Ramsgate Harbour illuminated boats.

Ramsgate Royal Harbour has become one of the Christmas highlights in Thanet, with more of the boats illuminated for the festival this year.

Lots of people are visiting and taking photographs  of the over 40 boats taking part and the press has been down interested in this more unusual Christmas event.

This annual event is now in its third year and is organized by the Royal Temple Yacht Club and Ramsgate Marina Association and runs till January.

Boats taking part will be judged for the best dressed competition in a number of categories.

Beach Cross racing on Margate main sands.

There are two Beach Cross racing competitions held in Margate each year which draw crowds to watch the quad and motorbikes. The second competition was last weekend and you could hear the roar of the bikes from our house.

I enjoy watching the races, the bikes churning up the sand, (this time because of the wind, quite a lot of sand was blowing across to the spectators) and the jumps they make from the sandunes. As the bikes go round the course you get views of bikes at various stages of the race.

Bikes can get stuck in the sand and you can see how much work it must take to physically race on the beach.  It is an international event and riders do come from Europe to take part.
I couldn't find a programme at this event so can't identify the riders unfortunately.

At the pit stop bikes and bikers make a colourful scene and around the beach there are various stands and stalls.
 The website for the Beach Cross event is here

Capture Waltham Forest exhibition opening at Vestry House

The Capture Waltham Forest Exhibition has opened at Vestry House Museum.

Vestry House info here It was good to see my entry and that of a friend of mine, Sue Higgins entry too.

Tree Fairy. by Sue Higgins

The winner of the competition was Rob Boler with a photograph of George, of G.H.M Livings, Leyton   Rob's website here.

George, of G.H.M Livings, Leyton  by Rob Boler

 I liked the atmospheric photograph by Lee Laycock    Vinegar Alley
   The photograph got a commendation at this years Sony World Photography Awards.. Lee's Flickr site here

 I was also struck by the colours in Matt Russell's Photograph  Top of the Market 

 Link to all the winning entries here

It was a lovely afternoon with the garden full of flowers in the sunshine. The Olympic exhibition on in the back of the museum is worth a visit  too
Capture Waltham Forest is on until 30th September  Wednesday to Sunday  10-5pm.

London Ice Sculpting Festival

I visited the London Ice Sculpting Festival info here, today at Canary Wharf, where there were a number of international teams carving their sculptures from blocks of ice.

They were having problems this year as the weather has turned much milder and with all the recent rain, sculptures that had been made yesterday had already melted. Today they were dripping and shiny with slick ice as fast as they were being carved.

There is something quite magical about ice, the way the light shines through it and the contrast of smooth and sharp edges. Though the ice sculptures always seem strange to me surrounded by all the office tower blocks of Canary Wharf.

I liked the London landmarks the Dutch team were sculpting, including Big Ben and Tower Bridge and the lion the African team were carving. Chainsaws were being wielded and sprays of ice shooting out everywhere.

People were queuing to take part in a masterclass and have a go at ice carving themselves, and plenty of children were around enjoying the sights and having a go at the carving.

British Customs on Hampstead Heath

In my quest to find remaining British traditions I have been out about when the weather was fine and one trip was out to Hampstead Heath for the Conker championships, welly wanging and morris dancing.

The morris dancers were from Cecil Sharpe House, somewhere I still need to visit, and they had traditional costume including the hankies. Interestingly I did hear a few comments from people about how ridiculous they were. One Mom telling her children that in very negative way. What is it about the Morris that brings up such ridicule? is it just the hankies? Have we lost some of the actual power and real meaning of the dances? It will be interesting to find out more.

The conker championship had a lot of contestants, and it was one of the morris dancers who was last years champion and also won this year.


The welly wanging competition also saw some serious competition, actually it was all good fun there with stalls and info about the heath and other places nearby.



I took photos, noticing the long shadows as we're moving into that low Autumn sun now. The trees are only just getting their Autumn colours though. It will be good to get to the parks when they are really colourful.

Photo Exhibition Lauderdale House

This year I finally managed to enter some photographs in the Lauderdale House Photo Open competition, after thinking about it for a number of years. Info about Lauderdale house and events on here I really liked the house and park around it when I visited, the house is on Highgate Hill, an area I don't really know.

There is a good cafe/restaurant there too always a plus point, and regular exhibitions in it's gallery.They accepted one of my entries, Mandala of Peace for the exhibition which was great. The exhibition is on from 2nd September to Sunday 12th September. Opening hours are weekdays Tuesday till Fridays 11-4pm. Weekends, closed Sat 4th Sunday 5th 12-5pm Sat 11th Sept. 10-1.30 Sun 12th Sept. 12-2pm upper gallery and 3.30-5pm long gallery.


Unfortunately the private view is on the !st Sept exactly the same time as the E17 Art Trail exhibition I'm part of at the Hornbeam. I will get over to see the exhibition in the week.