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In 2010 I was lucky enough to see various corrugated iron buildings around the UK. The best of all was The Band Room, a concert venue in North Yorkshire, where the interior was as delightful as the exterior.

Our Lady of Mercy, Dull, Perthshire

Near Land’s End, Cornwall

The Band Room, Low Mill, North Yorkshire

Low Mill, North Yorkshire

Near Byrness, Northumberland

St Fillans, Killin, Perthshire

Christmas card time and there is nothing like a good kick up the arse to get creative. While designing the gocco print I managed to keep it simple (I have to remind myself simple works best). A two colour print using florescent pink and gold.. slightly overlapping colours with little registration to worry about. I’m hoping the moleskine notebook ‘card’ will be a nice mini christmas gift that will be kept post christmas and prove useful in 2011.

Prints and notebooks available for sale in the Maraid Etsy shop

I love found photographs, although sometimes a box full of jumbled up and discarded memories is a little sad. I picked up this photo album in a Berlin flee market and was happy to discover that is was the life of one lady. She had collated ‘Meine Memoiren’ starting from her birth in 1914 to old age. The album is split into two distinct halves. The first half ending on her life with a German solider in 1945 and in the second half, ‘Memoiren II’, he is gone. She does find love again, their life and travels are happy and well documented. The last entry is 1988. I am still to figure out her name (Lotti?) but with many captions and the odd letter I’m sure it is in there somewhere.

My highlights are the ski trip that ends with pictures of her posing for the camera in the hospital bed with a broken leg, her confident teenage years (she knows how to strike a pose!) and the plethora of photobooth images, displayed together they perfectly document her growing old.

This museum is unlike the usual. The Museum of Letters is bright, light with a modern feel. The objects are relatively modern too – large, colourful, often plastic letters from signs, salvaged from Berlin shops and stores. It’s simply done, visually stunning and it makes me happy to know that people care about about this important and beautiful element of urban culture.

View all of my Buchstaben Museum photos on Flickr

Buchstaben Museum website

The original curator of Ilfracombe Museum was Mervyn G Palmer who worked for the British Museum. Housed in the old laundry room of the Ilfracombe Hotel, the Museum is stuffed full of a variety of fantastic collections. You don’t know what you will find around the next corner, from a cupboard of pickled bats to 1960s hair dryers

More Ilfracombe Museum photos

Annoyingly I didn’t give myself enough time for this museum – its a little gem. It has a great balance of contemporary pieces, old display cabinets, original rooms, novelty and the unexpected. Highlights were the modern police vans and motorbikes that already look iconic and then the surprise of more – through the courtyard into the old booking room, cells and courthouse. Run by ex-police officers with plenty of stories. Next visit I’ll give myself more time to take in all the information and films, I’m sure I missed some good stuff. Open one day a week – its one to plan for.

More pictures on Flickr

My Grandfather had a postcard of Huck’s Bridge. When it came into my possession I was surprised that this small corner of Cumbria was printed on a postcard and then later even more surprised to find more of them existed (the joy of ebay).

I’m not sure where he acquired the card but he had it because of our family connection to this bridge.

The Hucks can be traced back to the 1500s in this part of eastern Westmorland (now Cumbria). Huck’s Brow and Huck’s Bridge on the A6 are a reminder of the influence they once had in this area.

Huck’s Bridge is named after the First Toll Keeper, Gerrard Huck who was Toll Keeper there in 1777. The family moved from Shap to High Borrow Bridge some time in the mid 1600s and descendants of the family have remained in the parish until the present day.

From ‘A Life by Huck’s Brow’ by Anne Hyelman..

“In 1745 they reluctantly played host to the remnants of Bonnie Prince Charles’s army, having the foresight to bury the pewter and oatmeal in the field behind. The rebels stayed one night and left the next day taking all the household footwear in exchange for the tattered remains of their own once fine shoes. The visit of the Highlanders and the burial of the pewter are well documented. Family tradition also tells that it was a devil of a job finding the buried pewter afterwards!

The bridge was built by Francis Webster in 1826.

A great small local history museum run by volunteers. As well as enjoying the museum I loved the location. It’s well situated, allowing you to explore the beautiful quiet back streets, escaping the busy high street with amazing views over the village.

Robin Hood’s Bay Museum

There seemed to be a plethra of vintage poster maps in the French flea markets and second hand shops. These colourful and simple educational ones are my favourites.

With the last batch of 600 film all gone from the polaroid factory prices are rising fast. Although I have some left I don’t think I will buy anymore unless the impossible project do the impossible and bring it back.. here’s hoping.

Gardens at Blois, Loire

• More polaroids taken in France