A closer look revealed a shady character in old fashioned attire with a dodgy moustache. He appeared to be trying to make an urgent call.

It turns out that Great Shelford Parish Council has purchased their red telephone booth from BT and has found a novel use for it.  School children are placing interesting characters in the phone booth, then writing about who they are and what they might be discussing on their call. In this instance, Guy Fawkes was taking advantage of modern technology – presumably to plot with his co-conspirators.

Many thanks to Amanda Chamberlain for letting us share her photos.

If anyone else has interesting local photos to share, do please let us have them. We’d love to share them here.

This is a reminder that the Renault Formula 1 team will be testing their engine at the Imperial War Museum Duxford on Wednesday 29th July.

Lennox Head is delightful. Its small surfing community which is just about a perfect size. Its famous amongst surfers for its right hand break – something which we were told only occurs there and at Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa. One of the delights of Lennox is its gorgeous seven mile beach – perfect for good long walks.

The place is so unspoiled that we had an up-close encounter with 3 pelicans, and came across this little creature on the beach – wierd looking, but quite attractive in its own colourful way.  And not as camera-shy as you might expect.

Our next stop was the Dorrigo National Park to spend some time in the rainforest.  This section of our journey didn’t go quite to plan. Dorrigo’s catch phrase is ,”Where the Mountains Touch the Sky” – which is roughly where our car broke down. About 85% of the way up the mountain, in the middle of the rainforest, by our estimation. Although the scenery was gorgeous, civilisation was pretty thin on the ground at that point.

With the help of some very down-to-earth local characters, we limped into Dorrigo. This place is serene and very beautiful, possibly because its rather remote and very small. So small in fact that the parts required to repair the car had to be ordered in which meant we stayed an extra day. Di and Paul, who run Tallawalla were fantastically accomodating and we were able to extend our stay with them for one more night and have a relaxing day in front of their fireplace while we waited for the car to be repaired. We spent an afternoon exploring the rainforest, and found time to spend some time with Juan at ‘The World’s Smallest Motorcycle Museum’.

And then on to Sydney for 5 days. A bit of time for markets and IMAX, catching up with friends, a visit to Sydney’s famous fish market for lunch, and the Darwin exhibition at the Maritime Museum. Having seen the exhibitions at London’s Natural History Museum, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, it was interesting to get an Australian perspective on his work. Sadly, we were a bit too late to explore the replica of HMS Endeavour, but we did have a good close up look at her from the outside. When you consider that she carried 96 men, sailing across the world was an amazing feat!

We took a drive out to the Blue Mountains and spent a day in the area around Katoomba. To reach the old coal mine near the famous Three Sisters, the first part of the journey entails a roller-coaster-like descent on ‘The World’s Steepest Railway’. And steep it most certainly is. Safely enclosed in caged seats, passengers have the experience of their carriage quite literally going over the cliff edge. Once at the bottom, the forest floor reveals some sobering clues about the life of the coal miners. The bleak setting of a miner’s cottage is stark contrast to our modern lifestyle. This kitchen area is a graphic example.

Given the fact that the shop’s wine range includes some Australian vintages, a visit to Hunter Valley was definitely on the agenda. Although we were told that Hunter Valley has been less renowned than some of the other wine producing areas in Australia, there is a regeneration taking place.

Hunter Valley is filled with small boutique wineries, many of which are owned by large producers who export the wines from their other vineyards. The wines produced in Hunter Valley are almost exclusively for local sale only. We thought this a great pity as we had some very pleasing samples there and bought our fair share of bottles to take back to Sydney with us.

Our last few days were spent back in Sydney with old friends before we started the very long journey home.  A great trip and if anyone would like details of the places we’ve visited – if we’ve tempted you to go and experience it yourself – just drop us a line or ask Marc when you see him in the shop.

We stopped over for a couple of hours in Malaysia on the way over. Kuala Lumpur is definitely a city of extremes. At one end of the scale, the Petronus Towers dominate the landscape of air-conditioned glass and marble shopping malls interspersed with perfectly manicured tropical gardens. Here, globally recognised brand names demonstrate their ubiquity – Harrods makes two appearances along with the usual suspects, Calvin Klein, Armani, et al. Much of the rest of the city is the real urban Malaysia with small local shops, marketplaces and bustling, noisy crowds.

