Second Wind

Judges were again blown away by last year’s winners Penny and Terry in Godwin Road and awarded a SPECIAL MERIT for Best Front Garden and TOP PRIZE for BEST PLANTERS. Their planting, variety of plants, colour and full-to-bursting containers left the judges more than impressed. Paul from Garden Gate talked about the “harmonious colour palette” and Liz from Secret Garden Florist said: “The more you look the more you see. You can’t believe how many flowers are squeezed into a small space.”

DESIGN/3 JUN 2015/

BY GIOVANNA DUNMALL

image: http://assets1.wallpaper.com/wallpaper/live/galleryimages/17057036/gallery/05-Dreamland.jpg

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Margate’s Dreamland amusement park is set to reopen on 19 June with a new look by London-based designer Wayne Hemingway

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Dreamland amusement park in the seaside resort of Margate reopens on 19 June following an 11-year long local campaign to save it from becoming yet another boring retail and commercial development. Originally opened in 1920 on the site of a former pleasure park owned by circus impresario George Sanger, Dreamland is the oldest surviving amusement park in Britain. At its peak in the 60s, it attracted 2.5 million visitors a year. The town and the park’s steady decline began in the 70s as cheap flights encouraged Brits to holiday abroad instead of at home.
Despite being filled with classic and historic amusement rides, including the UK’s oldest roller coaster, dodgems, a helter skelter and a ferris wheel, it will be anything but a traditional heritage theme park says London-based designer Wayne Hemingway. One of his favourite rides – the Wedgwood ‘teacups’ – says it all. Decorated in the British company’s classic off-white and blue, it features a youth culture timeline of mods, beatniks, rockers, new romantics and ravers painted on the cups’ sides by one of the ceramics manufacturer’s artists.
Hemingway worked on the park’s vintage-styled redesign with his wife Gerardine and son Jack. He believes his team won the competition because they challenged the brief. ‘We knew this had to appeal beyond the heritage community; it had to feel of the now while respecting the past.’ He calls this ‘a magpie approach’ and adds that, ‘when everything is new it can never be cool.’
The result is a quirky, witty and Hemingway hopes ‘subversive’ take on the British seaside. Benches, tables, bar furniture and even memorabilia have been crafted out of wood salvaged from the park’s Grade II listed scenic railway, which was badly damaged in an arson attack in 2008. The park’s branding, signage and uniforms are defined by an off-sherbet colour palette of turquoise- and lime-greens, electric yellow and antique pink that could easily be the stripes on a typical English ‘stick of rock candy.’ A design that ‘has a timeless aesthetic you can’t quite place.’
As well as 17 rides, the 16-acre site will contain shops and restaurants, a nostalgic roller disco and, come Spring 2016, a 1,600-capacity concert hall (that hosted the likes of The Who and The Rolling Stones in the 1960s). Renovation of the park’s seafront art deco building with its alluring neon-edged fin tower and façade – and a 2,200-seater cinema within – is slated for 2017. Margate is getting its oomph back.

Read more at http://www.wallpaper.com/design/pleasure-park-dreamland-margate-is-set-to-reopen-with-a-quirky-new-design/8944#RchuPAm3chjMTLVq.99

And the winner of Best Front Garden ‪#‎cliftonvilleinbloom‬ is this beauty in Godwin Rd “Amazing hot colours, begonias, red cardinal salvia, lots of unusual, mixed planting.” Congratulations Terry and Penny!

many things have happened since last month. The little puppy is much bigger and loves Hudson.

I found out the hard way I am allergic to amocillicin and my neck blew up badly but is now OK.

My beloved niece committed suicide and nobody knows why.

  My toilet broke and am waiting on repairs.

A hard time,but here is a film of my new, cheeky puppy  running and having fun.

http://youtu.be/9qvS5FWBRRc

After the tragic loss of Wendell and much deliberation, Terry and I decided to get a new puppy. His name is Talisker (Tally) and he is a whippet deerhound Lurcher. Hudson is very bemused but that is a great improvement on the apathy and sadness he has been going through. Now we are back to puppy pads, sleepless nights and everything getting chewed. He gets the first of his jabs next Friday and I can hardly wait to get him down the beach. How could any puppy resist this…….?

Wish me luck. Pen.

After years of struggling, our old cooker gave up the ghost last week. I believe the Christmas dinner was the straw that broke his back but it was a pan of sprouts that finally sounded his death knell. Unbelievably, EDF gave us a refund on our electric on the following day, so we entered into a new farce. We looked up Argos and found a suitable cooker we could just afford and the blurb stated it would be delivered and fitted for free and that the old cooker would be taken away and recycled….they LIED! Terry arrived at the shop with the money, only to be told that they no longer did this deal.  An electrician quoted £129 to fit a cooker. We looked at cookers on the net at Currys and again found one to fit our purse. Terry set off again, only to be told they no longer sell that model but they had a similar one for an extra £75.Hmmm! Finally, with little hope in our hearts, we went to our local, expensive electrical shop and found the perfect cooker, at the right price and they only charged £45 for delivery,fitting and recycling the old one.

The moral of this tale is shop locally and never pre-judge.

Terry and I had goose for Christmas dinner and it was wonderful. It was the first time I have ever eaten it and the gravy I made was so nice I saved what was left over for another day. Yesterday I spent the afternoon stripping the flesh that was left from the goose, which was quite a lot. I carefully trimmed off any fat and sinew and diced the meat and mixed it with the gravy and left it all to mellow for a day. Today I filled a large casserole dish and filled it with the meat. Potatoes were peeled, boiled and mashed with lashings of butter and were spread over the meat. Terry and I were looking forward to this very much . The phone rang and I turned my back for one minute. On returning to the kitchen, I discovered, to my horror, the casserole dish was empty…just a smattering of mash spread about. Hudson was wagging his tail in a lazy, satisfied way whist doing his favourite doggy grin. No prizes for guessing where our dinner finished up!