Knutsford

This mornings walk around the narrow streets of Knutsford ( where the Knuts live!). They all drive round in massive 4 by 4's and pedestrians are treated like bollards or skittles. You have to dive out of their way. The usual charity shop run. No bargains. Newly refurbished Oxfam looked horrible with nasty cheap wood scraps shelving. Ugh! Dogs and annoying old folk getting in the way! (Victor Meldrew mode gets switched on!) Hazel posted a parcel in the post office at the back of Sainsburys and it took 20 minutes to fill in a customs form! I went off to buy some capers. I should have got onions too as we have run out I discovered when we got home. Also went and sat in the Tatton Park as it was lovely and sunny - to watch the enormous planes fly over from nearby Manchester airodrome. Lost of crocus and daffodils in evidence. Popped in a church to look at the stained class. A posh bloke gave us a guided tour thinking we were local. "These photos show the floor being dug up and the underfloor heating being installed". When he saw us taking photos we were kindly asked to leave as the choir was about to practice.

Knutsford

This mornings wanderings around sunny Knutsford. Sadly the Oxfam shop was closed for refurbishment but some other were open. Got a couple of DVD's inc. "Squid And The Whale" and French film "Villa Amalia". Hazel got a couple of things - a book and a badge that matched her coat. Walked to the gates of Tatton Park but it's closed on Mondays for some reason? Maybe the rutting deer need a welcome rest. A long weekend of rutting can take it out of you! Some mad drivers around - thankfully we got home in one piece.

Tatton

Frantic looking for tent pegs to hold down runner beans at Tatton.  Hazel got home and found them after Archie and I had looked in the coal shed and garden shed for 15 minutes amongst the cobwebs and detritus - fearing an avalanche of mail art and garden equipment!   She's driven back now to do some more before the heavens open.

This is the second week of putting up the "Art Allotment" that MMU staff and family are doing.  Archie has been along for one day to erect the shed and fence posts etc.  I went along last week with Hazel to help out in the scorching heat. Sat in the shade when I could - sticking bent wire seedlings into strips of plasticine!
Today Hazel has gone on her own to help set everything out as the Press Day is tomorrow which she will miss as she has to go to the dentist for a filling thats fallen out and rubbing her tongue. (There's always something - a favourite phrase in our family!)

These photos give you a idea of the space that has to be filled.  Lots more stuff turning up yesterday and today Hazel said so should be plenty to see.  Audrey's knitted runner beans and cauliflowers- Archie's recycled tin daffodils nodding in the breeze. Hazel's dibbers and seed spacers and my collage and postcards.

Tatton Biennale

Two boot sales today at Hartford and Antrobus. Not many bargains but plenty to rummage through in the bright Spring sunshine. Star buys were DVD's of Burn After Reading , a recent Coen Brothers comedy with John Malkovich and George Clooney etc. which is worth seeing again. Saw it at the cinema when it first came out. Hazel got a few things including a bag of needles, buttons and poppers from the 50's or 60's. Also a lovely gadget for measuring the distance between bowls - the crown green kind, to see who is nearest the jack. I expect all these things will appear on her blog in due course.

In the afternoon drove over to Tatton Hall to see the sculpture Biennale in the gardens. There was also art in the house but didn't have time to do that as well. Hazel's ex students Ryan Gander and Austin Holdsworth had made things for it. We met Autsin by chance on the way round as Hazel was rattling the doors to the small mobile cinema he was manning. Austin jumped out of a bush and said "There's always someone isn't there!" which was quite funny.
The gardens looked very beautiful at the moment with all the rhodedendrons and daffs and bluebells etc. Some of the sculpture was good too. A small selection in the short film above. I did the "magic" edit mode so the Flip camera does it automatically and splices segments together. Its a bit jumpy but gives you an idea of what we saw.
Austin made the water pumping sculpture you see briefly which has a pineapple and partridge inside those cannisters being "fossilised" over time. Ryan made the bird of paradise that loos like a mask in a glass case in the window of the house. That's Lord Egerton (who's family used to own Tatton )driving around in his jalopy. His old 8mm films were edited for the small cinema on a loop.

Tatton Park

Nice morning walking to town and back. Got some more National Geographics in the Help The Aged shop for 10p. I buy three every day so as not to put my back out carrying too much ancient photo journalism. I have made some collages already using some of it. I hope to make more. The photos are quite stunning and perfect for some of the themes at Scrapiteria.

This afternoon went to Tatton Park with Hazel as we spotted an ad in the local paper for FREE entry to the Antique and Fine Art Fair that is on over the weekend. Saving us a grand total of ten quids. Blimey and what a posh do it was with a doorman to open the doors for you "This way - sir and madam". The prices were way beyond anything we've seen of Bargain Hunt! 600 quid for an chipped old shop sign saying nothing much - Eggs Half Price or Tea- Shilling a Packet! A Lowry for 200 grand. A Donald McGill postcard ( original watercolour ) for nearly a thousand quid! Interesting to see some of the art though and wonder who would be daft enough to buy it for that sort of price. Lots of people obviously, gathering by the throng pouring over the Ming vases and mock Gainsboroughs.
Nice old fairground rides outside to entertain the kids - gallopers and a vintage car roundabout thing. Popped in the farm shop to get some awkward cheese and some onion jam. We know how to live!