Thursday 30 October 2008

Illustration Friday - 'Repair'

Repair

Tuesday 28 October 2008

One Night in Bruges

We set off from St Pancras early in the morning as the sun was rising... We arrived in Bruges some time later, having changed trains in Brussels. We dropped our bags off at our hotel and went for a wander. We saw beautiful stepped gable buildings.


A gypsy caravan.


Then we stumbled upon this festival....

We were not sure what it was all about. As we looked round, scores of chickens and pumpkins confronted us. The pumpkins were quiet and well behaved but the chickens were extremely loud as they competed to see who had the loudest crow. (As I am writing this the news is on and, weirdly enough, it is about a cockerel called Basil who has had to move from his allotment in London to a farm in Northumberland as he is too loud for the neighbours!)


These white and fluffy chickens looked very pleased with themselves.


These two were my favourites-they were wearing old fashioned motorcycle helmets-they must have travelled here by bike. Very popular form of transport in Bruges.

There were also lots of rabbits of all types, colours and sizes-so cute! I didn't take pictures though as I thought my flash might scare them. Though it might be hard to scare a rabbit who is bigger than a small dog. There were also mice and guinea pigs as well as a bar! Lots of artists were sitting around drawing and painting chickens.

Lots of lace in windows.

A star near the canal.
A boat all the way from Fowey in Cornwall.A strangely magical warning mirror-looks like a crooked other world in there.A tailor's sign-now it is a bistro named after the tailor.


A cat I liked.

Lovely dragony benches.

Salvador Dali's head on a plate!

Massive champagne bottles-what are they called we wondered? We went in this bar. It had lovely cherry beer called Kriek-very popular -and a friendly, deaf, brown spotted Dalmation.
Oh! Chocolate boobs!

An abandoned corner.
A doorbell on a school.
A false fronted building.
We really enjoyed our visit but will be back to see the many things we missed. It's a great place for just wandering around with no particular aim-just to see what you find. We kind of missed the major sights and museums though-hence the need for another visit-one night isn't long enough!
I have put two other posts of just photos. One of some of the many little shrines around the place and one of some of the beautiful doorways.

Doorways in Beautiful Bruges

I loved the little squashed creature poking out of the door!

There is lots of variety in the wrought iron work adorning the doors.





Most of the bikes propped up outside houses are not locked-so different to London!

Shrines in Bruges










Thursday 16 October 2008

A Halloween Tale

Minerva was more of a financial witch than a magical one. She often had more use for her mobile phone than for her magic wand, although she was able to cast basic spells.


She was surfing the web one night, looking for business opportunities, when she found something that interested her. "Oooh I love parties" she thought. "It would be lovely to get back to the woods and I've never been to Arizona. I've just bought a new hat, I got my bargain broom from Sainsbury's for £1 and........

Just then, the phone rang, interrupting her train of thought. "Minerva, it's us, the skeletons from the dolls' house" said three tiny voices.
"Hi, how are you?" Minerva replied.
"Sad, homeless, worried" cried the voices.
It seemed that a terrible event had occurred. The dolls' house had been sold, as the little girl had grown up and gone away. The other toys had gone with it, but the skeletons had been out the back, frightening the birds, and had been left behind. With Halloween approaching, they wanted to be settled so they could give their full attention to their spooky activities.
Minerva wanted to help her friends and turned to her computer, typing in the key words tiny, home, cheap. The magic of the internet got to work. From the hundreds of options presented, Minerva chose the two most promising ones...

'PUMPKIN, IN NEED OF CONVERSION, SHORT TERM LEASE ONLY DUE TO COMPOSTING OF INTERIOR' and...
'WINDMILL, MUSICAL FEATURE, FULL OF CHARACTER, IN NEED OF SOME TLC'
She visited both properties, the second one with the help of her friend Ebay Jay as the cheap broom from Sainsburies had broken down.

Her friends loved both properties, and, due to the falling house prices, could afford both. They moved in in a flash and, apart from a couple of miserable ghosts haunting the place, everything is going fine. They have even managed to grow a pumpkin.

They were relieved that they havn't missed the party. Just don't give them anything stronger than tea....
UPSTAIRS



DOWNSTAIRS



WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....
THE PUMPKIN, PRE-CONVERSION
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.......



THE GARDEN