Sunday 18 August 2013

Picnic and fireworks under the stars

I have just come inside after a lovely evening concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at their yearly ‘Under The Stars - Proms in the Park’ event in my local park here in East Ham. As many of you know, I am housebound and only leave the house to attend my hospital appointments so walking to the park and sitting there for 3 hours is out of the question for me – I haven’t been there for many years, but the park is so close to me so I can hear the music in my garden!

Please click on the photos to get a larger version when you are finished reading – so worth it!

Most people take a picnic basket and the extended family to the concert and stay there the whole afternoon and evening - my cat and I lined up some nice food in my garden and had a picnic on our own.

When it got dark I lit up my lovely fireplace, the chimenea.

And I had candle-lit lanterns spread around the garden.

The concert ended with the traditional Last Night of the Proms firework finale, featuring Jerusalem and Rule Britannia. I took some pictures around 100 pictures of the firework and had a hard time choosing which to show you, but here is a selection.























I had a great time, hope you enjoyed the photos, sorry I can’t share the music with you, it was all the famous classics. Who needs walking all the way to the park, queue up to get in to the park, sit on uncomfortable chairs for 3 hours and then queue to get out of the park just to walk all the way home – when I can get all the joy sitting comfortably in my own garden and just walk a few steps to get inside when it’s finished :-)
Until next time, take care.

34 comments:

  1. Hi Helen
    Wow, what a firework and you couldn't have a better place to enjoy it. Ehm, what did your cat think about the firework? My Noah is so afraid of them and hide himself under the Sofa. Thanks for the nice wishes and the Meow from your cat to get Noah well again. He's much better since yesterday evening and already munched his breakfast :o).
    Have a good start into a great week.
    xxx Alex

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    1. Hi Alex, I am afraid my cat didn’t stay for the fireworks! He is OK with fireworks when we are indoors, he sleeps through it as we have fireworks so often around here, but it is different outside so he will run inside if he happens to be out when it starts. He made a quick exit when it started last night but when it was finished I opened the backdoor and there he sat, just behind the door.
      Good to hear your cat is feeling better :-)
      Have a great week!

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  2. You own private concert - lovely.

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    1. Thanks Sue, I am sure many of my neigbours did the same!

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  3. I would rather stay at home to listen to the beautiful music the orchestra brings. Your photo's of the fireworks are great. I know it's not easy to get some good photo's.
    Have a wonderful day Helene.

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    1. Thanks Marijke, I just wish I could post some of the lovely music too!
      Have a great day!

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  4. Perfect. That's a far more civilised way of doing it!

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    1. Yesterday’s classical concert was the last one of four evenings of concerts – the other three has been Asian music, jazz and disco. All four free events have been visited by in total around 50.000 people. I much prefer staying in my garden in company with my cat!

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  5. Helene, how convenient it is that the park is close to your house!
    I hope you could hear the music well, I also love to listen to classical music in the evening in the open air.
    The photos of fireworks are great, I live the red ones.

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    1. Classical music has always been close to my heart, I used to play in several symphonic orchestras from the age of 12 to I was 19 and I took college A level in music. I had to give up my music career because of my illness so since then I have just been a listener, but many of the pieces they played yesterday I remember playing 30 years ago; the classics from Aida, the William Tell overture, Adagio of Spartacus (The Onedin Line Theme), Land of Hope and Glory and many, many more I still remember :-)

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  6. What a delightful way to spend the evening. You have set the scene well Helene - I think I'd prefer to sit in my own garden and listen too!
    Firework pictures are spectacular!

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    1. Thanks Angie, I love fireworks, especially good ones like they have here in the park, my cat enjoyed the evening too, right up until the fireworks started :-)

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  7. Helene, you have mastered the art of turning necessity into a virtue--what a lovely, festive scene you created in your evening garden to enjoy the event. It seems much more pleasant in any case than hanging out with thousands and thousands of your closest friends!

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    1. There were thousands and thousands of people in the park, none of them friends of mine though :-) Yes, my garden serves many purposes and truly is the most important room in my house, just as I wrote in my post on the 11th August.

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  8. Hi Helene,

    I just loved my fireworks tour! How wonderful to be able to hear the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the stars. I bet it was fantastic.

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    1. Yes, they are fantastic, this is the 14th year they are doing the Proms in the Park concert, and it is always free for anyone to attend. This year the weather was playing nice too, last year it rained and that always put a damper on things.

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  9. How wonderful to be able to listen to classical music and see fireworks from your own garden! I would much rather be there than in the park! And the fact that you and your cat got to picnic in your garden is like icing on the cake. What a wonderful evening. So glad you got to take advantage of it.

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    1. Thanks Holly, it is an evening I look forward to every year, and this year the weather was even playing nice :-)

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  10. Brilliant! No queues, no fuss, no travel time -- AND cats are welcome in your backyard seating :-)

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    1. Yes, a great evening, we have many of them, but not usually with live music :-)

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  11. Your garden, the best place to attend this concert and fireworks. You were sitting first class! I hate crowds and queues. I only wonder how your cat behaved during the fireworks, but well he or she could go inside. I can imagine you had a wonderful evening, I think a top evening of the year.

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    1. Oh, my cat doesn’t like to be outside when there is fireworks, it is too loud, so he ran inside when it started. He is OK inside though, he will just sleep through most fireworks and not bother at all. He is quite used to fireworks though, we have a lot of them between August and February.

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  12. What a wonderful way to spend an evening! It would be great to sit in the garden, listen to music and see a fireworks display.

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    1. Yes, I use the garden a lot both daytime and evening, but live classical music is certainly not a daily occurrence :-)

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  13. What a lovely way to spend an evening!
    I don't have much success with firework photos, but yours are great!
    Have a beautiful day!
    Lea
    Lea's menagerie

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    1. Thanks Lea, the tricks about taking fireworks photos are to use a tripod and to take many, many photos. I took just over 100, on a continuous-shoot setting in those 10 minutes the firework lasted. I have many more usable photos, but many that are not good at all. Taking a lot of photos means that at least you'll get some good ones.

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  14. Wow, that is quite a show! And I agree that your comfortable garden room with your kitty and the blanket is much better than dealing with all the crowds and traffic! Thanks for sharing the fireworks!!!

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    1. You're most welcome :-)
      I had a great time and getting my own private concert with the Royal Philharmonics is one of the highlights of the summer!

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  15. you are such a professional photographer -- those fire work pictures have come out so perfectly and professionally. Your garden looks so cosy. The candle-lantern is such a nice idea -- I will try to implement some in our garden. Can you please tell me some websites where you buy your garden decorations?

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    1. Sure I can tell you where I bought some of my things for the garden, but I don’t think that will help you much since I live in England and bought them here. But my lanterns should be possible for you to get, as they were bought at Ikea, here is a link to the American site for them: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10122987

      If you look at my post ‘The most important room’ from earlier this month http://graphicality-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-most-important-room.html there is a list at the bottom of the post with links to many of the things I got for my new seating area. Perhaps you can look at the websites and find something similar where you live.

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  16. The chimneys captured in the firework photos bring them closer to home, making them seem even more incredible. I like the way you do everything in style!

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  17. Enjoying the music and fireworks in your garden was probably much more enjoyable than at the park because you didn't have to deal with any crowds. Plus, your garden is amazing. :)

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    1. Thanks, my garden is my private little hide-away and I use it a lot :-)

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