Accurate(ish) Map

After realising how well I DIDN'T know my way around Sunderland I forced myself to copy out a proper map.  *yawn*  Going to add colour tonight.

Had a day of drinking coffee, walking around Mowbray Park & Winter Gardens/Museum.  I took lots of photos.

Watch this space for illustrations of pigeons and trees.  Sunderland has lots of both.

Sunderland Snaps

These are the photos i've taken on my phone whilst walking around Sunderland.

Reference images!  :)

Cooo, coo.

Miaow?

Colourful buildings, demolition sites, pigeons, cats, the city at night, shoppers and cars.

Map of Sunderland (from a mind's-eye-view)

**click to enlarge**

I did this map without looking at a real map and without looking up reference images... it's just exactly how Sunderland looks to my sense-of-direction-less brain. When I compared it to an accurate map of Sunderland it made me laugh. Buildings are on the wrong side of the river, a whole bridge is missing, pretty much everything is in the wrong place.  I have a skewed metro-orientated view of the city.  i.e. I get off the metro, go to uni, and then go home.

Conclusion: I DO NOT KNOW MY WAY AROUND SUNDERLAND.

I liked the idea of deciding roughly what kind of children's story we'd like to create NOW, so that we can narrow down the research.  I've taken some photos of areas in Sunderland on my phone... will upload them tonight so that I can  have some more reference images to work from.

weyyy!

Mackem

An inhabitant of Sunderland. Often connected to the shipbuilding days where the Wearsiders would "mack em" (make them) before the Tynesiders would "tack em" (take them) to be fitted with engines.

"We mackem and ye tackem"

Being a Tourist

Today I had a nice time buzzing around Sunderland with my Psychology pal as the driver.  We visited Hylton Park (nice old castle), the aircraft museum, Penshaw Monument, a nice pond with lots of ducks, kittiwakes, swans and other birds, Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve, Farm Adventure Park, and then last but not least, McDonalds.

Twas a grand day.  The sun was shining and  I got a million photos.

Task for the next few days = go back to the museum beside the Winter Gardens to get more info on Sunderland's history, and draw some maps.

Next week we're planning another tourist day. There's a quarry near Whitburn and i'd like to look at the ship building history and go back to the glass centre.  Oh, and I want to investigate the monks and what their history is.

I love this photo of the birds sitting waiting to be fed, and a flock taking off in the background.

Winter Gardens

"The stunning Winter Gardens stimulate the senses with over 2,000 flowers and plants brought together in a spectacular showcase of the world's natural beauty."

Metro Video

Probably the most exciting Youtube video you will experience this year...

...not.

Getting to Know Mackem-Land...

Today I went to the Winter Gardens and the museum... also took a little video of the main Sunderland Metro stop.

some menacing clouds near the Design Centre today... the moon was out at the same time which was a bit weird/exciting.

I've noticed the "Lambton Worm" coming up time and time again when I'm trawling around Sunderland-related things.


Here's a song about the Lambton Worm, too!


Full story of The Lambton Worm (click it)


A very VERY summarised-by-me version of the Lambton Worm story 
A man called John Lambton is fishing, catches a black worm with a salamander's head.  An old man tells him its dodgy, so he throws it into a well.  The worm grows and grows and a few years later it has crawled out of the well and is eating sheep and drinking the milk from the cows' udders.  John has been away fighting in crusades and when he comes back he decides to kill the worm.  A wise old lady tells him that he needs a special razor-sharp suit, and he needs to kill the first person he sees after the worm is killed, otherwise his family will be cursed!  He has his special suit made with razor sharp bits on it, and stays overnight in a chapel.  He goes to kill the worm, and it gets all sliced up from John's special suit, and dies.  He toots his bugle to tell everyone the worm is dead, and his Dad runs out to congratulate him. John cannot bring himself to kill his own Dad, and so his family is cursed.


Next week i'm going to go up Penshaw monument and see the hill and the rock that the worm sat on.  Fun times!

First Thoughts

Yesterday I took a little walk through Sunderland so that I could go and pillage the Tourist Information, gather a bit of inspiration and buy some files to try and organise myself a bit.

I scribbled some notes down in my sketchbook after walking through the Bridges, along the street to the Tourist Info', and then into the main Metro station in Sunderland.

I picked up a LOT of brochures and leaflets...

I used the big map to cover my sketchbook...

First Post

I've chosen Sunderland... eeee!

Ahh, exotic.