All the Lights, All The Music

Great Dorset Steam Fair by night...

 

 

 

  

 

Woof Woof Hooray

So it's officially over - all 80 Gromits from Bristol's Gromit Unleashed trail have been taken in and will be auctioned for charity at the start of October. We kept Gromit hunting right to the last day and ended up spotting 79 out of 80 Gromits. The only one we didn't get was the Gromit based in London's Paddington Station, although he is coming over to Bristol this weekend so we might try and pop in and say hello.

 

There's also a chance to see all 80 dogs gathered together at 'The Greatest Dog Show on Earth' exhibition next weekend. I'd love to go and see whole pack together but I'm not sure I'll have the time.

 

Anyway, here are the last few collections of Gromits...

 Being Gromit Malkovich - Harmony - British Bulldog
Eldoradog - Canis Major - Feathers
Fiesta - Gizmo - Gnashional Gromit

Poochadelic - The Secret Garden
Snow Gromit - Where's Wallace?

Oops A Daisy - Jack - Newfoundland
 

 

 

And a couple of ones we really liked...

 

 

Newfoundland - a lovely dog on the deck of The Matthew (a replica of a 1497 boat sailed by John Cabot to North America). The story is John Cabot is likely to have landed at Newfoundland, hence the very appropriate name and decoration!

 

Harmony - the very last dog we found, he was in the garden at The Beaufort Arms pub in the historic village of Hawkesbury Upton. He's decorated with lots of lovely little birds!

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed my Gromit round ups - links to the other posts can be found here, here and here.  

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do next Summer without any Gromits to find!

Heritage Open Days

Just a quick post to mention that here in the UK it's 'Heritage Open Days' weekend, where thousands of historical gardens, houses, museums and even swimming pools throw open their doors for free (or a very small charge).

 

Source: Heritage Open Days Website

 

 

Lots of places are not usually open to the public so it's a great chance to visit all sorts of weird and wonderful locations. If you pop over to the website, there's an interactive map which lets you search by area, by date and also by what you might be interested in.

 

 

Cool places near to me which I'd like to visit:

Cleveland Baths (a historic open air swimming pool under restoration)

HMP Shepton Mallet (a prison dating back to 1790 and still in use until last year!)

Behind the Clock Face (in Wells Cathedral, a chance to see the working of the 14th century clock)

 

 

Take a look at the map and see what's on in your area!

 

 

The Midweek Hop - There Be Dragons

The other half's guest post - three songs on a theme...
(inspired by Desmond Carrington's 'The Music Goes Round')

 

 

'Seeburg V200 VL' 1955 Jukebox

 

This weeks theme is...There Be Dragons
 

Inspired by my trip to Aberystwyth this week - and the Welsh dragons which might be there!

 

 

1. Seven Daffodils by Lonnie Donegan


Pretty much Wales' national flower, and one of my favourites too!
'Seven Daffodils' was the B-side to 'Have a Drink On Me' which entered the chart on 11th May 1961 reaching Number 8.

2. Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary


A song with mixed meanings, if ever there was one!
'Puff The Magic Dragon' entered the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1962 reaching Number 2.

3. Fire by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown


Hopefully I won't come across any fire-breathing dragons...
'Fire' entered the chart on 26th June 1968 reaching Number 1.


Happy listening!

Steam in a Field

Like the majority of the population, I do like a good celebration or party. Given that a lot of our friends are either involved in the Somerset Carnival season or in steam rally world, a lot of the parties we get invited to are well...slightly unusual.

 

Like the birthday party in a back garden involving a full size fairground ark, vintage penny arcade, steam engines and a set of dodgems.

 

Or the wedding where guests were asked to dress in old Carnival costumes.

 

And the secret 70th birthday party me, Andrew and my sister in law organised for my father in law where we had 150-200 guests suprising him at a fairground museum on Devon, over 100 miles from where we live.

 

Last Saturday was one such party - a golden wedding anniversary party with steam engines, music and a hog roast. Andrew took his lorry along for the party and about 100 or so people enjoyed the entertainment.

