Graffiti!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Graffiti........ You either love it or you hate it. Looking at this scene by the waterfront I'm not sure what I think but I feel that if a wall doesn't belong to you, then you shouldn't paint on it.

The City of Bristol has its share of people leaving their stamp on blank walls and buildings, some of it very ugly and rubbishy, though in some areas there are designated places for people to use for graffiti and this seems to work well.

However, there is graffiti and graffiti...........

Recently, I found myself queuing for forty five minutes outside Bristol City Museum to see Banksy's work! Yes...... forty five minutes!

For those who haven't ever heard of him but would like to learn more, go here.

Is it really possible, though, that people have never heard of Banksy, because he is very popular in the West Country. His work is worth thousands of pounds. He is tolerated, his work is unique and Bristol is very proud of this man. No one knows who he is. He keeps himself anonymous. People reckon that he must be around forty years old, but only a few trusted people know exactly who he is!

Well, after queuing for all that time and talking to many people from other lands who had come all the way to see his work, I got into the museum, feeling very tired.

Banksy makes a statement! This is the first thing that caught my eye, a burnt out ice cream van.

At first I thought, "Oh my Goodness, he has defaced all the statues!" However, I soon realized that they wouldn't have allowed him to do that. He skillfully made replicas. I expect the originals are some where safely hidden away.

This statue was supposed to be a Roman goddess or something but Banksy had made it into a person begging on the streets.

Many things caught my eye, in particular a cage with what looked like a leopard sitting on a log, with tail swishing back and forth. However, when I went to look at it front view, it turned out to be a fur coat!

Another cage held a nest and baby birds calling to their mother. However, when I went to investigate, I noticed a cctv camera on a branch and two baby ones in a nest calling out! This seemed so typical of Banksy to to turn everything around and get people thinking.

I think I will have to go back again and take more photos.

It was all a bit too much to take in on the first visit.

As I said before, you either love this kind of thing or you hate it!

What do you think?

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek. Good idea to look them up.

A Trip to the Museum? Or was it Play School?

This is a photo of another small corner of my garden and has nothing to do with this post!

I had promised to take 5 yr old Amber to the museum the other Saturday while the other members of the family had to be somewhere else.

It was the first warm, sunny day after weeks of rain and cold, so we decided to take a picnic. At the very last minute Grandad decided to come too.

We caught the bus to the city centre and the cheerful, kind driver smiled at Amber and let her go free and of course, we pensioners used our bus passes.

Grandad suggested that we go to look at squirrels in the nearby park. Amber said, "But we're going to the museum!"

"It's on the way, Grandad explained and we had to climb a very steep hill and when we got there we were very out of breath and there wasn't a squirrel in sight!

"I want to go to the museum!" wailed Amber.

We turned back down the hill and Grandad was disappointed to be leaving the park so soon. "It's a shame we have to be inside on such a nice day," He remarked, a bit acidly.

We arrived at the Museum and went inside and Amber raced round the different sections while we quickly followed, our eyes trying to adjust to the rapidly changing scenes. Just as we got interested in one thing, something else caught Amber's eye and she wanted to move on.

We came to a children's play area with books and dressing up clothes and children's toys. I read stories and helped Amber to change into an Indian sari and pretty fairy outfits. She stayed there a long time and I noticed Grandad looking at his watch rather a lot.

When we got hungry we left the museum and sat on a bench outside to eat our picnic and started to open our food and drink containers. Before long a pigeon with a bad foot came to join us and ate some crumbs and it wasn't long before more birds arrived, several with damaged feet and they had difficulty walking. We started to speculate what had happened to their feet. Had someone who hated pigeons managed to stamp on their feet? Or did they get their toes torn off in some kind of netting? We felt sorry for the disabled birds and tried to give more crumbs to them. Eventually lunch was finished & we tidied our rubbish and went back into the museum.

Grandad was looking forward to browsing round this time to look at the things he was interested in. Amber led us back to the play area and when she had tired of that, stumbled on an art corner. "I want to draw a picture," she said. So we sat down and we coloured pictures. She signed her name and even left a comment on a little card. "I like butterflies, love Amber x"

We spent so long colouring, dressing up and having stories that it was time to go! Amber had a Birthday party to go to at 4 o'clock and I'd promised to get her home in good time.

Reluctantly Grandad left the museum and I suggested that he came back during the week while I was at work. "You can stop and look at everything you like," I enthused.

We had to pay for Amber on the way back. Isn't it funny how one driver can be really pleasant and kind, yet another more grumpy and not so generous?

We arrived home in plenty of time to get Amber dressed for the party and I made a pot of tea."Do you know?" I said, "I had such a lovely time at the museum!" Amber nodded enthusiastically. Grandad gave me a funny look as he'd not really seen anything! He never did go back during the week, though.