The Moors and The Moon

With my friend on Dartmoor

As I'm sure everyone is already aware, September 28th (UK time) was both a super Harvest moon and a total lunar eclipse, which are event that won't occur again together for another 30 years! Due to this, my friend, my mother and I decided to spend the early hours of the morning out on Dartmoor, where there is very little light pollution and hardly any buildings to obstruct the view. 

Mist particles swirling in the wind.

We got there at around 1am and, although it was rather overcast, the wind was whipping the clouds and mist about rapidly enough that it was still possible to view the eclipse.

My friend is dazed by the flash, whilst I gaze at the Moon.

At around 2:30am, the temperature began to drop and so my mother and my friend went to find a sheltered spot to make some soup to keep us warm, whilst I looked after our things. 

Although I have to admit that I did get a little bit distracted and went clambering around on some rocks  in the dark for a while! It was so peaceful sitting up there.

These are higher than they seem.

4:30am approached and it was time to leave, so we packed up and headed back. However, we did stop along the way to have one last look at the Moon and I managed to take one, very poor photograph of it in its rusty, hidden state:

The Super Harvest Moon Eclipse.

However, I wasn't too disappointed, because I got to see it with my eyes and had a wonderful night as well. There are some stunning photographs and time-lapse videos available elsewhere online though, should you want to see them! ;D

365 Days of Art: Surprise gift art for someone

5. Surprise gift art for someone.

I've been very sporadic with my 365 Days of Art posts haven't I? You'd think that with all the time that's passed I'd have created a large collection of pictures to post here by now, but no. In reality, I've completed about 30 pictures since January and not all of them were for this challenge. As for the challenge as a whole, only 26 of 365 have been completed and the deadline is the end of November - oops! Well, there's still time, haha! ;D

Anyway, this particular picture was for 5. Surprise gift art for someone. It's a crossover drawing of the characters Saiko Yonebayashi (Tokyo Ghoul) and Lucifer/Hanzou Urushihara (Hataraku Maou-sama!) that I did for my friend Kei after she posted about wanting to see something with the two of them together. Admittedly, she did know I was drawing something for her, but she didn't know what, so I'm still going to count this as a surprise (even if counting it as "art" is a little bit dubious)!

An Unexpectedly Noizy Present

Noiz is distressed...maybe

This morning, my best friend/housemate put a box wrapped in dinosaur-themed paper next to me and motioned for me to open it. As it's my birthday quite soon I wondered if he'd simply gotten the dates mixed up. He told me that since he'd had his present early, that he wanted me to have mine early too and so, naturally, opening commenced! Haha. Inside the box I found...

Vintage & Retro Fair and a Detour to a Burlesque Shop (with Bonus Dinosaurs)

On Saturday there was a vintage and retro fair held in Torquay town hall, so I decided to go along with a friend of mine and check it out, since the one at Torre Abbey had been enjoyable! There were lots of stalls selling items mainly from eras ranging from the 1920s - 1960's, though some were a little older and some were a little newer. 

Some vintage magazine covers for Pan and Pearls Soap adverts on one of the stalls caught my eye, but, ultimately, I didn't end up buying them. I did, however, purchase two rather lovely items, for even lovelier prices.

A necklace with two flies and a beetle.

The above necklace is approximately 5.5 inches (14cm) across, really unusual and so detailed!  The bodies of the flies are covered in a thick, textured fabric, but everything else is either molded or done in enamel effect. Perhaps it's not to everyone's taste, but I love things like this and am also very fond of insects, so it was a great find for £2.50! 

The other item I bought was the brooch below, which is about 1.5 inches (3.8cm) across and is a beautiful deep red colour. It was £1.50 and is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for to go with a ring I have.

Apparently there had been singing and dancing earlier in the morning, but we didn't arrive in time to see it (sorry Sandy Sparkle, I'm sure you were fabulous!). However, the DJ was still playing retro classics the whole time we were there and, although it wasn't really my kind of music, it did add to the atmosphere of the event and it was a nice touch.

After the fair we walked to the indoor market via the high street and saw something about Dinosaur World in vacant shop window on the way there:

Dinosaurs hiding in the windows!

