Tag Archives: East Lothian

Daily Sketch

Lego has landed at the museum of flight

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A trip to East Lothian at the weekend led the Sketcher Clan to the National Museum of Flight in East Fortune.

I love being at the museum of flight, it has been a while but when ever I drive into the airfield and see the war time out buildings and glimpses of the vintage aircraft on the site I am transported back in time.

The Sketcher twins love it too, seeing the scale of the planes and the fragility of the older ones. Its a wonder that early pilots put so much faith in what look like flimsy structures.

And just now there is an added attraction for our two, the Brick Wonders lego exhibition which surrounds the Concorde. We are a family of lego builders and so had to visit and ‘travel around the old and new Wonders of the World‘, which have been beautifully and imaginatively recreated using half a million Lego bricks by brick artist Warren Elsmore and his team. 

The sketcher twins were taking photos while I sketched, they were keen to note how the many shapes of bricks had been used to create these structures, keen to copy and take inspiration for their own builds back at home.

Although we had visited Concorde before, it is always great to see inside, see all those (seemingly thousands) of buttons in the cockpit. Beneath the beautiful Concorde is a Lego version of the iconic plane which is very impressive and uses 60,000 bricks!!

One bonus of the current spacing restrictions, we had the aircraft to ourselves, and the museum is a great option for the current spacing restrictions due to the pandemic. Staff were everywhere ensuring we followed the directions when in doors and there were plenty of sanitiser stations.

My final sketch is this cute brute, a Matador 4×4 truck which could carry 10 tonnes and dates back to 1939. I love the character of these vehicles and love the fact they are hiding in their wee houses.

There is so much to see, and remember to listen and watch the first hand accounts from pilots during the war. It was very moving and a made a lasting impression on our two children. In the end I ran out of time, I will have to return to sketch the planes another day!

National Museum of Flight website

Daily Sketch

East Lothian Salt Pan Sketching

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At the weekend I took part in the East Lothian Tradition Skills Festival at Cockenzie House and Gardens.

After a couple of warm up sketches in Tranent we headed to Cockenzie House, a beautiful 17th mansion with stunning gardens, plus a cafe, bakery and gift shops.

Open to the public most days, they have craft workshops and studios to rent. It is a beautiful location, on the banks of the Firth of Forth and was looking particularly pretty in the sunshine on Sunday.

I walked around the grounds capturing these sketches of some of the skills that were being demonstrated. It was fascinating to hear the history of these traditions and also to be able to have a go at some of them was a real treat.

I loved the salt pan in particular, the smell of the furnace and the sea water bubbling away was amazing, and so interesting to see an egg white used to take the impurities from the water.

It was my first visit and I would well recommend a visit to their sun trap of a garden and terrace cafe. There is a great crafty vibe and I am sure there will be something interesting going on whenever you come. Do check the website below first though 🙂

In the afternoon I took a group out sketching around the block to the harbour and gardens. A wonderful day and less than an hour from the city.

Cockenzie House Facebook page

One from Tranent too.
Daily Sketch

Fly along to North Berwick for Puffin Fest

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PuffinFest_2014This week the sketcher family and I had a fantastic time at Puffin Fest at the Scottish  Seabird Centre in North Berwick.

Until the 26th May if you visit the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick you can celebrate in all things puffin. Promising fun, games, activities and events for the whole family the Sketcher family headed along the East coast full off excitement.

 

North Berwick beach is a favourite short trip of ours already, the beautiful beach, interesting wee shops and coffee houses to explore and  only 25 miles out of the city. Add to all that the cuteness of wee puffins and we were sold!

 

The Puffin Fest runs until 26th May so head there quickly to take part in all the puffin activities, we had lessons on how to draw a puffin, watched  birds on Bass Rock on huge screens and even took a boat out to Craigleith Island to see the wee darlings up close.

 

The twins loved it, almost as much as the ice cream on the beach afterwards! To find out more about the Puffin Fest activities and the seabird centre click on the link below.

 

The Scottish Seabird Centre website

 

 

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