Photographed a terrific event on Friday, JJs soft play area in South Ham Industrial Estate, Basingstoke arranged for ‘Same Difference’ (X-Factor contestants) to come and sing along with their moto animal band and one of the staff members. Plus there was face painting, balloon manipulators and wild animals to handle along with some great food. The Mayor came to watch ‘Same Difference’ along with the Gazette photographer. A great evening had by all and here are just a couple of the photographs to give you a flavour of the event.

photograph of 'Same Difference' on stage at JJs Event.

photograph of the animal band on stage.

photograph of the balloon man teaching the children to bend balloons.

Had a fantastic weekend watching the ABSA husky racing in Wareham Forest and taking a few photographs just for fun. The dogs just love running and can’t wait to get started making so much noise and jumping up and down like mad things. belwo are a couple of photos from the weekend. To get details of ABSA racing click on Husky Racing.

At the weekend we went to Bristol Balloon Festival to see the balloons flying and spend some time in Bristol (a city I am not that familier with). What a lovely city, the old harbour area has been turned into a tourist centre with shops and restaurants and the most amazing water feature which children are allowed to paddle in (’ealf & safety not gone mad here thankfully). There is an enormous mirrored ball by the water feature and lots of different and interesting statues dotted about. During the afternoon some young men came to the mirrored ball and showed us their trick cycling in the pavement area around the ball. Very clever they were too, here is one of the chaps showing us how to ride on the side of the rear wheel.

I went to the Brighton Gay Pride Parade on Saturday and had a fantastic time, what a great atmosphere there was, so much like a carnival and I got some great photographs here are a couple for now. There was a fun fair and a couple of stages with bands performing live music all free.

I have have made several trips to London and each time I take photographs they always look different. The last trip I got there about 20 minutes after sun rise and so had some amazing light (with clear blue skies). I managed to see the London Eye with the most beautiful soft organge light on it and took this photograph.

photograph of the London Eye 1st thing in morning

Upon a visit to London I went to Covent Garden where the street entertainers are varied and interesting. This is a photograph of one of them, he had some very witty lines and made several people jump by barking at them.

photograph of a street entertainer in Covent Garden

The fighting (re-enactments) at Herstmonceux was quite realistic (apart form the smiles on the guys faces, they were obviously enjoying themselves), the armour and clothing all looked quite realistic, it really was a grest day out.

photograph of knights fighting at Herstmonceux medieval festival

photograph of 2 knights jousting

As I am very much into horses one of the star events for me was the jousting, real people on real horses with real armour rode towards each other with lances (note I didn’t say real lances). They start  at opposite ends of the arena and charge towards each other and 2 strides out stop to a walk aim the joust pole at the shield and the end falls off very easily, I think if the pole breaks the knight gets a point, the rules wer not too clear. There were 4 knights who rode against each other and the black night from abroad won (she was the only female participant). It was quite a laugh with lots of audience participation and well worth watching. Click on the link below to view their website for next years dates:

www.EnglandsMedievalFestival.com

Back to the Herstmonceux medieval festival, which was great fun. I am really into horses (owned one for 10 years) so I made a bee-line for the jousting section and took lots of photos of that. It’s really tricky to capture the action shots but I got a couple that work quite well in the end.

photograph of jousting practice

I had the most amazing day out on the August bank holiday weekend at Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex at the medieval festival held there. There were lots of people dressed in clothing of the era re-en-acting life of the medieval times including cooking and living like they did then. There were battle re-en-actments with canon and archers, knights and wenches!!! There was jousting and various archery competitions as well, plus craft stands and stalls selling all sorts of things. A most enjoyable day, so below are a couple of shots from the day of the knights getting ready to go to battle and then on the battle field walking towards their opponents.

photograph of knights waiting to go to battle

photograph of knights walking into battle

If you click on the link below it will take you to the website for the Herstmonceux medieval festival.

www.EnglandsMedievalFestival.com