At the indoor market, we headed for a burlesque-themed shop called Annie's Boutique. Despite its little size, it always has a good selection of gothic, rockabilly/psychobilly, burlesque and retro inspired items for sale, including dresses, skirts, jewellery, accessories, shoes, and corsets. According to the website, Annie also offers a free personal corset fitting service, but I haven't tried it out on the occasions I've visited the shop.

However, I did buy a fascinator and a rather lovely hat/hair pin:

You may have realised this by now, but I'm rather fond of costume jewellery. I much prefer things that I think look ornate and interesting as opposed to those that simply have monetary value. Not that I could afford those expensive ones even if I did want them, haha!

When we got back, my friend wanted to mess about taking some photos of me, so we did that. Those are all that're under the cut below, so feel free to skip them! ;D

The International Agatha Christie Festival - Exhibition & Vintage Fair at Torre Abbey

The town I live in happens to be the birthplace of Agatha Christie, who was known throughout the world for her novels, largely of the murder mystery genre. The author would have been 125 years old this year and, to mark the occasion, The International Agatha Christie Festival was (and still are) holding all sorts of events. Last Sunday (the 13th), at Torre Abbey, I went to see the Agatha Christie: Unfinished Portraits exhibition and also attended a vintage fair there, which was a collaboration between TIACF and Miss Ivy Events.

The exhibition was initially housed in London's Bankside Gallery on the South Bank, but moved down to Torre Abbey for the second half of its run, which is the 11th September - 18th October. The exhibition consisted of photographic portraits of Christie from birth all the way up until her death, with biographical information and diary excerpts included alongside them. In addition to that, there was a timeline of her books, and cases containing original letters, notebooks, and other items. Photos were not permitted inside the exhibit, for obvious reasons.

It was an enjoyable exhibition and I found Christie's musings about becoming an author particularly interesting. She said that she had first wanted to become a musician, but soon realised that she didn't have the talent for it and so eventually ended up writing because it was the thing that she was good at. Yet even when her books were selling well she still never considered herself to be a "professional".

Vintage cars on display

The vintage fair consisted of over 30 various stalls and stands both outdoors and within the walls of Torre Abbey. There were vintage and vintage-inspired clothes, accessories, homewares, crafts, food & drink on offer and it was a wonderful setting in which to wander around. There were so many beautiful treasures on display and I rather wish I'd had money the money with me to buy some of the gorgeous dresses and rings being offered!

Some of the stalls outside

Arches in the gardens

A view of the Abbey from outside

As we were already there, my friend and I decided to explore the gardens of Torre Abbey as well because they're quite lovely. In addition to the pretty gardens, we also discovered some sculptures, like these cows:

I saw some gorillas at Torre Abbey before, but I don't know where they moved onto... 

"The Rower" by Sharon Windebank, 2007

There were also little bits of garden planting that perhaps weren't really sculpture, but looked just as lovely.

Then we headed over to the greenhouse to take a look around. I took lots of photos of the plants inside, but I won't post those here.

...and caught a glimpse of this cute little fellow guarding the hosepipe:

We then found another sculpture hiding amongst the plants:

And, for our own ridiculous reasons, my friend made me take a photograph of this plant and sign:

It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon indeed!

Tomorrow, with any luck, we'll be off to another vintage fair, so there will be more fabulous things to see and do~

365 Days of Art: Fanart

194. Fanart (Kindzi from Defiance)

I've been very infrequent with my 365 Days of Art posts, but I'll write more about that in my next entry. For now, here's number 194: Fanart, which is of Nichole Galicia as an Omec, Kindzi, from the SyFy show Defiance. It's a digital painting I did for my friend Nasu (we watch the show together), and even though it doesn't look so much like Kindzi, I'm reasonably happy with it regardless.

Other than that, I was in a silly mood and added some text...

Because pancakes make everything better, I guess?

Walks in the Park with a Weirdo

There's a park near me that I've started going to this year quite regularly; I took my niece and nephew a few times when they were visiting, and sometimes I go by myself, but most of the time I go with my dear friend & housemate Nasu-pie (who does not like being in photos very often). Anyway, to get to the park I walk along a main road and there's another entrance that leads to a dual carriageway, but once inside it's such a peaceful and lovely place! 

