Redcar and Saltburn Folk Festival

Saturday saw mixed weather conditions, some sunshine and the occasional drop of light rain. Click on any photo for an enlarged view.

The musicians with the "Flag and Bone Gang" morris dance team from Knaresborough

The Gang in action at Redcar

Bones Creek Band - The musicians with Durham based Step This Way Appalachian clogging team.

Square dancing with "Rights and Lefts"

Step This Way take to the sky!

Marske Fishermen's Choir

Get them young, youthful spectators encouraged to participate at Saltburn.

and they did

More high flying from Step This Way

and a well deserved round of applause from the Saltburn audience.

Anyone wishing to get involved (dancers, singers, musicians) with the Durham based Appalachian step dancers should follow this Link.

Canon 5D 24-70L

Sunderland Air Show 2011

Better weather than last year, it started grim, but later the sun came out and what a difference that makes. Click on any image for an enlarged view.

The Royal Navy's Black Cats display team using Lynx helicopters.

Breitling Wingwalkers

With safety harnesses abandoned, the lady wing walkers pose before returning to the cockpit!

The graceful Catalina flying boat was a welcome visitor.

The Matadors display team flying Sbach 300 planes.

One from the past, the De Havilland Vampire. Not the sharpest shot unfortunately, but included as it was the one photo that I got that shows the top of the plane with the side by side cockpit.

The WW2 workhorse, the Hurricane

and its more glamorous stablemate, the Spitfire

The awesome Vulcan bomber, needs to be heard as well as seen!

Canon 450D Sigma 100-300 f4

Garden Visitors

It was warm enough to sit out in the garden yesterday when I noticed that our Victoria plum tree was attracting a number of visitors.

I'm not sure what the fly and wasp found so interesting on the surface of the leaves

but this chap was clearly interested in the greenfly! I think that it' a chiffchaff, but it might be a warbler of some sort.

Canon 450D Sigma 100-300 f4

Antiques Road Trip at Sedbergh

We encountered a film unit working in Sedbergh, barging into an antiques shop as filming was taking place. We beat a hasty retreat and found a comfy seat from which to observe the proceedings. I assume that they were working on the next edition of "Antiques Road Trip" with Philip Serrell and Catherine Southon involved in a head to head contest.

Philip being directed to enter the next shop and retrieve Catherine

Catherine and Philip in the rather nice old Triumph Herald.

It does actually move and they did drive away in it!

First Coal Trains on the Weardale Railway

The privately owned Weardale Railway, running from Stanhope to Bishop Auckland, hopes to begin to ship coal from its Wolsingham depot. Two test trains were run this week to establish the practicality of the idea. The coal is to come from an open cast site near to Tow Law.

The test train passing over Etherley viaduct on its way to, I believe, Scunthorpe.

Cleaning windows hanging on a rope!

That's the way they do it at the Sage concert hall in Gateshead. It is a complicated shape and I guess that other solutions would not be viable. I trust that they are well paid!

Cragside Rothbury

Cragside, Lord Armstrong's estate in Rothbury, Northumberland, is my favourite National Trust property. There is so much of interest while the location is superb. Perhaps the best time to visit is in late May or early June when the thousands of rhododendrons and azaleas are in flower, but the unique combination of architecture, interior decoration, gardens, moorland walks and engineering interest is fascinating throughout the year.

Paul Martin of "Flog It" fame was to be seen making a programme about historic houses I think, and he is stood on the little bridge at the bottom of the picture. There is a bloke holding a microphone standing below.

The garden shed.

Owl sculpture by tree sculptor and artist Tommy Craggs.

Glass panels designed by William Morris.

And now for something completely different. The buckets of a Pelton wheel water turbine. Cragside was the first house to be supplied by electricity generated using hydro power.