Learning in the u3a movement

When Southport Pier was renovated, the public was asked to sponsor the boards. Each sponsor had a nameplate set into the boards, somewhere on the pier. It became a great game to read the boards while walking along the pier. A number of years have now passed and the nameplates receive less attention (at least from the locals), but when the low sun breaks through at the end of the day they become attention-grabbing again.

The photograph was inspired by a desire to create an image that conveys a message while posing the question as to how it was achieved. I trust that you enjoy it as much as I did taking it.  

At the end of a long walk when on holiday we came across this 'Street Art' which was quite tidy and skilfully done. We found it a positive and encouraging reminder to keep going!

Lots of words taken at Blists Hill Museum- designed to entice the passing housewife, the man on his way from work and the children. A Product for everyone. There is even something for the family pet.

Based upon an idea I had for a similar theme, this seemed a way that words could describe some of the issues that we have faced over the last year or so.

Kew Gardens display this autumn, the spirit of Japan in a cascade of haikus. (Installation- 'One Thousand Springs' by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota at Kew Gardens, Autumn 2021.)

Even the words on graffiti can send a sincere and meaningful message. I saw this image in a subway near Worcester, painted during the lockdown period.

This was taken at a famous pub outside Carlingford. They also run a pet hotel

Found at Calke Abbey in Derbyshire last summer. Remarkable that these remedies seemed to have been still in use 150 years after Nicholas Culpepper first listed them, so obviously they must work.

We are all being reminded nowadays about the need to eat a healthy diet. It was comparatively easy to find five examples of green vegetables and salad items but more fiddly to get them to fit inside a word mask.

Quickly captured this daredevil sheep attempting to scale the wall of its field. Very apt name on the road sign! Image taken through my car window- it pays to have a camera to hand!! 

Our grandchildren came to visit last month and during a craft session, 7-year old Katie produced this wonderful scrabble picture of her family. She decorated it by allocating creatures to family members.

Part of an unusually large monumental stone from 1905 with the epitaph formed in glazed tiles which was very appropriate for Thomas Hulme, an earthenware manufacturer from Burslem in Stoke on Trent who did so much for his home town including giving a site for a new School of Art.

I was waiting at Trowbridge station recently after heavy rain when I was struck by the reflection of the station name in a large puddle. 

This very old fashioned typewriter was strangely on display in a tea room window! I found it to be a really interesting artefact, and its name ‘Corona’, got me thinking about current ‘typewriters’ (ie computers and mobile phones) and how like us they are subject to viral infections. I think on the whole though, evolution (here of type and text) has worked out for the good.