Silkworm.org.uk

Expressions of Love Photography Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:12:00 +0000

Last thursday was the opening of the Expressions of Love photography exhibition at Broadstone Mill, Houldsworth village. It's the first C3 Stockport photography group exhibition and I've got four photo collages displayed. If you missed the opening, here's a flavour of the event:

There's still plenty of time to catch the exhibition, it's open for the whole of february and we've got a special event on Valentine's day (Sunday 14'th) called 'Love in the Afternoon' where we'll be serving tea and cakes and there will be activities and crafts to keep everyone occupied!

The Gallery at Broadstone, Upper Ground Floor, Broadstone Mill, Broadstone Road, Houldsworth Village, Stockport SK5 7DL

Christmas 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 10:19:00 +0000

For Christmas this year I was very lucky to get a camcorder. I've not had one before so the quality of some of the first shots isn't great - hopefully I will become more proficient with time. Anyway, here's my first attempt at a video:

How to make a cake

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:39:00 +0000

My sister and I made a cake. This was no ordinary cake, we made it for my good friends, Andy and Mary for the occasion of their wedding blessing service. My sister is the one with the cake decorating experience, she's been making cakes and decorating them in outlandish ways for family and friends for a good few years. I've made the odd cake but bar a bit of roll-out icing I've not done much in the way of making them look pretty. Paula came over for a couple of days and together we made a fairytale castle out of fruit cake, marzipan and a lot of sugar paste.

I made the cakes using a Delia recipe. I've made it a couple of times before for Christmas and it's always turned out well. The only difference was that I made three times the amount usually called for and distributed it between two round and one square cake tin. I made a big mess of the kitchen trying to mix that amount of fruit and cake mix in one go. I made the cakes a couple of weeks in advance, that helps with the flavour - as does feeding the cakes with brandy in the intervening time.

We weren't trying anything as ambitious as designing our own cake. We got step-by-step instructions from a book (although we didn't strictly adhere to them and changed a few things - like the colours!). We started by making a hill of cake out of the two circular cakes I'd made, then we added lumps cut from the square cake round the edges and constructed two cake ramps at the front to give the hill some shape.

We then had to go out to the shops to get some marzipan as both of us thought the other had got it. Once we had the marzipan, we rolled it out and covered the cake with it. We also covered a cube of cake that would be the castle to sit on top of the hill.

At this point the cake looks like a giant sneeze - not very pretty. We left it in this state overnight and prepared all the colours of icing we would need ready for the next day.

The next morning and we were ready to roll - literally. we rolled out some of the pale grey icing we'd previously coloured and completely covered the hill with it, smoothing it round and getting rid of any creases. It was starting to look a bit prettier but still not very hilly. We cut squares of caramel coloured icing for the castle walls and roof and then placed the castle on the hill. At this point we realised that perhaps the castle was a little too big for the hill we'd created.

Once we'd created some towers, a door and windows it started to look a lot better.

What really made the difference was adding greenery. I squashed lumps of green into any available space and Paula made them look like grass and shrubs by the magic of the star-shaped end of a piping tool.

Adding the greenery allowed us to hide the bottoms of the towers which were suspended in mid-air! We put in some secret tunnels, stairways and loose rocks on the hillside.

From her magic kit-bag, Paula produced some special cake dust - green and cream powder which you can paint on. We used this all over the hills to blend in the areas of greenery. We also constructed a profusion of turrets for the top of the castle.

We were nearly there - and a good job too. This had taken nearly all day, fueled by a cup of tea every half and hour and it was beginning to get dark. All we had left to do was the fun bit - making teeny tiny flowers with a special plunger and dusting the hillside with sparkle powder and the turrets with gold.

Here's the finished cake!

A slow drive across Stockport at rush hour

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:18:00 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I needed to go out to pick up some straws. I know it's an odd thing to desperately want on a rainy tuesday afternoon but that's the thing with running craft workshops for kids, you have unusual shopping lists. I was just glad that I wasn't also looking for pipecleaners, fake fur, feathers and pva glue.

Sainsbury's provided me with the straws I needed (49p for a pack of 40) and as I headed back to the car, I was struck by a thought that I didn't really want to go straight home. I didn't have to either. I was a free agent, no meetings or deadlines to worry about for one day. I decided to drive around Stockport. As I drove off, I asked God to show me something.

My autopilot would normally take me onto the motorway but I decided that this journey should be a slow one. That wouldn't be too hard to manage because it was coming up to five o'clock and whichever route I took through the town would be slow and busy.

From Sainsburys at Cheadle Royal, I took a meandering route through Cheadle, Cheadle Heath, Edgeley, Stockport Town centre, Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris, Reddish, Bredbury and Woodley eventually finding myself driving off out of Stockport altogether and into Tameside.

