Arts Trail 5 - Outside Victoria Hall

With the grandeur of Saltaire's Victoria Hall as a backdrop, the exuberance of the dark pink cherry blossom as its focal point and the fun and bustle of the Arts Trail children's activities going on in the foreground, this is an action-packed scene.  The children's activities - assisted by relatively warm sunshine last Sunday - were popular and very innovative.  A 'Garden of Easels' allowing the kids to paint outdoors (no mess!), an old-fashioned coconut shy, making hobby horses and painting your own duck to attach to an intricate string web were some of the delights on offer.  I especially liked the idea of building a whole camp of 'dens' made from sticks covered with sheets and decorated with bunting.  As the programme said, the art of building 'secret dens' has all but died out in this age of flat-pack wendy houses and fold-away tepees.  Some of my happiest childhood moments were spent in my 'tent', made from my mum's wooden clothes-horse draped with a sheet!