Seagull Sales

The weather was quite nice yesterday so David and I walked into Whitstable town - David's not a great one for walking but I bribed him with the promise of a bag of chips to eat on the beach!

Being Good Friday/Bank Holiday the town was crammed full of visitors - great for the local community but the queue at our favourite 'chippy' was a mile long (OK not quite a mile, but offputting to us).    We settled for chips from a different provider and they still tasted good eaten out of paper whilst sitting on a beach groyne!

We popped into the Horsebridge Gallery and sadly it wasn't very busy but I was chuffed to find 2 red dots on my wall ... two of the seagull pictures have been sold.   I think because the weather was nice most visitors were on the beach rather than indoors.

We are stewarding at the Gallery tomorrow afternoon so I'm keeping fingers crossed for good footfall and perhaps another red dot or two ... the forecast is for light showers in the afternoon so that might encourage visitors to head indoors and the Gallery does have a lovely cafeteria on the second floor!

these are the two with red dots  ... two down, six to go

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter weekend to everybody ... hope you're having a great time.

We're having a lazy day today - recharging batteries etc

On Tuesday morning we hung my pictures in the Horsebridge Gallery where I'm sharing in the 'Made in Whitstable' exhibition.   We then had to visit our dentist as David had toothache for a couple of days but sadly the offending tooth was deemed unfixable and had to be removed ... but he cheered up in the evening when we went to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, London to see the Tall Ships.

More than 30 Tall Ships have gathered on the Thames at Woolwich and Greenwich for four days before setting sail for Quebec to mark the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation.  They leave London around 5pm tomorrow (Sunday) heading for Portugal, Boston and finally Quebec

I'd booked ticked for us and two friends to do an evening sail on the Wylde Swan and watch a firework display on the river bank at Greenwich.   We were on board from 8pm till around 11pm and the staff kept plying us with delicious plates of cheese/cold meats and pickles and then several types of hot chicken snacks - curried, chinese style and in BBQ sauce.     Background music from the 1960s was playing quietly (and who can resist singing along)!!

I took lots of photos but the quality isn't brilliant as they're hand-held camera shots in dim light ... but you get the idea

 Peter Burke's 'Assembly' at the Royal Woolwich Arsenal ... 16 larger than life cast iron figures which are a little spooky IMHO - especially when seen in the half light

David and Steve taking photos before we boarded 'our' ship

Cap'n Clinker .... David having fun!

Part of the Thames Barrier - looks quite pretty at sunset!

Staff quarters ... which are very 'compact' but I guess nowhere near as cramped as they'd have been in 'olden days'.    Its a shared room - males one side females the other side with privacy curtains in the sleeping compartments and a small locker per person.

I photographed this image from the tv screen in the bar which was showing scenes from a recent journey made by the Wylde Swan.    This shows what it looks like under full sail ... quite amazing isn't it?