A Monday in London: Up at the O2 and Down the Spiral of a Carsten Höller Slide...

The O2 with walkway.

From August 30th to September 1st my sister & her family very kindly let me stay with them in London. On the 31st it was a bank holiday Monday, so I also managed to meet up with my creative and lovely friend Kei - she blogs at Doing A Thing and Unfortunately Oh! - and we had some silly, fun adventures! I should point out here that I didn't take many photos, so any that are marked with "Doing A Thing" were taken by Kei and used with her permission (thank you!).

The O2 with the blue walkway arching over the top of it.

First, we went to the O2 Arena, as we were going to "climb" right over the top of it a little later that afternoon! However, as we were still a bit early we had a look around inside first. There wasn't much going on at the time, but we did find this interesting looking wall panel...

Visitors could change the music being played via touch screens.
There was a matching one to the left of it as well.

After a short wait, our timeslot for Up at the O2 came, so we went into the briefing room to meet our guide, Phil (he wasn't the mannequin modelling the rather fetching climb suit!)  and to watch a safety video.

Then it was time to get suited, booted, have some photos taken by the photographer (available for purchase at the end if you so desired; we didn't), have a few things explained, and begin the ascent.

Information about the O2 on the viewing platform

When we reached the viewing platform, 52 metres up at the top, it actually didn't seem that high. Even though there was a lot of cloud coverage the view was still great though!

With Kei at the top,

It rained the entire time, but I like rain, so it was enjoyable!

We needed to do this pose.
It was necessary.
It was.

We were on the viewing platform for a while and our guide came and told us some information about the various landmarks that could be seen, including The Arcelor Mittal Orbit, which will have a giant slide added to it by spring of next year! (Incidently, that slide is being created by the Belgian artist Carsten Höller, but more about his work a little later in this post). 

The way down was a little steeper, but actually much easier and the time seem to pass quite swiftly.  It was a fun experience and absolutely worth doing!

Next, we headed over to the Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery in order to see the interactive exhibition, Decision, by Carsten Höller (told you there'd be more about him later). We entered via a long, dark tunnel (the "claustrophobic" entrance) that we had to navigate around by feeling along the walls. The sound echoed around and it was difficult to tell how far away from the other visitors you were at any time. Also, it gave me the feeling of wanting to stoop down to avoid banging my head constantly, even though my head was nowhere near touching the top. It was a great start!

Flying Mushrooms
The end of the tunnel and the mushroom orrery.

We emerged into a brightly lit room featuring what can only be described as an orrery-like structure , only with giant toadstools circulating in its mechanism instead of celestial bodies. Visitors were allowed to push the mushrooms around and I couldn't resist having a go...

The look of stupid awe and glee when I get to touch things in art galleries!

To avoid this entry getting extremely long, I won't detail everything here, but I'll share a few more images with you (if you'd like to know the context, Kei explained it over at her blog, which I'll link to below).

Moving on, at this pile of pills I was encouraged by a grinning security guard to take a pill and told "good luck" before he laughed a little. I appreciated that he got into his role (though he didn't have to), and took a placebo pill at the water fountain, haha.

Pill Clock

Divisions (Wall Painting with Aphids)

Snake and Half Mirror Room
There were two snakes and a mirrored wall

Kei: Upside Down Goggles
Dice can be seen in the background

Me: Upside Down Goggles

Isometric Slides

Isometric Slides was absolutely the best way to exit the exhibition (I went down the left one/right one on the picture)! I did feel bad for the two women in charge of helping people onto the slides and the guys taking the sacks back at the bottom though, because it must have been a boring job for them. 

Despite Two Flying Machines and Adjusted Hayward Sign not being open due to rain, I still liked this exhibition and actually appreciated the ideas behind the installations once I had read about them afterwards too (I always like to experience things without knowing the meaning first, for some reason). 

If you'd like to read more detailed accounts & or see additional pictures of the two experiences, you can check Kei's blogs about Up at the O2 and Decision.

As we were wandering back to the tube station, I also took photos of the murals/wall art below. The first one has been there for a while, but I hadn't seen the second one before. Either way, I think they're both gorgeous!