited the new Civil War Centre.

Finally he arrived in a black Range Rover, led by security people in a red Jaguar. He stopped and chatted to the crowd which was about 100 now before going into the theatre where he unveiled a plaque and had a piece of birthday cake.

On The Up

This is local folk duo called Up who did a set in the Old Market Square, as part of the Great Notts Show, which is on for a few days.

Besides being in Up, which incidentally is Nottingham's only ukulele band, the two guys Rob and Eddie are also in another folk band called Shiftin Sands, which includes a female fiddle player.

The Great Notts Show is a large food, drink and gift market that is taking place in the Old Market Square until Sunday. A lot of people were milling about whilst the guys were playing, but many stopped to listen and were appreciative of their music.

Some more bands are on tomorrow, so I might pop down and take a look, or listen.

Mellow Yellow

A close up of the sunflower that we have growing in the garden, that I took with one of the art filters on my Olympus EM-1, just to give it a bit of an unusual look. Maybe so it looked like another plant altogether.

Hopefully there will be quite a lot of sunflower seeds to be collected and possibly eaten when its time to harvest them in a couple of months time.

Golden Green

The sun setting over Highfields, I think makes for quite a nice restful scene, especially with the blue sky still poking through the trees.

I took this with my fisheye lens, so there is a slight curving to the trees, but nothing too drastic or surreal.

China In Our Hands

A couple of new statues have appeared in Highfields. Two Chinese guardian lions.

They have been a present from Ningbo in China, a city that the University of Nottingham has been involved with for the past ten years.

In fact parts of Ningbo's university is based on the Nottingham site, especially the Trent building, which you can see in the background.

Maria

Besides having some gargoyles, Beeston Parish Church also has quite a few very old gravestones, like this one from 1877.

Doing a quick Google search on her name, I found out that she was born in 1799 and died on the 2nd August 1877. She was originally from Dublin and employed as a lady's maid. She lived on Dovecote Lane in Beeston.

Face In The Crowd

This rather worn out face has seen a lot since he was attached to Beeston's parish church all those years ago.

I wonder how many weddings, funerals, garden parties and Remembrance Sundays he's seen over time?

I also wonder how he lost his nose. Age, an accident, or maybe sadly vandalism.

He's getting a good head of green hair. A Victorian punk perhaps.

The Sloan Ranger

Gail and I had a dabble today at learning how to paint furniture using Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

A local home furnishing shop called Heidi's was running a three hour workshop on the techniques needed to give new life to old furniture using different paints and brushes, waxes and even a hair dryer to make tired tables, sad seats and boring bookcases more exciting.

It was quite a fun session with Phil the trainer. Besides Gail & I, there were three other ladies in the 'class' and we all seemed to enjoy the experience and knowledge gained.

We were each given a piece of wood and asked to choose a colour. I chose a blue colour and slapped on the colour on a third of the wood. Next Phil gave us all small bowl of white paint which we applied to the middle third. He then gave us a hair dryer and we ran it over the wet paint for around five minutes or so. This made the paint crack.
We then had to choose another colour. So I went for red, as some of the colours seemed to have a French connection, so subconsciously I appeared to have painted the Tricolour.

We then got to use the wax, and rubbing on the dark wax certainly highlighted the cracks and lines in the paint. I also used some sandpaper to give my work of art a bit of distressing to give it an aged look.

On the whole I had a good time, and Gail is now planning to paint all our furniture and anything else that's lying about. Watch out Oscar & Marmalade, as that might include you!

Tuning Into The Red

A really wonderful sky tonight over Beeston as I was cycling home.  By the time I got home, the sky was glowing.

As soon I got home, I rushed upstairs with my camera & took some photos of the multicoloured sky. Of course I took quite a few, as the colours were changing all the time as the sun was setting.

I do like this one with the silhouette of a neighbouring house, with just the chimney pots and TV aerial showing. Ideally, I would have liked a plane to be flying by. But sadly one didn't even though we are on the flightpath for the East Midlands Airport.

A Touch Of Red

I was out in the front garden this morning when I saw this red admiral butterfly land on Gail's car.

Fortunately it was still there when I returned with my camera, so I shot a few frames. As the butterfly had landed on the passenger door window, I kept dancing about, trying to get a shot that didn't have a distracting background in it.

I think I have succeeded with this one, don't you think?

Tuning Into The World

Day two of our break from work, but another day of not clicking my camera's shutter button. So here's a shot that I took last week during a walk along the canal near where I work.

The woman was completely oblivious of anything going on around her as she was so wrapped up with listening to music and texting on her mobile phone.

Two Seater

Well the first day of our week's holiday, and what does it do all day but rain.

So have been indoors all day pottering around.

I didn't really get the opportunity of doing any photography, so here's one I took last week when it was sunny.

Yes, it's another shot from Highfields. I feel quite lucky that I have a good park on my doorstep, although I do wish sometimes that there was more things to photograph, like statues or flowers. Although it does make you look for things to take a picture of. Things that might pass you by, like the shadow that has been created by this bench.

Jones The Steam

Here's a super steam powered model railway layout, that was on show yesterday as part of the heritage weekend celebrations.

