Tall Ships Festival @ Sail Royal Greenwich

 

Last Sunday my two nephews, mama and I went on along the River Thames on a boat, as part of a 'river cruise', complete with real sailors directing the ship along the course of the river. Starting from Woolwich Arsenal Pier and moving along towards the Royal Greenwich Heritage Centre, it was a really incredible way to see the sights of my hometown. My nephews, aged 12 and 14 were enjoying themselves, eating from canapés and drinking cokes frim glass bottles whilst looking out over the river. It was a rather nostalgic experience in some ways; my puppy Star, who died two years ago loved watching the ships sail along the river during the festival and so it was a reminder of her, in a way. As well as that, as we passed Silvertown docks we talked about my grandfather who worked there and how one of my nephews was named after him as he died when I was young.

In all honesty the river is a fantastic way to see all areas of the city; from Poplar Rowing Club, Silvertown Docks, the Emirates Cable Car and the o2 arena, there are so many different things to see. One thing that I noticed is how the old and new architecture mixes in together, from Stuart Palaces, 1900s factories and docks to millenium aged flats and oddly-shaped houses. It was a really nice experience to see the city from a traditional boat rather than ferry as it was slower and so you had more time to take the views in fully. My nephews seemed to really enjoy themselves, one was a bit hyperactive and desperate to see and do everything all at once, and the other was quite solemn, staring intently at different things and really concentrating. During the tip I also found out that the youngest one is very keen on photography and we definitely bonded over that. These river cruises are only available for a short time and if you can go, you should. Mama and I agreed afterward that we wished we had booked one of the fireworks evening cruises, but with kids the daytime version was probably the safest.

Farmopolis @ Greenwich Peninsula

 

One lazy Sunday afternoon my mother decided it was appropriate to force me out of the house for something other than work. Considering I'd finished work at around 3.30am that same morning and had about 3 hours sleep, it took a lot of persuasion to encourage me to want to get out of bed and do something. Farmopolis is a new site, based on the old jetty along the riverside of the Greenwich Millenium Village in the Peninsula area. It's a new 'recycling' based concept and fairly unique in many ways. Essentially an urban farm and organic restaurant, at the moment it is incredibly aesthically pleasing with hundreds of scattered plants and flowers surrounding the buildings having been transported from the Chelsea Flower Show.

The reason for going was because my mother has actually booked us in for a jewellery making course, although not the regular kind... Instead of using traditional jewellery making materials, such as stones or beads we were using dried flowers. We each made a ring using a glue gun, a 2 pence piece and real flowers, (a mixture of dried and fresh) and were given the freedom to design the ring however we wanted. I loved the brightly coloured flowers and even the thistles, but somehow I ended up with a foresty green set of florals, a more natural choice of colours. Completely different to what I expecte, but I actually really enjoyed taking part in the workshop and would like to try this technique again as the rings are all so unique but so beautiful. The downside is that they don't last forever, unfortunately.

The ladies running the workshop were from Electric Daisy Flower Farm and often make flower based creations and decorations for weddings and I have to say that my favourite pieces are the floral hair crowns which would look lovely at a summer wedding or festival. The jetty was a nice venue to hold a jewellery making workshop as the balcony flowers from the Chelsea Flower Show were places all along the riverside and made for some lovely photos against the floral rings. Plus as you will all know by now how much I love walking along the riverside it was so relaxing to just sit and take in the view and be inspired by nature. Not a bad afternoon considering how little I wanted to leave my bed, let alone my house! It's a shame that summer is almost over, really. Until next time :)

An industrial city river walk...

Hi everyone! As you have probably seen, my puppy Star is a 'Jug'; a Jack Russell/Pug X and so she needs walking literally everyday where possible. Her favourite walk is along the river where I live, probably one of the more industrial views available! As I'm going back to university later on this month and I'm struggling a little inspiration wise, my grandmother had the brainwave of telling me to take my camera out when I took Star out for a walk with my mum.

I have to say, if there is one thing I do love about living in a city is the lights and shapes that that reflect everywhere, as seen in the water/ripples in many of these photographs. Sometimes its good to just take photographs for no real reason, just relax and capture whats in front of you, especially when the sky/sunset is as lovely as this one was. I do love autumn, I love it when it starts to get dark and the lights seem to get brighter and it gets to that stage when a coat is completely necessary. Ahhh, autumn!

Wish I'd remembered to use a tripod though, as my hands are terrible for being incredibly shaky and quite a few times I had to use gates or walls for support and to minimise shakiness in the images. I do live near a variety of London's most famous landmarks, and a few of them are featured in these photographs, I must have looked like a tourist, haha. I think that you can sometimes ignore what is right in front of you if you're not careful, so maybe I need to learn to be more grateful about what where I live has to offer me, inspiration wise.

I'm aware this is a bit of a random post, but I feel like I need to be more proactive when it comes to blogging, so here we are :) a post is a post, and I'm trying my best to post more frequently and not post the same old things. Let me know what you think, I'd love to know and it'll be really helpful to find out the kind of thing I should post in future! Until next time, Rach x x x