Cramming it in With Visitors....

We have just had a really lovely week with visiting friends from down south... the weather mostly held and the southern softies managed to cope with a bracing walk on the beach at Hartlepool.

The next day a visit to the big city of Newcastle - I haven't been actually into the toon since pre covid but even this time, due to unforeseen actions we were running late and only had time for the The Biscuit Factory - very lovely art works, jewellery and other interesting items on display and for sale- and then an educational evening at Cosmology Night held in Ernests Bar in Ouseburn.

It was an interesting evening - Dr Fred gave an excellent well received talk about the James Webb Telescope and Dr Dave gave a fairly - to me at least- in comprehensible talk about science of the Terminator.... to be fair the audience enjoyed it but I wasn't even aware that there was more than one terminator film although I suppose hasta la vista is a bit of a giveaway... anyway most of it went straight over my head but was defo appreciated by the crowd! it was a good evening - fun people, interesting talks, good food - these nights were always very popular before life went on hold and they are set to return monthly - check out Ernests website https://weareernest.com/

So we managed fresh air, shopping, education and on Thursday we managed a bit more culture... we went to look at the Threads of Creation - an exhibition of amazing 'wall-hangings' by Jacqui Parkinson currently on display in Ripon Cathedral. They were absolutely fantastic. A friend from our star weekend had mentioned them to me knowing I liked that kind of thing and had shown me a photograph of the hanging depicting the universe - the photo did not do the work justice.

The twelve hangings tell the story of the Creation as described in the Bible. You don't need to hold any religious beliefs to appreciate the workmanship, talent and beauty of this spectacular textile art. the work is mostly applique done both on a machine and by hand. It looks like there are some hand painted and embellished areas overlaid - its detailed and exquisite.

Each picture was incredibly well thought out and the details were just amazing- they were colourful and vibrant - telling the story really succinctly in a very splendid way - they are only there for another week or so but so well worth a visit.

The cathedral itself is a very lovely building and Ripon has many nice cafes and shops so its a very pleasant afternoon out.

We aimed for a quiet weekend - and so it was - with a final decision made on paint for the hallway - watch this space - and a pint in Caps Off - a local micro brewery, followed by a very good discovery of an eatery serving delicious home smoked meats and sides- 'the Smokehouse Railway Street' and a fab firework display over the town.

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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