Manx National Week

Today is the start of Manx National Week - and the weather is dreadful!!! Really heavy rain - such a shame for all the Garden Parties that are planned for this afternoon!!There are lots of activities going on all round the island and of course we have Tynwald Day on Thursday.The churches are running their 17th Annual Flower Festival, and I do hope to get to see some of them, as they are so beautifully decorated. Each year there is a new theme for them to interpret, and it is uplifting to see how the ladies (& gentlemen) of each church interpret the theme. This year it is "Let my people go" to link in with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. I will take some photos when I visit the churches I get to. I was going to post a few pictures from last year - but I can't find ANY amongst the thousands of photos I have - yet I know I have some!!

- - visiting time - -

My friend R has snapped her achilles tendon, so is "laid up" as the expression was when I was a girl. She is suffering dreadfully from frustration at not being able to do the simplest things, so I went to see her tonight. Ironed a suit for her, made her tea (and shared it with her along with a bottle of red wine):)LOL. Also stayed much longer than I intended so just a brief note tonight. I have decided to do Scrapdolly's all my own work journal. I don't know how I'll get on, as I am off on holiday on the 6th July!! Still it sounds fun, so I will give it a whirl.

The Parish Walk

A busy weekend for lots at school - about 40 of the school staff were taking part in the Parish Walk as was my sister, so Saturday was completely taken up with 1} collecting my new glasses & 2} following the walkers round the south of the island!This is a long distance endurance walk - 85 miles in all - around the island and checking in at every Parish Church on the island en route - hence its name, which has to be completed in 24 hours. The Veterans Race officially ends in Peel, but a considerable number continue to complete the whole race.
The majority of our school walkers were aiming for the Parish of Rushen (19 miles)and they have to check in by 2pm in order to be classed as successful, and a goodly number of them succeeded. Several decided to continue - reaching Peel before retiring from the race and we had our finisher - who did the whole thing!
My sister & her friends were aiming for Peel - and made it!!! I am so proud of her as she was first to check in from her group - a couple of whom are VERY competitive!She was made up with success when she phoned me to say she'd got her medal!
Sunday was a horrid day as far as the weather was concerned - rain til quite late. Doug & I went out for a drive to the Sound, I had a lovely lunch there and we watchec the seals for a good while. It did start to brighten up a bit so we came back home & Doug went for a long walk and I - well I just pottered!!

Keele etc.

Midsummer Day
A truly beautiful evening – walking along the path to Bradda I found myself reflecting on the fact that whenever I am near the sea the sky suddenly seems to be twice as big as usual. I really noticed it travelling back from my conference in Keele University in the north Midlands – the closer we got to Liverpool and the coast the wider the sky. I am not sure why – perhaps it is only my imagination – or maybe there is a reason – could be that the water reflects the light back up at the sky and creates the illusion of a bigger sky?? I only know that I always can tell from the sky when I am nearing the coast.
Keele is a beautiful campus – and it was a good conference – the campus is filled with birdsong, and must be a haven for wild life. Keele Hall is in the centre of the campus and has a “Capability Brown” garden/landscape and a beautiful restored Knot Garden – at least that is what I would call it, a lake and terrace, and pre dinner Pimms was served here on the lawns. Middle England is so leafy and green – with her gently rolling fields and wonderful – no magnificent – trees, some must be of really great age to be the size they are, there is such different feel to each of England’s counties. The Potteries area has an ambience totally missing in on the flat Cheshire plain, yet Cheshire is another beautiful county. Sometimes I think that the English do not appreciate the beauties and differences of these beautiful islands that make up the British Isles. I am so glad I made the effort to really LOOK.

Friday
The headland is blossom strewn – with white and pink campion, cushions of pale pink stars of stonecrop, clusters of thrift (sea pinks), the vivid blue of the viper’s bugloss, pale golden tormentil peeping through the undergrowth and the shocking pink flowers of ragged robin bobbing their heads as I pass - even the heather is beginning to turn purple. The grasses are in full blossom too, their heads dancing and swaying gently in the breeze. The sea sparkles as shafts of sunlight skip lightly over the waves and the gulls wheel and soar - effortlessly it seems to me – dipping and rising on the thermals in a graceful ballet whilst just behind me - over my left shoulder I can hear the skylarks as they sing as if there is no tomorrow. Ripples of sound pour from the sky like liquid gold – filling the air with a warmth to replace that of the sun as it fades and moves to the west.

Conference - and gloomy rooms!!

Off on a trip tomorrow with work. I am going off island for a couple of days to a conference for work. Must admit to quite looking forward to the change of scene, as our office at work has been moved to temporary quarters whilst our classrooms and offices are refurbished, the servers moved to a new home and all the attendant periphals relocated too. The room we are in is one of the drama rooms - and I have to admit to finding it quite depressing. It has definitely affected me - I am a glass half full type of lady usually, the eternal optimist who sees my world through rose coloured specs - but I get home after a day in this dark and gloomy room and feel so DOWN!! and we've only been in it a week - goodness knows what I'll be like by the end of term!! Everything is such an effort, it has even taken the edge off my scrapping and my poor old Mojo has abandoned me totally. I don't think I would have done these pages without the Design Collective's inspiration and signing up for a tag swap on UKS.
These tags were inspired by the ones I made for the swap, and this page by the Design Collective class in issue 10.

