Bank Holiday day trip...

On the last Bank Holiday in May we decided we would take our first proper day trip as a family.  It was a really sunny day and we contemplated going to Castle Ward but decided in the end to go to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

We spent most of our time in the transport galleries looking at all the trains, buses and cars.

I was particularly taken by this Land Rover fire engine as it has so much in common with our camper van.  They really are very versatile vehicles!

We thought it would actually make quite a good mobile shop with the openings on the side!

So many of the vehicles had brilliant badges.  They just don't make them like that anymore.

I also really liked all the commercial vehicles, again modern commercial vehicles really don't cut it compared to some of these.

This little blue car was pretty cute.  It's a Peugeot Bébé.

Always love a Morris Traveller.  Maybe some day!

We then went across to the Folk park part of the museum were we had a picnic, with tasty bread and olives from the Poachers' Pantry in Lisbane and then we went for a walk round the rural part, mainly getting ideas for our own house and garden!

One of the last building we looked at was the rural school, it had some lovely vintage posters inside.

We reckoned that the older the kids got they must have moved up to the higher coat hooks.

All in all it was a great day out, I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for an interesting trip.

dear photograph...

This is such a genius site….

So many great pictures like this one….

Makes me want to go and rummage through old photos!

Brought to my attention by Picked by Six

inspiration from the ulster folk and transport museum

The other week I took a trip to the Ulster Folk and Transport museum, it must have been about ten years since I have been and I have to say I will be back again! I had forgotten how brilliant it is, so many amazing things to look at.  As you can imagine I was particularly taken by all the old packaging and machinery.  I will definitely be working on some illustrations inspired by my visit!



Being the nostalgic type it made me want to go home and bake soda bread and light the fire - I also couldn’t resist stopping at the shop on the way home to get some peat for the truly authentic smell! Heaven.