Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder - Sculptures in the Botanical Gardens 2013

Having shared a lovely lunch together on Sunday we headed off for our long awaited trip to the Botanical Gardens in Oadby to see this year's sculpture exhibition.

Once again there are some very interesting artworks and we had a lot of fun looking round them all.

A 'Kevin' special here...

After the last few days of heatwave the weather was a bit disappointing, but I don't think any of us really minded the lower temperatures....

The APP chorus line?

any minute now he's going to start checking his hair!

sharing thoughts on 'Where I start and you end'...

watch out - the paparazzi are here!

Soft Touch Arts will be working with young people and local artists transforming fallen trees into sculptures during August and the results of this project will displayed in the Botanic Gardens from the 26th August onwards - so I guess we'll be back! (Hope the tea shop's still open!)

We're all texting our APP friends - honest! (Actually Jenny's checking the Ashes score and making sure that Chris Froome hasn't fallen off his bike!)

the album cover???

APPdate and Impromtu Lunches!

Just to let you all know that Julie and Jenny gave a quick up(app)date to Holy Trinity on what we've been up to as the App and what we are going to be doing over the next few months. 

Basically we showed everyone the blog - and they all seemed to like it - so we went off on an impromtu visit to the Old Horse to celebrate with Sunday lunch...

The Clarendon Park Fair - Making Music at Dos Hermanos

What a lovely day of sunshine greeted all the visitors to the Clarendon Park Fair on Sunday - and a completely unexpected day of great weather meant that no one had to worry about brollies or macs! 

We had a stroll down Queens Road at lunchtime - enjoyed the acts on the main and busker stages - what an incredible set of musical talent we have on the doorstep - as well as an amazing array of arts and crafts for sale on the stalls.

Making music at Dos Hermanos

Later on Andy and Jenny had the honour of starting off the musical events at Dos Hermanos.

OK - not a great picture - consider it 'artistic!'

 
Well we both had a great time - here's Andy (before the 'flying hat' moment) - you had to be there...

who else but Andy could get his hat caught in his fret board!

And now I think you can see he's getting in the swing - I love this photo - if only for the 'product placement' opportunity!

'who'se for pint?'

Is Julie savouring one of our more mellow moments here? Or is she (more likely) musing on which ice-cream she fancies off the dessert board (shame they don't serve puddings at the weekend - a cunning ploy I'm sure to get us back here in the week)...the breakfast sounds good - I think I can feel another App trip coming on...

'mmmm - that clotted cream option sound particularly yummy...bet then again... I quite fancy chunky ginger - how is a girl to choose...??'

Thanks to everyone who came to support us - especially those who sneaked off the first 10 minutes of church! New friends and old - and some we haven't seen for a very long time- it was lovely to catch up with you again.

Finally - thanks to Gaz Birtles for letting us join in the merry music making! Here's to next year...

Art House 2013

(C) Ian Mitchell

What a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon - homemade lemonade in the garden and a lazy walking tour of the amazing art works on display as part of the Art House Exhibition in Clarendon Park/Stoneygate this year.

We must give a shout out to inky-mitch - Ian Mitchell - your paintings are fabulous we hope you sold loads of paintings and made a bundle of new commissions!

Thanks to everyone who organises this - it's a lovely event and long may it carry on - and thanks to everyone who so bravely invites hoards of us into their homes - a delightful afternoon - roll on the Queens Road Fair now on Sunday...
 

12 May: The First Cut: Lakeside Arts Nottingham

Our trip to the First Cut was a great day out - the exhibition is inspiring with some astonishing interpretations of paper (and some not so impressive - but there you are!).

this is a good one! Tree and Leaf sculptures by Manabu Hangai

Unfortunately the weather put pay to anything other than a picnic in the car - but undeterred we continued a good day out with a trip to Wayne Manor (OK - Wollaton Park!)

OK - this is not Batman - but an Appman!! (Sorry)

Gatekeepers and Ghostbusters

We headed off to Phoenix Social Cinema last week to see the double bill of Ghostbusters - save to say we were a strange sight - but a good time was had by all!

Jolly Boating Weather (?) Leicester University Boat Race

Sunday was spent down by the river doing something none of us had done before -watching the boat race!  OK it was Leicester University Boat Race and not a Cambridge blue in sight - but it was good fun with a great atmosphere.

Since three of us have attended DMU - or Leicester Poly as was all pressure was on the good old DMU boat to make it to the winning line in first place - and it didn't disappoint - thrashing (no sorry is that too vitriolic!!) winning by a length from the Leicester University crew.  Needless to say there were cheers all round!

Bring on Ghostbusters now!

Off to see Richard III

Had a great afternoon in Leicester visiting the Guildhall exhibition and dropping into Phoenix Square.  With that strange and unexpected object, the sun, appearing in the sky on Sunday afternoon, we headed off intrepidly for a date - back in time - with Richard III. As this was one of our first trips as The App we had a fun time getting to know each other - with a trip that probably ended up with more time spent enjoying tea and cake than admiring the bones of the 'car park King' - but a good time was had by all and we did pay our respects in the cathedral.

So enthused were we with all things cultural that we took advantage of the fine weather to wander over to the Phoenix Square - just in time for Kev to pick up the very last ticket for Ghostbusters - Social Cinema.

Next Sunday we're planning to visit the Leicester Boat Race and see the Richard III film (introduced by Lin Foxall) at the Phoenix in the afternoon.

Contact The App

We've now got our own email account - and twitter account, so you can email us at theapphtl@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter

The APP joins Twitter.

W are now up and running on Twitter and you can find us at The App htl

First APP Event - Social Cinema at the Phoenix

Last night we had our first official APP trip outta see 'Some Like It Hot', part of the social cinema experience at Phoenix Square, Leicester.  It was a great night - we didn't realise that people would dress up - there were people in 20s costumes, men in drag and even people drinking cocktails out of hot water bottles! The Phoenix make a great effort to create an ambience conducive to the film - we all had a great time and can't wait for the next one.  Here's hoping that we can get tickets for Ghostbusters I & II (break out the boiler suits and the firefighter helmets!)