SouthseaScene

Everyone is invited to explore the universe through the first-ever Virtual Pompey Stargazing which offers a range of exciting, interactive events from 25 to 31 January. Pompey Stargazing Live is usually held at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, but this year events will be held online which will allow more people to get involved with the action. Run by the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG), the events are free and tickets for each of the events are available on Eventbrite. There is a variety of interactive sessions for the whole family including public talks on gravitational waves and the early universe, one-to-one sessions for visually impaired people with the Tactile Universe project, as well as child-friendly interactive sessions on galaxies, light, planets, and the blackholes. The Virtual Pompey Stargazing allows children to add to their lockdown home schooling with an exciting, educational, exploration of our universe. An audio guide to th

Today's challenge is to find beauty in something ordinary, or ugly. I was thinking about this when I went to sort out my laundry. The washing machine is not much to look at, but it's a machine that makes my life so much easier. If like me, you've tasted what it's like to handwash your laundry, you will never take the washing machine for granted again.  I remember living in a house without any laundry facilities for 6 months and although it was over the summer, it was quite a chore to do laundry. Small clothes were fine to handwash, but beddings were so heavy and your hands just go numb and crinkly submerged in the water for so long. So to me, a washing machine, and the dryer, are the most beautiful things in my house.

Today's challenge is to write the word LOVE in any material and here's what I did. I was going to write something about food as an expression of love, but that's not what the instruction says. Here's the word LOVE in my favourite things: pens and books.

To help with my return to creativity I decided to join the January Challenge by 64 Million Artists. There are three artists you can follow and I decided on Lemn Sissay. I chose Lemn because we're going to have the pleasure of meeting him in February as part of the Portsmouth BookFest. Today is the first day and the prompt is "I remember" I remember the excitement that filled me when I first started this blog. I wanted to tell people about my life in Southsea, what excites me about the people and places, what you can see, and do.  My first article was about places where you can enjoy a cup of tea as you walk around the city, taking in some historical sights along the way. It was the kind of walk I enjoy myself. Over the years I added information about events happening in the city as I was writing the articles for a local newspaper. The articles were a great challenge for me to write and submit. However, I enjoyed chatting with the editor once a month and being part of the

My sister WhatsApp me this morning with a wall of words. The first four words you see are your words for the year. I've done this for the last couple of years and found it's a nice way to hold on to some inspirational words as you go through the seasons. My words for this year are CHANGE, GRATITUDE, LOVE, CARE Find yours!