Sailing Through the Trees

Apparently we have mentioned Caroline Dowsett in passing twice on this blog, but this post is going to be completely about her and Alex T Frazer's joint illustration exhibition at Common in Manchester. It's called 'Sailing Through the Trees' and we have been meaning to pop by and see it since it opened at the start of April. The poster gives you a little of taste of how good the exhibition was!

The illustrations in the exhibition tell the story of a wife launching a rescue mission for her fisherman husband who has somehow ended up in the belly of a whale. The series of illustrations are available to buy as prints or as part of a comic (There are prices and things up on the wall!) from behind the bar. We're very tempted. We'll probably pop back and pick up a couple of prints before the exhibition finishes at the end of September. It'd be good if we could grab a copy of the comic for Salford Zine Library, too.

The exhibition is proper ace, with the two artists' work complimenting each other perfectly to tell the story. We'd definitely recommend making a trip to Common, sitting in the 'Club Room' (I think that's what they call the room at the side, anyway. EDIT- it is actually called the 'Kestrel Suite'!), ordering some chips and spending a bit of time enjoying the lovely exhibition. Here's a couple of photos we took while we were at the exhibition (Complete with that annoying reflection you get when you take photos of things behind glass):

The point to take home from this blog post is that you should definitely go and see 'Sailing Through the Trees' at your earliest possible convenience. Okay!

Wirral Tour

Ever since forever ago I've wanted to visit Port Sunlight, the model village built by the Lever Brothers in the Wirral. This weekend I finally made it there and it was every bit as amazing as I was hoping it would be. You can read more about the history of Port Sunlight here. If it wasn't dead inconveniently located for work and things, I'd move to Port Sunlight for sure. Every single house in the village is beautiful in its own way. Phwoar! Go and have a look if you get the chance.

While we were in the area, Liz's mum and dad took us on a tour of the Wirral, which was much more exciting than it sounds. I made a little video* of some of the things we saw as we were making our way along the coast. First we're in Port Sunlight, then Parkgate, West Kirby, and then a bit of Hoylake before we went back through the Birkenhead Tunnel and back to Liverpool and then eventually back home to Manchester. Here's the video! Tell us what your favourite bit of the Wirral is, please. We very much enjoyed our day out on the peninsula.



*video features the track 'Secret Forever' by Haiku Salut from their lovely EP 'How We Got Along After The Yarn Bomb'. Buy it!!!