GavWyatt photography

05/09/2026

Lindisfarne festival .... Once again it has been the most incredible time .... And once again I was completely blessed to be a part of the media team for the weekend I'll be back with bells on again next year ..... Lovely to see people that are practically classed as family now and every single year the smiles on faces, costumes, bands, stalls, crew, dogs and many many more never ever fail to deliver
...... My pins cant support my body no longer and I've had to bow out after over 40 thousand steps 🤣🤣 but for everyone involved give yourself a MASSIVE pat on the back .... Well deserved .... Utterly well deserved !!!

Many many many more pictures will follow once I can get back and sort

Lindisfarne Festival

22/08/2026

THE SILVER SWAN The Bowes Museum

The Silver Swan is an automaton dating from the 18th century and now housed in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England. It was acquired by John Bowes, the museum's founder, from a Parisian jeweller in 1872.

The swan, which is life-sized, is a clockwork-driven device that includes a music box. The swan sits in a "stream" made of glass rods and surrounded by silver leaves. Small silver fish can be seen "swimming" in the stream

When the clockwork is wound, the music box plays and the glass rods rotate giving the illusion of flowing water. The swan turns its head from side to side and also preens itself. After a few moments the swan notices the swimming fish and bends down to catch and eat one. The swan's head then returns to the upright position and the performance, which lasts about 32 seconds, is over.

The mechanism was designed and built by the Low Countries inventor John Joseph Merlin (1735–1803) in conjunction with the London inventor James Cox (1723–1800) in 1773.

The swan was described in the Cox's Museum Act 1772 (13 Geo. 3. c. 41) as being 3 feet (0.91 m) in diameter and 18 feet (5.49 m) high This would seem to indicate that at one time there was more to the swan than remains today as it is no longer that high. It is said that there was originally a waterfall behind the swan, which was stolen while it was on tour – this could possibly explain the height which is now 'missing'

It is known that the swan was sold several times and was shown at the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1867. The American novelist Mark Twain observed the swan and recorded his observation in a chapter of the Innocents Abroad,writing that the swan "had a living grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes.

In 2017 starting in February the swan spent 6 weeks at the Science Museum as part of an exhibition on robots.

To help preserve the mechanism, the swan is only operated once each day (twice on holidays).

It really is a beautiful piece that's been superbly preserved, the Bowes museum is a beautiful building and holds some rather beautiful things and is worth spending an afternoon there, make sure you turn up early to get a good place for seeing the swan perform at 2 o'clock !!!

Info taken from Wikipedia

https://youtube.com/shorts/NnP1VVXW-WE?is=rpo72OFu7m_0IOOx

12/08/2026

Stood on a high point in county Durham waiting with so much expectation .... The cloud was already blocking in patches before we had even arrived but by the time we got set up a cloud had moved right over the sun and blocked the entire eclipse ...... I managed to get 3 before and 1 after

04/08/2026

The kecak dance is a form of Balinese Hindu dance popularized in the 1930s. Since its creation, it has been performed primarily by men, with the first women's kecak group having started in 2006. The dance is based on the story of the Ramayana and is traditionally performed in temples and villages across Bali, Indonesia.

It's an iconic Balinese performance featuring a large chorus of men chanting "cak-cak-cak", a dramatic enactment of the Ramayana, and a famous sunset fire finale.

Performance and Sound where No instruments are used; the rhythm comes entirely from a tight circle of 50 to 100 men shouting in unison.The overlapping vocal beats create a hypnotic, wall-of-sound effect.

Utterly incredible to experience and see ... If you're in Bali it is a must to catch a performance and even if you can't make it to Bali go and find a video on a media streaming platform and watch it.

🇲🇨

01/08/2026

Rice terrace view

I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to go back to Bali in march whilst we have 3 weeks this time I know we won't even scratch the surface of being able to see everything.

We'll be seeing new areas but also going back to our favourite place Ubud for Nyepi day (a day of silence), we're even managing to squeeze in a fine dining experience Locavore NXT

It's such a magical beautiful place and we're so excited.

🇲🇨

28/06/2026

27/06/2026

Motorbike taxi service, can't wait to get back to this magical place

🇲🇨 🇲🇨🌴🌱⭐️🐚

10/06/2026

Some more Bali Photo ,,,,, central Ubud, Wet Alleys, Fast food and reflections

10/06/2026