Justin Partyka is a photographer who since 2001 has been documenting the declining way of life of small family farmers in East Anglia. His photographs are solemn, melancholy, an elegiac look at our landscape under the big skies.
Somehow it’s no surprise to find he trained not as a photographer but as a folklorist at Memorial [...]
Entries from May 28th, 2009
A dark country
May 28th, 2009 1 Comment
Tags: documentary photography · east anglia · East Anglian Life · farming · Justin Partyka · norfolk · photography · rural affairs
The Good Life Festival
May 26th, 2009 No Comments
The Museum of East Anglian Life (more on that in a future post) is holding the Good Life Festival on 31st May. Their pitch is “During these times of economic uncertainty, when we are all trying to save money, the Good Life Festival gives us all a chance to find ways to improve our lives [...]
Tags: aspall · cider · education · festival. cider drinking · grow your own · museum of east anglian life · smallholders · suffolk · the good life
A local show for local people
May 20th, 2009 No Comments
The Cambridgeshire County Show is coming up on 31st May at Wimpole – it’s an agricultural show of the old school. I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales (James Herriot country), where agricultural shows were a major form of summer entertainment. Two of my favourite events from the Dales – sheepdog trials and fell racing [...]
Tags: agricultural show · cambridgeshire county show · east anglia · livestock · morris dancing · wimpole · young farmers
Fenland garden
May 19th, 2009 No Comments
One of the more interesting gardens at Chelsea this year is the unromantically named Foreign and Colonial Investments garden, which is partly based on East Anglian fens by Thomas Hoblyn Garden Design of Bury St Edmunds. If you are gardening in the fenlands it has some interesting ideas to take home.
Snaking round a mysterious pool [...]
Tags: chelsea flower show 2009 · fenland · garden design · gardens · pitcher plants · planting
May
May 16th, 2009 3 Comments
I’ve been chained to my desk all week but just wanted to share how far spring has advanced while I haven’t been looking.
It’s Chelsea Flower Show next week and then it’ll be June any minute. There were cricketers in whites on Parker’s Piece in Cambridge today. The verges are gauzy with cow parsley. It even [...]
Tags: aquilegia · columbines · flowers · garden · gardening · honeysuckle · lupins · spring
International Garden photographer finalist
May 13th, 2009 No Comments
This lovely graphic shot of agave utahensis was shot in the Old Vicarage Gardens at East Ruston in Norfolk by one of the artists taking part in Norfolk Open Studios, Geoff du Feu. It led to him being one of ten finalists in the plant portaits category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year, [...]
Tags: agave · garden photography · geoff du feu · kew gardens · norfolk broads · norfolk open studios · photography
Courtney Pine in Norwich
May 12th, 2009 No Comments
I notice there are still tickets left for Courtney Pine’s Jazz Warriors – Afropeans gig at the Theatre Royal, Norwich tomorrow night.
The Afropeans project was originally conceived to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act, and a new lineup of great soloists has been put together for this gig. In [...]
Tags: afropeans · cortney pine · jazz · jazz warriors · music · norwich · norwich and norfolk festival · theatre royal
Norfolk Open Studios
May 11th, 2009 No Comments
All over Norfolk artists are cleaning up their studios and finishing work in preparation for Norfolk Open Studios which runs 16 – 31st May. More than 250 artists all across the county are taking part, from Downham Market in the West to Great Yarmouth in the East and Wells to Diss on the north south [...]
Tags: art · art shopping · artists · ceramics · craft · downham market · norfolk open studios · norwich · painting · photography · sculpture · studio visits
For small boys of all ages
May 10th, 2009 3 Comments
If there is no one in your household with the mindset of a small boy (any age or gender) you might want to skip over this post – maybe glance over the pretty pictures, but basically nothing to see here, move right along to gardens or theatre.
Sunday 17th May is the Duxford Spring Air Show, [...]
Tags: aircraft · cambridgeshire · duxford · east anglia · spring air show · visiting with kids
Beth Morrison
May 6th, 2009 3 Comments
Beth Morrison is an artist living on the North Norfolk Coast who paints cheerful, evocative scenes of seaside life and the characters around her. Her dogs have an agenda, her little old ladies and small children have a life and character of their own – the way the paintings are made, in stages, they are [...]
Tags: beach · beth morrisson · circus · drawing · east anglia · jewellery · little old ladies · norfolk · painting