Margate Meltdown, bikers come to town.

Bank Holiday Monday saw the annual bikers day trip to Margate. Organised by the Ace Cafe in London, Margate Meltdown attracts hundreds of bikers of all ages for a seaside day out.

Thousands of visitors come for the event too, which has stalls and music with the biker community in mind. Lots of jewellry stalls with skulls predominant,  I liked quite a few pieces myself, leathers, hats, bags and even a few bikes were for sale along the harbour arm and seafront.

It was quite exciting seeing all the bikes arrive and hearing the roar of the engines. I don't know anything about bikes, except for a brief period in my life when I rode in a bike and side car but there were some amazing custom bikes including 3 wheelers that were carrying 4 or 5 people and one decorated to the hilt with skulls, skeletons and flags.

Bikes were parked everywhere, in the town along the seafront and up past the Turner Contemporary gallery.

 There were also a few vintage bikes and of course the Harley -Davidsons they had a stand on the seafront too.

It was also great to see Margate so full of people and as it was a sunny day weather wise, the beach was pretty full too. I had a hint of how Margate was in it's heyday.

Chelsea Flower Show.

I visited the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday and stayed for the sell off for the first time.
The show was packed, the avenues filled with shoppers at the trade stands and queues to see some of the gardens.

We had good weather though, probably one of the best days of the week with a lot of sunshine. The cooler wet weather had preserved the gardens well though till the end of the week.

 Having been for a few years now, courtesy of Ruth, its interesting seeing the continuing trends. There is still a lot of hard landscaping with soft natural planting. Generally subtle colour schemes with a lot of white and pale flowers, grasses, iris, foxgloves, geums, peony, cornus, silver birch and aquilega.

This year though saw rowan trees, and lots of hazel and cultivated forms of cow parsley too.
I was struck by some of the delicate single roses on Peter Beales stand and this beautiful white climbing rose. they were awarded a gold medal in the show.

I loved and wanted one of the water gardens on Waterside Nursery's stand, It was interesting to see how many plants could be grown in containers of water. I shall be on the lookout for suitable containers now.

Exhibition at the Show Off Gallery Whitstable and photos of Whitstable.

I've been over to Whitstable to see friends of mine, Marcus Browne and Matthew Usmar Lauder's show. It was held in the Show Off Gallery in the town near the harbour.

A really good show of work including landscapes, fish still lives and icon type portraits and figures, some in decorated boxes.Matthew's website here

I really enjoyed seeing the work and meeting up with them, the work is also on display online.Check out Matthew's facebook page.

Walking around the harbour I took a few photographs and did a bit of beachcombing, one of my favourite activities and justifiable living near the coast now. Some of the shells and stones will be used in future projects.

I was interested to see that there were piles of oyster shells for recycling back to the oyster beds(.Whitstable is famous for its oysters)
  Apparantly it helps the young  oysters, who find the shells one of the best surfaces to attatch themselves to. And it stops the erosion of the oyster beds.

Sketches of Margate

 

I've been out a couple of times to sketch down on the sea front and harbour, but the weather has been so cold that I haven't been able to spend much time there yet.

I love the fact that the sea changes colour everyday, from the clearest pale jade to cobalt blue and greeny grey.

I've taken a few photographs, but it's hard to capture some of the subtlties of the colours and the mysterious sea mists.
 These are sketches done with water soluable coloured pencils, looking out towards Reculver and one of the main beach at Margate.

This is one done in water colour, the paper has cockled a bit.