An Eclipse, A Sculpture and a Very Long Pier



What an interesting Friday - the Spring Equinox and a solar eclipse happening on the same day!  

Its been a happy but busy week this week.  I was very grateful to receive this beautiful scarf - no particular reason other than the person giving it away didn't want it so I was happy to give it a new home!  Very uplifting and a sign that my wardrobe is now about to make the transition from winter to spring clothing....


I've had no free time this week to work on my own projects as have been helping Mr Cocopopia with his current sculpture project.  To cut a long story short, we've had to move a piece of his work by lifting it both over our roof and the neighbours' roof in order to get it out of our garden (where his workshop is) and delivered to a new workshop elsewhere as its too big to get through the alleyway along the side of our house!  

Probably one of the most ridiculous things we've ever had to do ...





We used what Mr Cocopopia called "the building the pyramids technique" to get it slowly winched up along the length of a ladder to be lifted up onto the flat roof. We started after work on Thursday evening when it was still light, but it was dark by the time we finished.  The next day (actually during the eclipse) we moved it across the roof and lowered it down to the ground below.  You can see from this photo (which was taken pointing east towards the rising sun) that there was thick cloud cover where we were and so we didn't really witness much an eclipse, just a bit of a darker morning than usual!

The good thing about the day was that we were off work from our day jobs and had a trip to Essex with the sculpture piece in tow.  We took time out for lunch and found ourselves in Southend-on-Sea, a place I've never been to before.


Apparently, Southend pier is the longest pleasure pier in the world and even has a small train on it, but we were pushed for time and so sadly had to give it a miss.  

We settled for lunch at Rossi's - they have an excellent reputation for their traditionally made ice-cream but we needed solid food and settled for their all day breakfasts instead, which were pretty good.






I'm linking in again with Happy Friday over at Planet Penny

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Comments

  1. I'm intrigued to see the finished sculpture now :-) I spent many, many, many happy times in Southend and was a regular on the train down the end, or walking it. We are back there next month to see how much it has changed, but will have some ice cream no matter what the weather! Have a wonderful weekend xx

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    1. Looking forward to seeing your pictures of Southend next month for the low down on the places we missed!

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  2. I bet the moving of the sculpture raised a few eyebrows amongst your neighbours :) Lovely scarf, very summery. I love piers and always have to go to the very end and sit and contemplate. It's like being out at sea, but not if you see what I mean.

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    1. I don't think the neighbours really noticed us - must have all been indoors watching the eclipse on the tv!!

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  3. Gosh, I'm really intrigued to know more about the sculpture! I've never been to Southend, but that's the pier where Jamie Oliver's last show was filmed isn't it?
    Thanks for joining in with Happy Friday x

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    1. Although its not my project, I have been involved so there will be a sculpture post coming up next month hopefully!

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  4. Wow - how exciting! I'd love to see the finished sculpture - good job it all went smoothly. Too cloudy here to see the eclipse too. I love your new scarf - it's definitely time to put some of the woolly ones away. Have a great week. x

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    1. Oh - I think I may need to blog about the sculpture in a future post ...

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  5. What an interesting task you had to perform!! and a visit to a new town too. I'm longing to know what the sculpture is of and what it is made from. Lucky girl receiving the beautiful butterfly scarf. Can't imagine why anyone would give it up :)

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    1. Don't worry - sculpture post coming up in the not too distant future!

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  6. I visited Southend a lot as a child and I'm sure Rossi existed then. There used to be a green train on the pier that I called the boom boom train as it made that sort of noise as it went over the wooden planks.

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  7. I think the train might still be there but they've modernised it now which is a shame as it would have been nice to recreate the old style train

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