I think everyone loves watching trains of all sizes, especially the steam ones, as they portray the romance of a bygone age.  Although for me, I think I prefer old cars.

It was a big layout and took up quite a lot of the space in the hall that it had been set up in.  The enthusiasts had a couple of engines on the go, and the town that they had created was really quite quaint with a few houses, some cars and of course a station.

I watched them go round the track a few times and enjoyed looking at the small plume of steam every time the locos started up. Sometimes there was a bit of water on the tracks, and one of the owners had to rub the track with a cloth.  No wrong leaves on the line in the model world!

Beware The Yellow Peril

This weekend is dedicated to England's heritage, with lots of events taking place up and down the country. Beeston of course is holding a number of events around the town, as it has done since the idea was first suggested.
As I have been going to such things for years, I have seen practically all the things on offer, but this year I was pleased to go somewhere that I don't think has been involved before.

The Boat and Horses pub in the Rylands had quite a variety of things to see and do. I saw a friend of ours who does wood turning and was giving a demonstration of his talent, a local beekeeper who was giving tastings of her home produced honey, a display of some old glass bottles and of course a cake stall.

There was also some female Morris dancers and then there were these three characters. There were a number of people dressed as they would have been in say the 1940s, and these two ladies were certainly enjoying themselves as period housewives. The fellow in the centre was part of another Morris dancing troupe, which I couldn't stay to watch, as I had some more visits to make.

Reflecting On The Week

Well it's Friday, and the end of the working week, and the beginning of a week's holiday for Gail & I.

We are not going away, instead we are staying at home and doing a bit of sorting out around the house. A spring clean in the autumn you might say. Plus I will be doing some gardening, but we might find some free time to go on a day trip somewhere.

On the way back home from work, I cycled through Highfields park, as I tend to do most evenings nowadays. Making the most of the light nights, before the clocks go back next month. I, like most people dread it when the dark nights start at around 4pm and carry on till March. I know it's all to do with the way the Earth rotates around the sun, but I wish it didn't happen and that we got the same amount of daylight everyday of the year. Say 7am to 7pm. So come the end of October it will be dark when I cycle home and the park will be be closed at dusk.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

Here's an example of some good graffiti that I came across, during my lunchtime walk.

The big question is, is it a two headed flamingo, or two flamingos?

Maybe the artist wants to keep us guessing. But my question would be about how long will they be on display before they are painted over?

Purrfect

Spotted this little sign at the market that took place today in the Old Market Square.

Gail and I have double love, as many of you know we have two cats called Oscar & Marmalade. I think they love us as much as we love them. Well they certainly love us when it's feeding time, as Oscar tends to sidle up to us and wrap himself round our legs, while Marmalade just sits down and stares up at me until I follow him into the kitchen.

Six Strings And A Song

You met Emma Blazon-Jones yesterday, so today I'm showing you Joe Barber.

Joe is a blues guitarist and singer, and duets with Emma as Midnight Special.

I've posted a couple of photos before when they have played at the Hop Pole on a Friday or Saturday night.

Wallflower

It's not very often that you see Emma Bladon-Jones without her guitar. But here she is posing with just a wall for company.

Still Life

A quiet day at home today, so to reflect that, here's a photo of a flower belonging to an onion plant that is growing in a pot in the garden.

The stem is quite tall, so not sure whether I should have pulled them out a while ago. Still it makes for a nice plant, and they were only old onions anyway, so we've not lost anything.

Peek-a-Boo

He's young Oscar up to mischief on the stairs. I can see you, you little monkey, it's no good trying to hide behind the bannister. And don't scratch the carpet!

On The Run

A bit of an arty photo today of the trees in Highfields.

I used an old manual lens on my digital camera, and was just playing around with the f stops and shutter speeds. I also employed a bit of camera shake, just a little bit to give it a feel of say being chased or the feeling of not quite being alone, but you can't see anyone there.

Pimp My Ride

You can tell that the kids have gone back to school today, because not only is the beach being dismantled, but the city centre was a lot quieter at lunchtime today.

Highfields was also nearly empty. Only the joggers and students were there. This rocking horse in the playground looks forlorn, and nobody wants to ride him, as all the kids are at home doing their homework. He will have to wait until the weekend before he is turned into Black Beauty, Trigger or Redrum. But for now, he's just sitting there watching the world go by.

Including The Kitchen Sink

The beach in the Old Market Square has been packed away for another year. The sand is still there, but will be removed in the next day or so.

All the big stuff have been taken away. They are just now clearing away the odds and ends, including this sing which came out of the bar or cafe kiosk.

Curious?

Today, being the first of the month, it's City Daily Photo theme day.

The theme this month is Curiosity. I'm not sure whether my photo fits in with the theme, but I only just remembered that it was time, and I didn't want to miss the party.

So is everyone baffled about what my close up is of? Can it be some matches, sweets. A toy perhaps?

No, it's none of these things. It's actually a close-up of the stamen from some ivy. I took it with one of my legacy lenses. Hence the soft focussing and a little bit of flare.

I hope you like it and plan to visit some more daily photo sites, to see what they have on offer.