I think this parsnip story is going to hound me till my dying day…  (see http://www.thedockchurch.org/blog/?p=814 if that sentence makes absolutely no sense whatsoever)

We had a fabulous day for the second Dock Walk on Sunday; we walked, prayed, got suntanned, worshipped, discussed, laughed… and, as an extra unexpected ingredient, followed a trail of increasingly distressed-looking parsnips which were scattered in cunning hiding places along the route of our walk…

So now we have a Dock Mystery!  Who is the mysterious Parsnip Scatterer?  I have my suspicions… and any information which leads to the capture of the culprit will be handsomely rewarded (with a parsnip).

Speaking of mysteries, here’s another one:  there was a ship moored beside the Odyssey for the past few days displaying the banner ‘HMS Mersey’.  There was a nice big welcoming gangplank leading down to the quayside so I reckoned it was worth a try to blag my way on board and talk boats with whoever I found… only to be ordered back off the boat, wordlessly, at gunpoint, by a scary soldier man!  It was all quite exciting… neither I, or the people who watched it all with great amusement, were left any the wiser as to what HMS Mersey is, or why it was moored in Belfast!  Anyone any ideas?

On a vaguely related note (well it involves boats), on Sunday we finished the Dock Walk by being part of the unveiling ceremony for a new part of the Titanic Heritage Trail.  The area behind the Pump House was a hive of activity all last week as a Channel Four documentary crew filmed a show, due to be broadcast in the Autumn, called ‘We Built Titanic’.  They were re-creating some of the skills and techniques used in the Harland and Wolff shipyards at the time of the construction of the Titanic, and as the grand conclusion they built a replica section of part of Titanic’s hull – which they then, on Sunday night, presented to the people of Belfast as a new piece of public artwork and living history.  It looks very cool, as you can see from the photos, and is one more good reason to visit the Pump House or to be part of future Dock events…