Hull City of Culture 2017

I haven't seen pie and peas but you can still get a lovely patty at most chippies.

Have a lovely time.

They had the weeping poppies up at Woodhorn Colliery in Northumberland, pouring down from a pit head, a couple of years ago. It does look amazing, doesn't it?

It's incredible.

We had a great day out in Hull with the two GSs and the dog. The city has changed so much since OH lived there. No fish docks but instead lovely gardens and paved areas with outdoor cafés. The boys enjoyed the marina and OH went in several art galleries in the old Fruit Market. We all had a ride on the land train - chance to rest our feet, but my favourite was the Ferens Art Gallery. I would urge anyone thinking of visiting Hull this summer to go soon. The Muerck sculptures will only be there for two more weeks and they are amazing. The gallery is hosting the Turner Prize art works this September - another feather in Hull's cap!

Pleased about that, oldgoat.
I haven't seen the fruit market since it was a fruit market!
After my dad had finished work on Christmas Eve, he used to go down there and buy boxes of apples and oranges, if there were any left.
He knew a lot of the men there from when he was a fruiterer.

So he would know the MacMurrays

So glad you had a good time, Oldgoat.

I went to Hull a week ago with 3 others from my art group. We stayed in nice visitor accommodation at the University and had a really great time. Absolutely loved the city, it's parks, galleries, museums, old quarter, marina, pubs, and Hull Truck Theatre, but the best thing we all agreed VQ was the lovely friendly Hull folk. Very good Larkin exhibition at Uni and enjoyed their art gallery. In fact I enjoyed Hull so much plan to go back again with DH next month. Only the newly listed loo failed to impress greatly!

Are those the toilets outside the art gallery, Lazigirl?
They've been there forever. They are older than me.
You don't need to go to them, though, with all the museums being free.

Don't know who he knew, Tricia.
I am talking about in the fifties and sixties. Didn't ask who he got his fruit and veg from!
Too late to ask now.

No. They were along the Marina beyond the Fruit Market, just around corner from a pub I think was called the Minerva.

Yes, I know that one.
Used to go to a pub round the corner called Green Bricks. My brother in law preferred the beer there.

My husband designed some of the housing on the Victoria Dock development, just the other side of The Deep.

Do they still have the Humber Barrier Festival?

They don't have the Barrier Festival anymore. I guess it's been amalgamated into one of the larger annual events like the Sesh. That's what they did the to the Sea Shanty Festival this year.

The toilets are somewhat disappointing these days. In the good old days the ladies who looked after them used to Brasso the copper pipes every day until they gleamed and decorated every shelf or high flat surface with potted plants. They got listed because they were among the first if not the first in the country to have ladies toilets as well as mens. Hopefully now they've been listed the council will find some money to renovate them but money is so tight in Hull atm that tbh toilets will be way down the list of spending priorities.

An amazing photo. It's houses next to the Siemens blade factory.
I hope the people living there work for Siemens.

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The Siemens factory is amazing. It's built on the site of an old dock that was slowly rotting away.

And it's brought a lot of jobs to the area, too.
I presume they have taken the turbine blade back now, have they, and put back the traffic lights?

Yes the turbine was only in Queen Victoria Square for a few months. Then it was replaced by the poppies and now there is a lovely pavement dancing fountain that children love playing in.

Siemens not only brought a lot of adult jobs but also brought apprenticeships for younger workers.

We went to the Bill Bailey Curiosities today at the Maritime Museum. Well worth going to. Very funny as well as quite a few 'ooh fancy that' moments.