I guess I'd been hoping that as I drove, I'd see Stockport differently and be inspired by its potential or find some scene of unremarkable beauty. As it was, it just left me cold. Not that it's awful, it just didn't inspire any emotion whatsoever, either good or bad. I was determined to carry on though and as I was now heading out of Stockport I thought I'd better turn round and head back in to drive back across the south side of the town.

As I was looking for somewhere to turn round, I saw a sign for Werneth Low and decided on impulse to follow it. I found myself in a car park near the top of a steep hill. The rain was spotting on the windscreen and the sky looked grey and dark. I did wonder what on earth I was doing up there. Despite not having a coat or suitable footwear (I didn't think I'd need it for popping out to the local shop to buy straws), I left the car and followed the footpath up the hill. The rain eased off and it was chilly but fresh.

I got to the top of the hill and turned round. I could see the whole of Manchester and Stockport laid out before me. I could see aeroplanes tracking across the sky making a beeline for Manchester Airport and I could see the sun breaking through the clouds and lighting up Stockport. Beams of sunlight were piercing the grey and illuminating the green and white towers of Lancashire Hill and the marketplace spire of St Marys. I spent some time on top of the hill, praying for my town. As I walked back down the hill, I knew that I could go home now. I'd seen a glimpse of hope.

Does anyone still do blogs?

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:11:00 +0000

They're like so 2006.

It seems twitter is the place to be these days.

There's one thing about twitter. With posts at 140 characters I can usually manage to finish one once a day or so. usually.

I've not managed a full proper blog post in months.

Ah well, nobody reads these things anyway do they?

New York, New York

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:08:00 +0000

It is compulsory to start any blog post about a trip to the big apple with a smattering of cliches and song lyrics so I'll start spreading the news and telling you the tales of being an english(wo)man in New York.

It was cold. I had to buy a new thick hat to keep my ears from freezing off and I had to wear my skiing gloves rather than my chic leather ones. Once I'd attained the right level of thermal insulation the city began to look (and feel) an awful lot more attractive.

If you're a tourist in NYC, there are certain things you must do. We took the two elevators to the top of the empire state building and saw the twinkling lights of broadway and fifth avanue below us. We took in a show; Avenue Q. The best way to describe it is as a cross between sesame street (puppets), friends (romance and a feelgood factor) and american pie (some rather irreverent humour). I will remember the 'bad idea bears' for a long time to come. They look like care bears but their advice is more interesting "You've got no job. Why not spend the last of your money on beer?"

Of course, there is a lot going on in such a big city and Tim and I found ways to entertain ourselves that others may not have enjoyed so much. I did a little research before I went and I decided to go to Times Square Church for the first of their three sunday services. They had a huge grand theatre that was dripping with gilt and I joined the queue for the limited number of seats (only four thousand ... so latecomers have to stand!) and I joined in with the robed choir as we sang our way through a lot of worship songs and listened to the preacher shout his way through quite a reasonable message. I was all prepared to be cynical but as the service began and the chatter died down as people began to sing I felt completely overwhelmed - in a good way. God was there. Of course, He's everywhere but I felt him there more strongly than I have felt him elsewhere in a very long time.

Tim found us a free lunch on friday. We went to an open day at the new offcies of Fog Creek, a small but influential software company. Tim was impressed with the facilities for the coders; desks that rise and fall at the push of a button, private offices for each programmer, free lunches every day etc. We chatted with several visitors and some of the workforce and admired the view out over the hudson river and ate their nice sandwiches.

I've got so many highlights; ice skating at the Rockerfeller centre has to be one, I loved it. Eating a mountain of pancakes with syrup was another. And on the subject of food I discovering that the New York baked cheesecake you actually get in New York is better than any I've had before anywhere else. I'm hungry now just thinking about it :)

As we left New York I was a little sad as I always am on leaving a holiday destination behind but New York was only half of the story. We left the city on a train, headed for Rutland Vermont where we would meet up with the american branch of our family for their annual ski trip.

Good church guide

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:17:00 +0000

I just read an article about the variety of Christmas services on offer at UK churches. The writer points out that there's no such thing as a 'good church guide' and I think that it would be a good idea to create one.

There are guides that help you to find churches that are close to you and there are directories (where churches can enter information about themselves) but for this kind of thing, you need outside parties to rate the church for you. The Ship of Fools Mystery Worshipper reports are the closest thing I can think of but even then if the reviewer likes smells and bells but visits a happy clappy church it's unlikely to get a positive review. What is needed is something more like a restaurant or hotel review site where all the info you need is available and there's a space for users to give star ratings and reviews.

It's just an idea ...

I wonder how long it would take to make ...

I wonder if there are any joomla addons that would do the star ratings bit ...

