Dance

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful… This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking”
Agnes De Mille

Fuerteventura 1997

“Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Side, Turkey, 1999

“In a society that worships love, freedom, and beauty, dance is sacred. It is a prayer for the future, a remembrance of the past and a joyful exclamation of thanks for the present.” Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Paphos, Cyprus, 2006

“One step, two steps, three steps; like winds of time experience joy of centuries, when movements become revelations of the dance of destinies.”
Shah Asad Rizvi

Tunisia 2008

“Dancing is creating a sculpture that is visible only for a moment.” Erol Ozan

Loz & Ben, South Shields UK 2012

“Take his hands, take her hands and dance! There’s a wide and free world calling on you to make it your dance floor.” Ayokunle Falomo, 

Danielle & Cal, Sunderland UK 2013

“This is why the idea of finding love across the dance floor endures – symbolizing that, when we know the true rhythm of our heart, we know the other.”Alexandra Katehakis

Nashville, USA, 2014

“The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.” Agnes de Mille

Sunderland Diwali Festival, UK 2017

“Dance till the stars come down from the rafters
Dance, Dance, Dance ’till you drop.” W.H.Auden

Stotfold Mill Fair, UK 2018

“Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.” Martha Graham

St.Albans, UK 2018

“It doesn’t matter if I’m off the beat. It doesn’t matter if I’m snapping to the rhythm. It doesn’t matter if I look like a complete goon when I dance. It is my dance. It is my moment. It is mine. And dance I will. Try and stop me. You’ll probably get kicked in the face.”
― Dan Pearce, 

Pelaw Inn, Gateshead, UK 2019

“Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.” -Mark Twain

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, UK 2019

Stay tooned for whatever comes next. 🙂

Newcastle – Sept 2019 – people

Just some people I spotted on our walk around Gateshead & Newcastle.

At Venice Beach 🙂
The force is with them
Geordie Shore
02
Up
It wasn’t that bad!
Liquid Lunch
Three Hens
Walking Dudettes
Wait-ers
Party Girls
Living out of a suitcase.

All pictures embiggenable with a little click

An album of all the Newcastle pictures can be found HERE

Stay tooned for our next adventure. 🙂

Tynemouth Market ~ November 2018

Now and then due to busyness or bad weather, Sophie and I go to Tynemouth Market for a shorter excursion as it’s only 20 minutes away and there’s always stuff to photograph, and shop for!  The market is held at Tynemouth Metro Station, a Grade II listed building, and is on every Saturday and Sunday.

Things you could buy there..

Eyerolling cat.

 

Steampunk Topper

 

Hangover Tea

 

Skullptures

 

Nuts and bolts

 

Converted fire extinguishers

 

These might be sitting on my kitchen shelf now 🙂

 

Art Deco perfume bottle.

Things you might see there…

carving his wares

 

 

Illuminations

 

There are always lots of doggies

princess

 

Doggage à Trois

 

and sartorially elegant ladies

Golden Wonder

We had our lunch there..

 

and then went to have a quick look at the newly opened Spanish City, which I’ll do next time, so stay tooned!

Tall Ships at Sunderland ~ July 2018 ~ Part 3

Part 1 HERE.   Part 2 HERE

Finishing up our day visiting the tall ships, here are a few more random pictures I took on the day.

What have these to do with Tall Ships Fraggle? Because UNICORNS!!!

 

Empty Gin Joint ~ what were they thinking?? IT”S SUNDERLAND!!! they don’t know what Gin is unless it’s spelled B.E.E.R! 🤣🤣

 

Media

 

Chimney Sweeper.

 

Tooting Popular Front. Or back.

 

Hope they don’t go over a big wave.

 

Actually the handstand man was part of a shoreside kind of play where himself and a couple of totties ran around half a ships deck, but I have no idea what that was all about.

Handstand man and Totty 1.

 

Scary Totty. Having a bad hair day I think.

 

Three-point turn FAIL!! Several times. 🙄

I think though, my fave shot of the day was looking up at the grey block of flats overlooking the river and seeing this

Making a difference.

 

Stay tooned for a visit to Stockton-on-Tees where we visited the cemetery, and the Butterfly House.

Tall Ships at Sunderland ~ July 2018 ~ part 2

Part 1 Here

Part of the joy in photographing a big event like this, is people watching, and there were plenty of interesting humans for my camera.

Say ‘cheeeeeeze!’ Wait, no, say ice creeeeeem!

 

Fish & chips

 

what shall we do with a drunken sailor…

 

Aye aye Capn’ Boss

 

Where do I start?

 

I’ll keep my head down, no-one will notice me.

 

obliging merchants

 

The SIlver Surfers

 

sharp dressed man

stay tooned for more ships ahoy!

Frontline~ Part 3~ June 2018

As well as the medeival lot, we also found some Tudors (at least I think this chap is)

 

I’m Henery the eighth I am.

and some (not very convincing) Romans

 

Red isn’t dead

 

odd one out

 

Up yours??

