BETTER THAN DOING HOUSEWORK!

I had intended doing some housework this morning but when I was looking at something on Facebook I saw that in part of our town called Rodbourne there was some recently completed street art.  You may remember I don’t need any excuse to leave the housework so although  the sky looked rather cloudy, as if it could rain, I decided that I would get my togs on, put an umbrella in my bag and just go.

I needed to get two buses to get to Redcliffe Street but had my bus pass, being of that age, so wasn’t bothered.  As I stood at the bus stop a lovely lady came and stood by me;  she told me she was 82 and was going out to do some shopping – I could tell by her accent that she was from “oop north” so we chatted about that and I told her we were going up to stay near Richmond in August  so she politely told me that was Yorkshire, but proudly said she was from Tyneside!  She continued chatting to me whilst we were on the bus which was lovely – again much better than doing housework - and I was sorry to get off, but having told her my name, found out hers was Joyce - which she said was very old-fashioned.  I love these chance encounters and will look out for her again.

So here is my Blip for today and it was well worth two bus journeys.  Apparently, it was the brainchild of resident Helen Salter, and has been named “The Redcliffe Collective”.  It's aim is to brighten up the area to encourage people to have more pride in where they live.  This is their first project and was originally pencilled in as a “Clean up Rodbourne” campaign - the artwork is on the side of a house/tailoring business in Redcliffe Street, featuring art by several local artists.  It is actually a long mural inspired by Rodbourne's heritage and looks great.  As I was taking photographs another lady came along, saw me taking shots so decided to take some photographs too.  If you want to know more about the project, you can see it here..

As I was looking at the various paintings another lady walked by and remarked how good the paintings looked and said it was a shame the bins were in the way - but you can’t actually see them in my collage.  She said she knew the areas a lot of the paintings were depicting because she had grown up around here in the 1980s and as she was also Swindon-born and bred, a lot of the places meant something to her.  I told her I had come out specially to see the street art, so of course I had to mention Blip! We exchanged names and I gave her one of my cards so that she could have a look and see more about Blip and during the conversation she told me that her son does a lot of street art so she loves it.

We had a great conversation, both saying that all we needed to preserve our old buildings and traditions and these murals helped in that respect.  I mentioned to her during the course of that conversation about the Community Fridge over at our church and said that if ever she needed to come she would be very welcome. She said she had heard of it so I told her the opening hours and hope that perhaps she might come over one day.

Afterwards I went for a wander around the Designer Outlet village – well Mr HCB is off at cricket so I thought a little retail therapy would do me good. I didn't actually buy anything, but did see a friend with her Mum and granddaughter and I have to admit to that it was much better than being at home doing housework. That’s still here now I’m home, but I doubt I shall do any today.  I did save some time though because coming home on the bus I typed this up on my phone, which gives me more time this afternoon to read my book!

“Few people go to art exhibitions;
     the power of Street Art
          is that it goes to people’s daily life
               to be seen.”
Ino