How to stop a tank!

I thought I'd share with you some pictures of a World War II re-enactment event I visited last weekend. I hadn't been to one of these before and had no idea what to expect. It was a free event at Rufford Park so I thought it was worth a visit.



I loved it - people were dressed up and really throwing themselves into the spirit of things. I learnt all sorts of useful things - this young man taught me that even I could stop a German Tank in its tracks (well, not even in my heyday, I thought!)but yes, two enamel plates on the ground in front of a German tank, at a distance, with the light shining right on the plates, was enough to persuade Gerry that there might be mines ahead. So bear that in mind should the need arise.



Lots of the visitors to the event also dressed up and there were stalls showing off different aspects of life in the war.



These kitchen cupboards and their contents had me smiling - I've picked up lots of these items over the years so could have my own re-enactment right here at home (I'm sure Niobe thinks we do most of the time). I'm working on getting myself one of these cupboards...




Lovin all that nostalgia!



Oh look - two Singer machines - that brought on a quick photo and i was a bit taken aback when the lady at the machine spoke to me as if she knew me. How embarrassed was I when I realised we sit only feet apart at work! I hadn't recognised her in her officers uniform! She was altering a skirt and I had a little look in her sewing tin to find the usual wooden cotton bobbins etc. This has brought me to thinking about the brass buttons that we all find in the jars and tins of buttons we pick up at car boots etc . It occurred to me that instead of me throwing these out as not being of any use to me I should be giving them to my colleague who would be able to pass them on to people trying to put together authentic uniforms of the war time. So - if anyone has any please get in touch!



I enjoyed brwosing some of the stalls and managed to find a couple of little treats which I haven't pictured yet - a lovely Tootal scarf (probably 50s rather than 40s but I wasn't going to be picky!)




Loving the hats and hair rolls...



I'm going to have to have a go at one of these rolls - doesn't it look stylish?



These girls were having a good time - singing their hearts out



while some in the audience got to their feet and fox-trotted around the courtyard



All around the courtyard were war time posters,



the graphics on some of these were great...



Freedom - still something we still all hold dear



I haven't even shown you the displays of the tanks and soldiers running around - not close enough to get good shots so finally - the "hospital"



Don't look too closely at the scary instruments...



and if you're going to the dentist soon I hope your's has something a little more up to date than this kit for his weapons!



If you get the chance to go to one of these events go! Next time I might dress up myself!

Have a good week!

Wend

Heavy Metal

As a teenager I rather enjoyed heavy metal of the kind that you got on big black discs kept in a cardboard sleeve with a fabulous picture on the front (called an album for thse youngsters out there!)



Now I'm drawn to another kind of heavy metal in the form of architecture



and sculpture...These pictures were taken while in Scotland last month.



This is Glasgow's tallest tower...



The first and second pictures are The "Slug" - Scotlands Science centre in Glasgow.



This one, for obvious reasons, is known as the Armadillo or the Scottish Exhibition Centre.



These gorgeous bits of metal work are decorated railings outside Charles Rennie Mackintosh's School of Art,



Titan - a huge old crane as homage to Glasgows ship building industry



and more lovely Charles Rennie railings. It was great to catch some of my own - "must see before you die" sights. I know they're hardly the Taj Mahal - but I wanted to see them just as much!

Love Wend

In the pink!

Why oh why did I touch the "blogger designer" thingy? Hopefully normal service will be resumed once I can get my technical assistant to sort me out...

In the meantime I'm going to have to manage which for someone as virtually challenged as me isn't easy.

A few days ago "A Thrifty Mrs" commented on my picture below on Flickr and asked me to share my thoughts. I've been steadily increasing my collection (the picure in my side bar shows what it was like a year ago!)and have been able to increase it quite significantly. (There is another shelf with my tureens on it higher up too!). I use this everyday now and love mixing and matching it! Such lovely sherbet-y colours.



Ann of "Vintage at the Corner House" (see side bar) has mentioned some of her finds recently and from comments on her post it seems that there is a general lack of pink (not to mention yellow) out there. Ann has a gorgeous pink jug with a green handle - I hadn't seen any with two colours before but it's lovely. Does anyone have lots of yellow?



I'm afraid I'm cheating a little here but I found a stash of pink a couple of months back the shade of which is almost identical to the Peach Petal Grindley that the real utility fans are after. My pink is actually Wedgewood from 1934 - so its actually art deco rather than post war so is older. This means the handles on the gravy boat and tea cups are a little angular but I'm not a purist and given how many pieces I managed to pick up I'll bring some to the fair in Northampton in case anyone wants to add to their collection. I have to say the pink and the yellow certainly lift the other colours when they are together!



Has anyone else discovered the "sherbet glass" which has had a Flickr group set up for it by Teena Vallerine - "Kitschen Pink"? I know it as "sugar glass" with its pastel bands of colour from the same era.



Have I inspired you to start on another collection?



Lovely aren't they!


Love Wend

Something for the weekend?

With apologies to our overseas friends... Don't forget this weekend is Heritage Open Days weekend so if you are after inspiration for something to do, whatever the weather, check out the Heritage Open Days website, www.heritageopendays.org.uk, which will show you everything that is on in your area FREE just for this weekend. This can be a great money saver especially for families as even places with a hefty entry price take part and other places rarely open to the public will also open their doors.

I'm just kicking myself as I only remembered last night and I was going to spend the weekend painting. Perhaps that can wait!

Have a great weekend!

Wend

Season of mists and horticultural shows!

I rather like horticulatural shows... Although I saw the schedule for this one in advance I didn't enter any of the classes.



This was a very small village show but had the usual "biggest and best" classes - the flowers ...



and the veg



As ever I was distracted by the chippy paint on the marquee poles.




One of the flower arranging classes was "Granny's attic" which had the grand total of 3 entries - two were inspired by old kitchen scales which were lovely but did make me wonder whether I couldn't have submitted an entry given all my treasures to use as inspiration!



Its always fun for the children to have a class to enter and



so here's an idea for all those with surplus veg in their gardens right now!



Great fun!



I particularly liked the arrangements in tea cups



simple but effective



and they seemed to be flowers from the owners' gardens rather some of the larger displays which had clealry had a lot of money spent on them



but what do I know - I rarely agree with the judges choice! They sometimes seem overly critical for what is supposed to be a bit of fun - or is it?



Anyway if you're wondering what to do with a spare marrow - use the picture below for inspiration and stuff it with flowers!



Love Wend

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

Seen in a commercial unplanted planter in Glasgow!