Naturally, we tend to keep an eye out for interesting ideas for the shop – one that struck us as charming (although not necessarily for Masseys) was this fish tank stand we found when we went out for breakfast after landing in Sydney. The old television casing is the genuine article, once proudly owned by the proprietor’s parents, and now effectively recycled as unusual restaurant décor.

One night in Sydney to refresh and get some sorely needed sleep, and we were on the road up to our first stop, South West Rocks. This is a charming seaside community, which we could imagine would be steaming with holiday-makers in peak season. As it was, being low season, we had the pleasure of an early morning walk in this tranquil place with very few other people around. The estuary was magically still with flocks of egrets nesting in groups in the distance.

And then it was off on the second leg of our journey. But before we left South West Rocks, we took a drive up to Smoky Cape lighthouse. This is the highest lighthouse in New South Wales, a fact we could endorse having hiked up the steep hill to reach it. Here we saw, in the distance, our first whale breaching. Unfortunately, it was too far off to be able to tell whether it was a Southern Right whale or a Humpback. (Smoky Cape lighthouse trivia – in 1964, the lighthouse had to be manually operated when the assistant lighthouse keeper blew the power by plugging in his electric frying pan. Bet he was popular!)

We’ve now reached Lennox Head where we’re actually staying still for a few days. The whales are still travelling down the coast so with luck we’ll have another opportunity to see if we can identify one of these glorious beasties from its flume. We learned that the humpback produces a single spout, and the Southern Right creates two branches. More in a few days…

Birgitte’s describes her work this way:

For the past 5 years I have learnt the art of Jewellery Making through various evening classes and City & Guild Courses. I now have my own workshop and participated in Cambridge Open Studios for the first time last year.
Scandinavian Design influences me; my pieces are simple, contemporary in design and accessible to wear. I like to produce contrasts in my work, whether by texturing, oxidising or milling the Silver. I particularly enjoy shaping the metal by forging and planishing and many of my pieces involve these techniques. I have also begun to include interesting semi-precious stones in my designs.

I am a member of Cambridge Open Studios and will be participating again this year; I have a gallery outlet in Saffron Walden.

Canvas, wood and canvas paper are her preferred surfaces onto which she layers paint then scratches the surface revealing the colours below. She sometimes uses pure graphite pencil and gold and silver leaf.

Jo’s current collection reflects all that she has seen on her travels during the past year. From various states in the US to Southern India and Scotland.

Due to living in Southern California for several years Jo has strong ties in the US and is currently represented by The Agora Gallery, New York. She has just returned from exhibiting there at the United in Art from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland show.

Jo is also exhibiting locally at Cambridge Open Studios during weekends 11/12 and 18/19 July 2009. The Cambridge Galleries, Whittlesford is also showing her work in the mixed summer show until 27 June 2009. Jo’s cards are also sold at The Williams Art Gallery, Cambridge. You will also be able to see a collection of oil on canvas paper paintings at Addenbrookes Art in September 2009. To find out more about the other venues exhibiting Jo’s work this year visit her website

More of Jo’s work can be seen at the Art and Design Exhibition at the Memorial Hall on Saturay 13th, from noon until 6pm.

See you there.

Rhiannon Thomas

As a Textile Crafts artist, I use traditional craft techniques such as basketry and braiding with modern materials to produce 3D textiles. I manipulate man-made materials such as wire and monofilament with colourful and tactile hand-dyed paper yarns to capture movement and shape in abstracted organic forms. I produce framed wire sculptures, free hanging sculptures for decoration and display in the home and conceptual sculptural art pieces.
I paint alongside creating wire sculptures, this provides further inspiration for shapes and forms to sculpt.

I graduated from Huddersfield University in 2007 and I regularly exhibit my work  locally in Cambridge. I am taking part in Cambridge Open Studios for the second time in July.

A number of our friends and family members will have received Rhiannon’s Christmas cards from us last December. Have a preview of Rhiannon’s work here before Saturday’s event

Here’s a picture of this year’s big event:

The impressively jacketed pancake-wielding winner, streaking ahead of the pack with his trusty pan before him is …… (can someone please tell me who that is?)

Hopefully this will be the only reason our community officers, Chris and Gary, will have to be running in Whittlesford. Don’t forget to come and say hello to them at Masseys when they do their next surgery tomorrow between 10.15 and 11.15 tomorrow morning. They’re great guys and we’re lucky to have them.