Mesmerising Murmuration

Runcorn may spring to mind images of the Northern comedy 'Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps', the Runcorn bridge featured on the Cathedral City cheese advert and a general factory/ industrial grime, however as a resident I'd like to prove you wrong! On a still night dusk will not only bring some pretty competitive sunsets, but flocks of birds that sail down the estuary and ship canal to find their roost for the night. white Turns zoom past, gliding centimetres above the canal streaming by in their hundreds, whilst the gulls flock above, literally taking over the sky in a sea of dots, whilst on a really good night you can see the starlings come out to play! Starling 'Murmurations' are one of the most beautiful natural displays you are likely to come across on the Great British Isles. The birds literally form a cloud of thousands of black dots which move in synchronisation as great waves arching across the sky in an organic mass, a kind of bird version of the Northern Lights! I will capture some video when I'm back home and show you guys! But for now here are some pretty pics...

How to spend a Sunday

Wake up no earlier than 11am slowly emerge and put normal clothes on (as oppose to last night's fancy dress which also acted as great nightwear due to memory of a goldfish resulting in lack of PJs!) Get home drink a berry smoothie with promised super healthy fruits, make real coffee (if you don't like it then make it anyway as it smells of Sunday) and begin making breakfast no 1...
After an appropriate amount of time for your belly to make some space, begin breakfast no 2
Once nice and filled head to study put radio and radiator on full blast get inspired and get down to planning your next big project.. !

Introducing Cave Woman and Wolverine

Hollywood's hottest couple Cave Woman and Wolverine were spotted last night in Winsford!

I got on the Bundlr home page!!

I've been doing research for my new project, a website that will help creative people find and work with each other on exciting new projects. Bundlr has provided me with a great way to capture all the cool and exciting websites that i've been coming across. It's called 'Existing companies with the big society idea' you can see the contents here or check out the home page by clicking the image below.

Escape The City

Escape the corporate world and do something you LOVE!! This made me smile...

Start Something You Love: Escape the City...1 year on from Escape the City on Vimeo.

David Hockney, A Bigger Picture

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a pair of tickets to see the Royal Academy's exhibit 'A Bigger picture' by David Hockney. What a legend! that’s all I can say! It was a huge exhibition space full of huge work! Pretty much everything in the space was paintings of the Yorkshire landscape in changing seasons. I loved its simplicity. Hockney doesn’t try and pretend otherwise he simply captures the constant beauty that is the English country side. Marvelling at the different pleasures that each season brings with it. Its not hyper realistic painting - in fact a couple of the paintings were almost childlike, yet the way they make you feel and recall the English countryside in all its full splendour is very real. You can almost smell the hot fields and feel the flickering shadows as you walk into his painting.
The first room is made up of four paintings each on their own wall- repeating the exact same scene but with seasonal changes, I had to look twice to noticed that it was the same spot he was painting as the seasonal change was so striking. Although some images were painted at the scene, many of Hockney's paintings are from memory giving his imagination freer rein.
There was a large room filled with ipad drawings that documented the coming of spring! Although the marks were noticeably different in many of these digital paintings they retained a true Hockney style and its impressive that such a renowned (and pretty old) artist mastered the use of this tool.
I can really relate to his love of the English countryside - as it is has always been a kind of calming soul quenching therapy for me when I do occasionally make it out and be surrounded by feilds, trees and bushes and life other than our own! Despite the crowds of the exhibition it almost feels like you have been on a spectacular walk through the seasons!

The last of 2011 NYE wth some London Culture!

Terrance Conran

“Design and business are completely interlinked. One cannot succeed without the other. I’ve always thought design was 98% common sense and 2% aesthetics.”

Conran loves food ( I think we’d get on well!) In his shops he designed equipment to prepare it, cutlery to serve it and chairs and tables from which to eat it! He fell in love with the fresh ingredients from the markets of the Mediterranean and France and opening up a series of course beautiful soup kitchens, he served this love of food to be eaten! Then in the 1990s he progressed to more ambitious higher end restaurants that ‘offered a new kind of social experience”.

Conran has no one common style, designing his restaurants to reflect their settings. I love the display below, which so beautifully illustrates the ‘feel’ and ‘experience’ so careful crafted for each restaurant.

“Conran has always been interested in ‘a simple modern language of forms and materials, but there has never been a single Conran look.”

His design consultance which he opened later on in his career, offered a series of design services – products and furniture, graphics, Interior design and architecture. From designing cutlery to designing buildings!

Habitat is of course one of Conrans most famous business ventures and as a brilliant entrepreneur he has had a few! Habitats success was that it offered young house makers to be able to buy a complete look, reflecting the revolution in taste propelled by the fashion and music of the 60s.