Hull’s Museum Quarter is a real treasure trove for all ages. The Streetlife Museum is billed as a transport museum and is principally the collection opened on a different site in 1925 by Hull’s first curator, Thomas Shepperd, but much has been added since, to encompass all aspects of transport and social history in Hull [...]

For my last post on the Quilt exhibition, I’m going to give an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek look at some of the contemporary quilts on display. The definition of a ‘quilt’ in the contemporary quilting world is simply this; ‘Three layers fastened together in some way so that the fastening penetrates all three layers’. It is a definition [...]

‘If the sight of a blue sky fills you with joy, if a blade of  grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice for your soul is alive.’                                                      – Eleanor Duse (1858 – 1924)

Almighty God, by whom alone Kings reign, and Princes decree justice; and from whom alone cometh all counsel, wisdom, and understanding; we thine unworthy servants, here gathered together in thy Name, do most humbly beseech thee to send down thy Heavenly Wisdom from above, to direct and guide us in all our consultations;  and grant [...]

  March. Slayer of the winter, art thou here again? O welcome, thou that’s bring’st the summer nigh! The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain, Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky. Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry Make April ready for the throstle’s song, Thou first redresser of [...]

            ‘This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. ‘                            Harry Dixon Loes (1895-1965)    Also known as ‘Scarborough Pier Light’, Scarborough Lighthouse dates [...]

  Theodore E. Steinway, president of Steinway and Sons, once noted, “In one of our concert grand pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. It is proof that out of great tension may come great harmony.”

  I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go  into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God For that shall be to you better than light and safer than a [...]