Just wondering :)

Catchup and Linkage

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:54:00 +0000

I don't feel I've done much worthy of comment of late. Of course I have, I just forget to blog about it. Here's a summary: There was the carol singing with Christian Aid and Sanctus 1 on wednesday. There was a wonderful morning spent with C3 yesterday, huddled in the playgroup room because the lounge we usually meet in was full of bits of staging. There was a shopping trip to the Trafford Centre on thursday where I spyed Gok Wan doing a promotion in the 3 shop and may have seen cheffy bloke James Martin too - but wasn't sure it was him. I've also been doing some necessary-but-fun festive preparations; card making, cake baking, tree baubling and bathroom tiling (ok, so the last one wasn't very festive but it was necessary).

I've been reading some interesting things too ... I found out that the wonderful Stephen Fry has a blog and I spent more time than was healthy reading his thoughts on gadgets, language and fame. I've come across a cadre of writers who blog, some I found particularly entertaining (here and here) and some are useful for aspiring writers (here). I also loved the BBC's writers room where there's a great interview with Russell T Davies and lots of scripts you can download and read.

A fine line

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:08:00 +0000

I had a great time at church yesterday. I don't think mum did. (please note we went to different churches).

After a particularly dull service she said to me "You know when you have to keep taking deep breaths just to stop yourself falling asleep? I don't need to be entertained but awake would be nice."

I've heard a few people complaining that all young people want in worship is to be entertained.

How dare young people like my mum and I be demanding services that are engaging enough to stay awake for. If tedium was good enough for the early church, it should be good enough for us!

Gingerbread family trees

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:59:00 +0000

I spent a good part of this morning making small gingerbread replicas of myself and my family. My skill with an icing tube is not so great that I would expect anyone to recognise my efforts. Though you may have been able to spot me by the small spikes of red icing for hair and, if you'd known I was wearing a green stripy jumper you might have had a head start.

There was a serious point to making the gingerbread people. They were illustrations of the people who have influenced us. We honoured them in sugar and then prayed for them. Here are the people I made:

Bricks and Mortar

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:29:00 +0000

I've had two meetings this week spent poring over a plan of a proposed new building. It's an odd feeling to be looking at a piece of paper with some random lines on it and to try and imagine what that will look like when it comes to being a solid 3D, lifesized structure. It's even stranger to think that your scribbles on a piece of paper might mean walls being moved around or lost completely.

The reason I've been in a position to think about new buildings is because my church happens to meet in a hall on a sunday morning. The hall belongs to Stockport Sunday School. SSS (as they shall henceforth be known) was once the largest sunday school in the world. The following is an extract about them from the website http://www.oldtowns.co.uk/Cheshire/stockport.htm

"One of the Sunday-schools ‘the Stockport Sunday-school,’ was not exclusively connected with any denomination. The Bible was used as the school book, and the children were taken alternately to church and to dissenting places of worship. This school, with four branches, had, in 1833, 5,244 scholars, about half of each sex. It was supported by subscription, and was under the management of a committee elected from among the subscribers of a guinea and upwards, and of visitors chosen from among the persons actively engaged in the school. There were two libraries, a teachers’ library of 850 volumes, and a scholars’ library of 1,700. There were connected with the school a religious tract society which circulated yearly 30,000 tracts, and a Bible association which distributed yearly about 400 copies of the Scriptures. There were no paid officers connected with the institution."

They're not quite in the same position now but the organisation still exists and still has a passion for mission in Stockport. They've asked my church http://www.c3stockport.net to partner with them, bringing some youth and enthusiasm, and some fresh ideas. They've just sold their building and have a plot of land on which to build a new one. In order to help them, we've been praying about the plans they've had drawn up and suggesting some ideas; a cafe area, a digital creativity space (otherwise known as a computer room!) etc. It's very exciting to be part of that kind of planning.

The only slightly worrying thing is that C3 is a dispersed community of people and groups across the whole town. Whereas, having a building anchors us firmly in a particular place. We will have to make sure that anchor doesn't drag us away from our town-wide mission.

Lou's Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:55:00 +0000

I posted some cards off yesterday. That's not an unusual thing in itself but yesterday I wasn't sending birthday greetings, I was entering a competition. I'm not usually big on participation. I don't even vote for my favourites on Strictly Come Dancing (Austin and Lisa if you're interested). The competition I'm entering is the Simply cards and papercraft cardmaker of the year. You have to send three cards on any theme and you get marked on technique, originality and composition.

Anyway, I'm sure you're dying to see what I entered ... so here they are:

Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Lou Davis) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:12:00 +0000

I started blogging in Jan 2004. I blogged consistently for several years before the infrequent posting dried up to a drizzle four years later. Recently though, I've been feeling urges. They're not painful but I think that if I don't do something about them they may become so. I'm feeling the urge to blog again.

So hello world ... again.