Following on from Ann’s post about sunflowers in Nashville today, I give you sunflowers in Antwerp:

We found two patches within the city planted up like this, meadows of sunflowers in a mediaeval city. Some even had added wildlife:



We were there for the Unravel Knitwear in Fashion exhibition, more of which later.

Language, that is. Look away now if you are easily offended.

Today I wandered down to Prick Your Finger to pick up some of their carpet yarn to knit a bag in. As well as the yarn, this little gem just had to come home with me:

Other Half will love it. He does like to do a bit of embroidery every now and then and was only admiring Cauchy’s Redwork the other night.

And as any old Punks will know ‘bollocks’ is Old English and not obscene. Anything ruder than that has come from your own minds. So there.

So what’s it to you if I do have a cobweb on my eye whiskers?

Want to make something of it, lady?

It got too quiet without a Small Furry around after the lovely Ev died.  Iman* needed a home, so she came to us.  She likes the windfall apples in the garden.

*She wasn’t called Iman before, but following our method of naming Buns after models (Heather was named for Heather Mills, being stroppy and having a leg missing) Iman is named for Iman, being black, skinny and astoundingly beautiful. She is too nicely tempered to be a Naomi.

Spotted in a loo in one of the studio buildings open as part of Hackney Wicked.

Brilliant and a bit creepy all at the same time.

I love how the dust inside it makes it look even more like a real ear.

Wonder what happens if you whisper into it?

Here in East London (that’s the UK East London, not the one in South Africa) we do get some pretty cool arty stuff going on, mainly because the area is reputed to have the largest population of artists in Europe. This last weekend has been Hackney Wicked Arts Festival, and running alongside that was Films on Fridges.

We went on Friday night to see ‘What have you done today, Mervyn Day?’, a film made by a couple of the members of the band St. Etienne, which was free, hurrah! There was also a short film beforehand called ‘Night in Hackney’ a reportage of a night / a couple of nights (?) in Hackney (well, Dalston, which never really feels like Hackney to me), a brilliant mix of still photography, animation and a tiny bit of actual film. Formans Smokehouse were providing food (and very good it was too) and there was a bar (essential to events in the East End).



That’s the Olympic Stadium in the background.

‘Films on Fridges’ may sound like a daft title, it refers to the ‘mountain’ of fridges dumped when the EU tightened up disposal regulations on what is now the rather swanky Aquatic Centre for the Olympics. They were only removed in 2005, presumably after we had won the bid and were starting to clear the site. It runs until the 13th August with a different sporting-related film every night so if you are in the area book a ticket and get your bum down there. Sit in a car park watching a film surrounded by old fridges made into seat and tables and watching the bulldozers finishing off the Olympic Park whizzing along behind the screen.

Oh, and there is knitting too. Ongoing yarn bombing. What else could you want?