Tag Swap

These are the tags I have made for the swap on UK Scrappers. I have posted them off to our host, so hope they arrive safely. The brief was 5 quotes on a tag and the theme I chose was Time. I hope they are what was wanted as I am very much a beginner where swapping my work is concerned, and feel very unsure about whether my work is up to the required standard. I have found it helpful to HAVE to make something though, as my mojo has abandoned me!

Thursday - and its beautiful - for ducks!!!

Rain all day - the wet stuff - you know the kind - the one that really wets you through? The only thing I can say is that the farmers and our gardens need the rain, and they have promised us more for the rest of the week. A great day for scrapping though!
Here is the first page from Rhiannon's prom album. I'll add more pages as I do them.

Last Day of 100th TT Races

My weekend started early this week. Today is a Bank Holiday here! DH and I had a "day out" have been to watch the last race in the 100th Anniversary of TT Races. Did my best to get some DECENT photos - really tried to remember all Cheryl's techniques from the class, so hope to get some good scrapping out of them!! Then we had a picnic lunch, a walk round the garden centre and chose plants for my hanging baskets, before going back to watch the bikers on the Lap of Honour. Later we went to Niarbyl for afternoon tea - including luscious strawberries!!! Feeling really lucky after such a lovely day!! Senior race day today and John McGuinness won. The Lap of Honour was seriously delayed - which generally means bad news - and sadly turned out to be the case - an accident on the course. However before we heard I decided to walk back to Tynwald Hill and to take some photos using the lessons learned from Cheryl's class. I wanted to get pictures of church in a way I can never see it on Tynwald Day - far too many crowds. I was truly given a gift - walking back through the village - it was totally deserted in a way beloved of the English Crime Writer! It was a hot sleepy afternoon - with no sign of any life other than the beautiful gardens - and I really enjoyed the feeling of being the only person around. I am pleased with these photos as I feel that I did look for the texture and angle of my shots, so feel that I am benefiting from the workshop, even though I have missed most of the deadlines.
It is a beautiful church, and inside it is laid out like the Tynwald Chamber. It plays an important role in the ceremony on Tynwald Day, though usually only the dignatories are in the church.

Buongiorno - - -

- - and I'm all excited as I have just booked a trip to Sorrento - and what is even better a direct flight off my island home!!! I have always wanted to go to Italy, my mum & dad have visited many times and have taken their 2 elder grandchildren for holidays there with them, so for me to be able to go now is a real treat for me!! This is a trip for Doug & me - the children are being left behind this time. We are just away for a week - and now I need to get a phrase book!

TT Week

Well the Island has been invaded by 100s of visitors - bikers of course - from all corners of the globe - to celebrate the 100th TT Road Races. Lots of things going on of course. We have had our very own "music festival" - the Peel Bay Festival - which was opened by our own Back Door Slam, who were supporting The Who.We also had Robin Gibb, Bonnie Tyler, McFly and others (can't remember them all!) We went to the Stranglers & Madness concert, and my sister took my niece & her friends to the Sugababes - so it seems to be a success. Maybe we will get something similar next year.

Everywhere I look we seem to be wall to wall bikes, and though I am not remotely interested in bikes (no Biker Chick me!!) I do like the atmosphere the visitors create. Here are just a couple of my attempt at action shots from Senior Race day.

Playing Catch up!!

Well I haven't had time to visit my blog for a while and actually publish anything!! Just been so busy - I don't know where the weeks have gone!! To Kim - thanks for asking - real life has just got in the way a bit!! Decided I really had better do a bit of a round up - so here it is - catch up!!!
Monday
14th May - - and a day spent on working on the Prom photos.It looks like its just as well that I took loads of photos of our kids - as yet again the OFFICIAL photographer has let them down!!!! Last year this company LOST the memory card!! This year they didn't take many photos!!!! Instead of a book full of pictures there are 4 sheets of A4 proofs- and some of our children are not even on ONE photo!! It makes me so mad!!! For some of our youngsters this is probably the only time in their lives they will ever be dressed as formally as this and they ALL look so beautiful. A small fortune has been spent on dresses, suits, Dinner Jackets, spray tans, nails, hair etc. At least one of the girls took a cleaning job to earn the money to pay for the dress she wanted to wear!!!!
They get so excited about their "prom" and it is a topic of conversation for the whole of year 11 - my photos are "snaps" that I want for the school plasma screen and the photo archive I keep of all the events & activities the school is involved with, and I know they are not up to professional standards, even though I might be pleased with them - but at least I have a picture of every one of them!!
Photo Workshop
I have signed up for Cheryl Johnson's Online Photography Workshop - I really want to improve my photography skills - then I can get really good photos of the prom - and the school can dispense with an "official" photographer!!! LOL at the thought - I only have a compact digi camera - who am I kidding!! (I am quite pleased with some of my "snaps" though)