Friday Smile

Well, I'm late - what a surprise, I hear you say! And this is going to be the quickest but possibly the most photo heavy Friday Smile post ever.

First of all, I should explain why I'm so late. I'm of to a EPP (English Paper Piecing) workshop run by my daughter for some of the members of her Deaf Patchwork Quilts (Scotland) group tomorrow morning and I've spent most of the day preparing. I say most of the day because I did have to see a doctor this morning with a nasty rash. I had to know whether it was contagious - didn't want to risk infecting a hall full of lovely ladies. It's okay. This rash is all my own! I'm allergic to something, we just don't know what. Anyway, it means I can still go along to the workshop and, as it is in Glasgow, that means an early start which is why I have to be quick.

Anyway, last Saturday DH and I went along to the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine - a town just up the coast from us - and had a brilliant time. I took tons of photos so what follows is just a selected few.

This building, a former warehouse, was brought down brick by brick from the Glasgow district of Govan, famous for it's shipyards, and rebuilt on the site at Irvine.

Everything in a boat/ship is massive.

Here himself is standing by just one of the exhibits to give you some idea of how big everything is.

I loved this wonderful representation of some of the men who worked in the shipyards.

This rather rusty, battered and strange looking vessel has a remarkable history. It is an ASR-10, an experimental air and sea rescue barge built for the Royal Air Force in 1942. Their role was to provide emergency shelter for the crew of downed aircraft. They were painted in these really bright colours to make them as visible as possible to the downed airmen. The intention was that survivors would swim to the barge, climb inside and avail themselves of the facilities until they were rescued. They were equipped with radios, bunk beds and emergency rations as well as other forms of signalling apparatus.

This little beach hut was surprise discovery.

My idea of heaven - a sunny window seat, comfy cusions and shelves full of books to read.

These engraved pavers were distributed along the river front pavement. They include many of my favourite words from my native language.

I'll leave you with these two photos of the beautiful river's edge.

I wish you all a very smiley weekend.