Spring Sprang!

When we got back from Chicago, the garden had gone mad with all the mild wet weather! I am especially pleased with my Wisteria. This is the first year it has flowered following my hardcore pruning last year after taking the advice of Alan Titchmarch. It looks lovely and hopefully if I prune it right again this year, it will be even better next year!

Local Festivals

We had a lovely weekend at 2 local festivals. On Saturday we went to the Lady Bay community arts festival. It was based at several venues in Lady Bay, West Bridgford. One of which was the primary school, however most were at peoples houses.

Lady Bay, like Sherwood, seems to have a higher than average concentration of artists. For the weekend festival, many open their houses and workshops and you are welcome to see the displays, talk to the artists and of course you can buy what you like. In addition, in past years, other residents open their houses and host artists from outside, some from outside Notts.

There were lots of activities for children and Cas and I did an African drumming work shop! Repeat after me 'Africa is hot and dry' . .it was good fun!

The main fun was gawking in peoples houses and gardens! We also had some hardcore locally brewed Elderflower wine which nearly killed us because the weather was insanely hot.

On the Sunday we went to the Green Festival in the Arbo. It was a bit rubbish in terms of it being the usual stalls selling renewable energy, second hand clothes and socio-political magazines! However we saw lots of people we knew and hadn't seen for quite a while, so it was really nice and Cas enjoyed playing in the sunshine with the children of our friends!

Chicago

We have just got back from a fantastic holiday in America, where we had a mini holiday in Chicago and travelled to Fort Wayne to see our friends PC and Michelle and their boys Tyler and Noah. These pictures from the trip are in no particular order!

PC plays Ice Hockey professionally for the Komet . . we went to see him and the team practice and Tyler and Cas showed them how to improve their technique! Well not so much Cas who was a bit scared at first of all the big guys in padding . . but after they left the ice . then he was much happier.

Picture here is PC and Tyler.

This is Michelle and Noah and Chucky Cheese! We had a great time at Chucky Cheese's. It is like an arcade for kids with a restaurant that serves pizza and salad. Some of the arcade games were a bit too grown up for Cas . .but he really enjoyed the carosel.

We went to the Children's Zoo in Fort Wayne on a lovely sunny day.

Cas really enjoyed brushing the goats!

We also fed Catfish . .which are the funniest looking fish ever! There was so many of them it looked like the pond was bubbling!

That should have been a warning to the animals more than to Cas!

At the Chicago museum there was a great interactive childrens area. This is me on video with a Curtis Mayfield soundtrack and Cas admiring me!

Indiana has a number of Amish communities. They ride in their buggies and wear the blue and black uniform. They shun modernisation and lead simple lifes focused on manual work and humility. Most speak Swiss German from the 1600's . . .It is a facinating lifestyle. Anyway we bought some Amish sweets, petted an Amish horse and left them to it!

Back at the Chicago museum in a large hotdog! The food we ate in America was largely fantastic. The quality of the meat is so much better than here. I had some amazing pork chops in Chicago and a great Steak at Eddie Merlots in Fort Wayne. But the portion sizes are huge! Not that I was complaining! Nor was Cas who ate huge meals and loved it - probably because of all the added sugar!

Talking of sugar . . we went to the original Hershey store in Chicago . . it was nice . .but the chocolate if you can call it that . . is horrible.

Outside the Chicago art museum, which was really good, there is a great big teardrop/ coffee bean sculpture by Anish Kapoor who also did the sky mirror outside the Playhouse in Nottingham. At the art museum there was lots of good American art . . we saw the Hopper 'Night Hawks' picture which was really compelling. You could look at it for hours. Also there was a good Photography exhibition by William Egglestone - apparently a key figure of the last half-century, Eggleston is often credited for singlehandedly ushering in the era of colour art photography.

Me in front of the Kapoor sculpture.

One of Eggleston's pictures.

We went to the Chicago children's museum which had lots of great interactive things for kids of all ages. Cas had a fantastic time. Here he was working for the fire serice sorting out the great Chicago fire.

Chicago is famous for the 'El' - the elevated train that loops downtown . .we took a trip of course . . it was much like any other train trip!

Anyway we had a fantastic trip. Michelle and PC were so generous with us and Cas had such a great time playing with Tyler and kissing Noah. Cas's speech improved a bit and Tyler probably got a bit naughtier . . following Cas's example! Anyway we are not at all glad to be home!

Twi - hard

I have been introduced to Twilight! I have not enjoyed a series of books so much since the Famous Five! I put off reading them or watching the films for ages as I thought it was just tween hype . . but I was persuaded by a friend and haven't looked back. I have bought copies of the book and sent it to lots of friends so that they too can be 'robsessed' Here is the very handsome Robert Pattinson who plays Edward Cullen in the films . . I am on Team Edward!

Rufford Park

A typical crappy bank holiday! Weather miserable, but we thought we would take a trip to Rufford Park, to the somewhat disappointing childrens park. Cas enjoyed running around. He doesn't walk anymore, he just runs everywhere - usually away from us in the wrong direction. He loves it, but it is harder and harder to get him to co-operate. Usually we have to drag him away from things kicking and screaming! Joy of joys!

Aerating Shoes!

Now that Spring is somewhat on its way I have starting getting the garden sorted. Cas 'helped' which means he basically jumped in puddles and threw soil around.

I bought these aerating shoes to try and sort out the lawn, which is such a mess. I will overseed it when the weather warms up a bit, but for now I just broke up some of the soil in the patches were the grass has worn away next to the path.

Star City at Nottingham Contemporary

For Easter we went to the new Nottingham Contemporary Art Space. It is great! Great shop! Great things for kids to do and interesting exhibitions. There is also a fab cafe which sells egg and fingers and artic roles for the kids.

The current exhibition is Star City . . this is what the blurb says . .

How was the future imagined under Communism – and why is that vision so important to us today? These are the questions that Star City, named after the USSR’s secret cosmonaut training base, sets out to explore. It features the work of leading artists who grew up in the former Eastern Bloc and have emerged as international artists during the last decade – Althamer, Kusmirowski, Macuga, Mir. Star City also includes leading figures of the Eastern and Central European avant-garde from the 60s and 70s – Filko, Kabakov, Koller - together with other leading contemporary Western artists who have worked behind the former Iron Curtain – Jane and Louise Wilson, Otolith Group.

Mainly there was a big space man that you could run about it!!