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen some of the pictures I uploaded during the day but if not, here's my day in Instagram shots...

 

 



Not an instagram pic, but this was the view when we left the party...

 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

Celebrating - the golden wedding anniversary of some friends. They had a steam party in their back garden (which is actually a large field) with a fairground organ, some vintage lorries (Andrew took his lorry along), cars and traction engines, a hog roast, cakes and a couple of local bands.

Baking - seven different types of cakes for the golden wedding anniversary party. I spent most of Saturday morning baking and by 7pm they'd all gone - I assume that means everyone enjoyed them!

Gromiting - the last few Gromits from the brilliant Gromit Unleashed trail. We took an lunchtime trip and visited Lye Cross Farm Shop, Bristol Airport, Avon Gorge Hotel, Tyntesfield National Trust House, Westonbirt Arboretum and The Beaufort Arms Pub in Hawkesbury Upton.
Although the trail officially ended yesterday, there's still a chance to see all 80 Gromits at 'The Greatest Dog Show on Earth' from 18th to 22nd September at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. Check out the website for more info.

Enjoying - After our Gromit exploration, we stopped off at Tog Hill viewpoint north of Bath for a great view of Bristol, the Brecon Beacons and both Severn Bridges. There was a catering van in the car park doing very reasonably priced tea and chips so we bought some and sat back to admire the view.
It did feel very like we were enjoying the last few bits of summer sunshine!

Packing - for my trip to Aberystwyth for the second study school of my MSc degree.  By the time you read this I'll hopefully have arrived in sunny Aberystwyth!

What did you get up to at the weekend?

Q & A With My Own Liebster Questions

I had great fun last week thinking up some unusual questions for my Liebster Award nominees but I made sure to run them past Andrew first to see what he thought.

 

His conclusion was that they were good but also why don't I answer my own questions as well!

 

So here's both mine and Andrew's answers to my own Liebster questions...

 

1. What's the story behind your blog's name?

Me: I like ducks and I like dresses. Andrew also reckons I'm nosy (i.e. sticking my beak into things)

Andrew: Not applicable

2. If you could choose any career in the world, what would you do?

Me: A librarian/archivist working for the National Fairground Archive

Andrew: An architect

 

3. What special super power would you like?

Me: Flying

Andrew: I'm a bloke so naturally it'd be x-ray vision.

 

4. Are you a tea or coffee person? Or neither?

Me: Tea

Andrew: Coffee

 

5. Printed paper books or ebooks?

Me: Can I say both? Ebooks are great for things like holidays but you still can't beat the smell of a new paperback.

Andrew: Paper books because some of the specialist titles I like you can't get as an ebook.

 

6. What would be your specialist subject on BBC's Mastermind?

Me: Probably the Somerset Carnival season

(although I know there's people out there who know lots more than me about it)

Andrew: Scammell Lorries

 

7. Is there anywhere in the World you've never visited and would really like to?

Me: There's a few - New Zealand, Montreal, St Petersburg, Norway, Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands, the Scilly Isles and the Shetlands.

Andrew: Berlin and Paris

 

8. Which Harry Potter house do you belong to? (apologies if you have no idea what I'm on about)

Me: Probably Ravenclaw (I was/am a swot)

Andrew: What?

 

9. Which crafty skill do you wish you were good at?

Me: Icing cakes. My default topping on cakes is buttercream beacuse I haven't got the patience to decorate my cakes properly.

Andrew: Proper Fairground Signwriting

 

10. What's your favourite season of the year and why?

Me: Autumn - the colours of the trees, Halloween, firework displays, the crunch of the leaves underfoot, the countdown to Christmas (and my birthday just before!) and Carnival season.

Andrew: Summer - light nights, light mornings, warmth, steam rallies.

 

11. If you could bring back one children's TV programme from your childhood, what would it be?

Me: Fingermouse, it's the earliest children's TV programme I remember watching and I loved it!

Andrew: Ivor the Engine