Watching Me Like A Hawk

There was an Easter fair in Beeston Square today, where you could buy home made items for presents like jewellery, hats and fudge.

Also present was the local bird sanctuary, with a number of their birds of prey on show for people to look at and ask about, and of course like me, take photos of.

This hawk seemed to want to be photographed, and kept posing for my camera. I certainly didn't ruffle his feathers as I clicked away.

Love Is In The Air

Now that Christmas has been packed away for another year, the thought of Valentine's Day has meant that shopkeepers have filled their stores with romantic goodies.

And for some reason Easter Eggs are on the shelves too. Even though Easter isn't till the end of next month.

This window had quite a few heart inspired presents in the window for your romantic crush, or loving partner. I'm not sure about the Mr Grumpy mug in the background though. Although Gail might think that it's the perfect gift for me!

Bunny Cuddles

Well the clocks went forward early this morning and what a difference it seems to have made to the weather. Yes it's still cold, but the sun actually shined today, and for more than ten minutes.

But we decided to stay in today and do a few jobs, instead of wandering off somewhere in the search of a photo or two. We might do that tomorrow, it being a Bank Holiday.

So what's been my task today? Well we are setting up our own studio in a spare bedroom, and yesterday, we pulled up the old carpet and underlay, and so today I have been trying to do something with the floorboards. They are in good condition, so I have been sanding the old varnish, paint and stuff off, then I am going to re-varnish them so they look quite presentable in a photograph when we start in ernest.

As we haven't been anywhere, here's a little Easter scene that I shot in the conservatory. The soft toy belongs to Gail, and the little sheep, which is actually the top of a pencil, was a present from a friend of mine who went to New Zealand on holiday a few years ago.

You might not be surprised that practically all those little chocolate Easter eggs have now been eaten!

Street Life

Work in Beeston on the new tram route is progressing, so much so that they have now closed the high road in Chilwell for a year. The problem is that the road is one of the major routes into Beeston, so some serious re-routing has had to take place. This means that many of the minor roads around Beeston, have suddenly become major ones. Even our quiet road has become a 'rat-run'.

And of course this closure is very worrying for the traders along there. They are concerned that there will be no business for them, as people stay away. Although the pavements are accessible at the moment.

So a friend of mine called Matt, recently thought up the idea of having a street party, so locals could see that the road is still open to them and what local businesses were there.

There was quite a bit of entertainment on offer, including the traditional seaside Punch & Judy show.

The Punch and Judy man wore a very colourful jacket, which aptly was covered in Easter bunnies. There was also some street entertainment in the form of a juggling unicyclist. He tried to teach me to juggle, but I wasn't very good.

A local radio station; Capital FM, gave away lots of little Easter Eggs. I managed to get two, one of which was for Gail.

And of course there was music. A couple of bands and this delightful folk singer called Emma Bladen-Jones.  Who writes her own songs. She entered into last year's Notts Factor, and although she didn't win, it was a great opportunity to promote both herself and her songs.

All in all, it was a good day. Longterm, I hope it has helped to make everyone aware of the diversity of shops that are there, which include  several cafes, a great bike shop, tasty fish and chips and a good hairdressers. In fact you can just about buy anything you might need along there; including a tattoo.