A bus ride

Another bus ride to Newcastle with HO to see -




- some pavement barriers .... no, only joking, but I did like the colours and pattern.






- We went to see the Norman Cornish exhibition at the Northumbria University - his sketches and paintings recall a bygone era of mining and pit villages. We rather fancied buying one but the prices started about £8000! Instead we made do with some library books from the splendid Newcastle library which is due to be officially opened by Wor Queen tomorrow.

More hidden places

Clutching our bus passes, a friend and I caught the bus to Newcastle to go to an exhibition of photographs by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen called "Byker Revisited" in the Side Gallery. This exhibition of portraits and landscapes comes 40 years after she came to the north-east to make the first photographic documentary of Byker. We still have the original book of photos so it was really interesting to see this "update" (and scarey to think how many years have passed!).

On the way to the gallery we found some hidden stairways, only a few of the many near the Tyne Bridge.

Back to explore some more one day!

Over the Tyne - part one

Today we visited the Baltic Arts Centre on the Gateshead side of the Tyne

just in time to see the footbridge rotate to let some boats through. Nothing made a great impression on me at the Baltic (I feel a bit guilty about this!) except a mock-up of an old shed full of useless bits and pieces (like I have at the back of some cupboards), all colour coordinated and set out so you could see everything clearly through the glass windows. Why is other people's rubbish so fascinating!? Do I have to go to an art gallery to see it? I suppose one man's or woman's rubbish is another art gallery's attraction. I always think "Why didn't I think of that?" Is that what makes it art? Hmm ....