 

hat’s off

 

Some of the people who came to see the show also dressed up in style

 

 

my favourites were this couple I saw walk past me

it wasn’t a great photograph as you can see so I ran after them and asked them if I could take their photo

 

Mr & Mrs Cute

how cute are they? 🙂

also spotted this chap,

Mr.Serious Photographer, with badges.

 

and this lady

Ms.Pink

Stay tooned for the American civil war next time!

 

South Shields Food Fair ~ May 2018

Sophie and I love a good food fair, most of the stalls have free tasters which we take advantage of whenever possible, we buy stuff you can’t really get in Tesco’s and have a cool lunch from one of the stalls.  I love to unleash the camera on some unsuspecting people for a change too. Back in May, we went to the one at Bent’s Park on the seafront and were not disappointed with the wares available.

Say Cheese!!! (The orange & whisky cheese was yummy!)

 

Interesting chocolate. Forgot to buy some :/

 

These otter go well with tonic!

 

The garlic lady. (Bought a peeler/mincer/storage jar from here. 🙂

 

and the rest!! 🙂

 

The Tempted

 

The Temptress

 

Making friends

 

Buy Two…

 

The War on Mundane begins

That’ll do for part 1 I think, don’t want you falling asleep.

Stay tooned for Part 2 coming soon to a screen near you. 🖥

 

Seaham ~ May 2018 ~ part 2

Part 1 HERE

Let’s have a wander around the harbour and beach first.

There was a boat removal going on while we were there

having a paddle in the sea

 

 

Come in No.10 your time is up!

Everyone found it entertaining

The Audience

The beach was clean and not too packed,

Far From the Madding Crowd

 

The Madding Crowd (1)

 

The Madding Crowd (2)

Seaham’s Lighthouse was built in 1905 to mark the town’s north breakwater. The cylindrical metal tower is painted in an alternating black and white pattern and is 10 meters in height.  A green light is shown from the glazed lantern at the top of the tower, which gives a single flash every 10 seconds or in bad weather shows a fixed green light. The tower also holds a Fog Horn which gives a blast every 30 seconds in periods of low viability. So glad I don’t live next to that!

Actually that’s a big fat lie, when the weather kicks off here Seaham lighthouse is the place to be with a camera, check this out a couple of minutes of this film by Ian Britton,

 

 

On the way back up the hill from the beach, we saw some more madding crowd coming down,

Don’t worry lad, you’ll grow into it!

 

Sorceror and apprentice.

 

In Seaham, towels are the new must-have jackets.

 

That’ll do for today, stay tooned folks!

 

 

 

Durham Botanical Gardens ~ May 2018 ~ part 2

Part 1 HERE

After we exited the hot glass house we toddled off around the grounds,

Recycling

So many different blossoms and blooms everywhere

 

 

Friends…maybe not

 

 

 

Triffids?

 

Squiggles

 

Sculpted Birdy things

 

As the Gardens are part of the University Campus, on sunny days the students come here to study, or chat, or be romantic 🙂

 

You at the bottom there..get a room!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s all for today folks, stay tooned for the Bluebell Woods just across from the Gardens.

Alnwick Garden ~ April 2018 ~ people

Part 1 HERE. Part 2 HERE. Part 3 HERE

Alnwick Gardens is a popular place for families to visit, as long as it isn’t raining too hard, there’s always a lot of cars in the car park. It’s such a big place though so you never feel crowded. It’s a good place to people watch if you are so inclined

Baby Love

 

Say CHEEEEEEZZZZE!

 

Happy face

 

Halcyon days

 

 

Picnic people

 

Unco-ordinated Vlogger (I mean! Pink AND red?? Social death 🙄 )

 

that’s better 🙂

 

Girl on a mission

 

devil-children chasing ducks.

 

the kiddy-magnet pool

 

 

Sophie people-shooting.

We’ll finish up this series next time with the giant tree house and some extraneous extras, so stay tooned my lovlies,

treat yourself to the embiggenable versions of the pictures by clicking on them if you like 🙂

 

The Diwali Festival~ Sunderland ~ Nov 2017~ Part 2

Part 1 HERE

Bring on the dancing girls! And guys too. Not much to say except it was full of colour and joy and laughter.

These guys were more fit than a fit thing on a fit stick!

The lady dancers watching the chaps come down the stairs

they got everyone they could up on the floor to dance with them

After that it was the ladies groups turn to dance

and a little solo artiste

And then Sophie and I walked home as the sun went down.

Over the bridge

back through Keel Square

and through the shopping area where they had some fancy Christmas lights.

It was such a lovely festival to attend, so many smiling faces, so much to see and learn about, hope they do it again this year!

Full album of pictures HERE

 

 

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The Hoppings~June 2017~Part 2

Part 1 HERE

The Hoppings fair was very well attended, so I thought it would be rude of me not to photograph some of the people I saw 🙂

Sunburn Lady

 

Drinking Lady

 

Armed policemen

 

Bandsmen

 

Tattoo Lady

 

Squadies

 

Old Lady

 

pretty lady

 

Pie Man

 

Slushie Man

 

Dad Man

 

and my absolute fave

Why Me? Man

 

Still more to come from The Hoppings so stay tooned!