Mackams* all

Here is Kevin, aka Mr Brushes. He has been doing outside paintwork at Margret's and doing a great job. He had a lot of rotten wood to replace and he has done it before prepping and painting.

He came today to look at my front door and the hall. Margret had found out that he hails from Sunderland. (It's possible that she could not understand him?!) Not only is he from Sunderland but from the east end too. *In case you don’t know, a Mackam comes from Sunderland, while a Geordie is born in Newcastle. It is not a subtle difference!

He attended Hendon Board School then Commercial Road. I was at both schools. Mum taught briefly at Hendon Board Girls' and I started school early in the reception class. I then moved to Commercial Road and Mum taught at the Girls' School for a few happy years.

We have not managed to find out that we are related, but there is time......!

This morning I was at the Documentary group of the RPS and heard a wonderful talk by Julian Harrop, Collections Resources Co‑ordinator at Beamish Museum. His talk was about the images from the Northern Advertiser section of the photographic archive. 

I was completely spell bound. He showed a lot of images from the 50s, the decade in which I was born. I could have looked at them in more detail all day.

I left at lunchtime and came home.

This evening I was at a Zoom talk by Charlie Waite. I expect that most of you know of his wonderful landscape photography. After a delayed start with computer problems, he gave a wonderful talk about his philosophy of landscape photography. Again I was spell bound. 

I once went on a trip to Andalucía to see almond blossom with Charlie and Peter Hendrie. I learned such a lot and appreciated his advice.

Time for bed, after a lovely, lovely day.

PS Mr Brushes recommends dove grey for my door and for the garage door. It will blend in with the stone work, apparently!