The stream in the sky ...

At the weekend we managed to tick something off our 'list' that we've been meaning to do for ages .... we finally walked across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct at Llangollen, which is a designated World Heritage Site.

 We came in July, but it was so crowded we decided not to attempt the walk across on the narrow towpath. This time it was much quieter.

The aqueduct was constructed 200 years ago by Thomas Telford and William Jessop to bridge a 1007 foot gap across the Dee Valley, to enable the canal to reach Ellesmere Port, and the Mersey Basin.

It is basically a cast iron trough resting on 19 supporting pillars, filled with water...... 126 foot above the river below. The photo just doesn't convey how high up it is!!! 

When you get across the walkway, you can go down a set of steps and cross under the aqueduct to the other side.

We carried walking along the towpath, and saw lots of typical canal sights ....

This boat seemed to be on fire, but was only burning logs ... causing a huge amount of smoke!

Time to head back .... after walking across so well the first time, this time Inca was a bit nervous, and we had to encourage her along. Luckily, she got over it, but for a few seconds we had visions of having to carry a huge beast along the towpath!!!

Canal boats were queuing to cross the aqueduct, it's incredibly busy!

It really is an amazing sight watching the boats go chugging across the stream in the sky!

A sad footnote to the tale ..... the canal never reached the River Mersey. The expense of the aqueduct, and the coming of the railways, led to the demise of the company in the end..... but my goodness, what a feat of engineering! I don't think it could be done today!

Art in Revolution

On the way home from work the other night we popped into the Walker Art Gallery to catch the Art in Revolution: Liverpool 1911 exhibition, which ends it's run tomorrow.

It celebrates a pioneering exhibition of modern art including work by the Post-Impressionists, which ran at the Bluecoat, Liverpool, in 1911. The 2011 exhibition recreates the visual impact of the works from the original show. Highlights include works by Gaugin, Matisse and Signac ... and... new to me ... works by Albert Lipczinski ...

 We weren't particularly taken with the art work, but were fascinated by the rest of the exhibition which showed what was going on in Liverpool at the time of the original show.

 In the summer of 1911 Liverpool was gripped by mass social unrest and strike action. British troops were dispatched to deal with protesters on the streets and a warship was stationed in the Mersey. Some historians have said that events in Liverpool at that time were the nearest the UK has come to a revolution.

The exhibition sympathises with the down-trodden workers, who were trying to achieve better working conditions in the transport industry.  Film footage from the time shows families dressed in their Sunday best enjoying a day out on a hot August afternoon, rather than hardened rioters.

They were ruthlessly attacked by the panic stricken police, and in the days that followed the situation escalated until two of the protesters were shot dead by the troops who were drafted in to deal with the 'revolution'.

While we had always known about this shameful episode from the city's past, it was fascinating to find out more about the actual event from archived sources.

As we left, we considered recent riots in the cities of the UK ..... exactly one hundred years later.
What will future generations make of it all, we wondered!

(All images are taken from Google as photography was not allowed in the gallery.)

Could this be a new obsession?

I always keep a holiday diary, but this year I decided to have fun with water colours and collage, and make it more like an art journal. I've was inspired by some wonderful boards on Pinterest and packed up a whole box of pretty papers and other goodies to take with me.

And then I sat in the sun and played ....

I painted the pages, and added all sorts of bits and pieces ..... leaves, pressed flowers, pictures from leaflets, paper bags, birthday cards .... and then added some journaling.

Every page reminds me of some aspect of our time in France.

I think I'm hooked ... I can't wait till I've got some time to do some more!

In the style of Rosina Wachtmeister

We've been doing a bit of art in school in a bid to get something bright on the classroom walls.

I've seen these cats around for many years now on postcards and biscuit tins, and I've always liked their cheerfulness. As our first topic in Literacy this term involves some poems about cats, I thought we'd have a go. A bit of research on Google revealed the artist to be Rosina Wachtmeister, an Austrian artist who now lives in Italy. I started with a powerpoint presentation of lots of the cat paintings, and we talked about colour and technique. The children couldn't wait to get started.

First of all they drew the outlines of the cats ....

and then filled in patches of colour with oil pastels.

Next task was to add a painted background, and gold pen highlights.

My class are thrilled with the results!