Recently I headed to the Djanogly Gallery, part of the Lakeside Arts complex on the University of Nottingham campus for the Andy Warhol: Pop Icon Exhibition. It was made possible by ARTIST Rooms, a touring collection of artwork owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland to showcase artwork that, let’s face it, would never normally make its way to the East Midlands.
Light Night returned this February for its usual two nights of free light sculptures, musical events and as last year, decorated ducks in shop windows. This is its 18th year and it’s always a great night out though I certainly never see everything on offer. This year was also the worst weather I think we’ve ever had during the event though it certainly didn’t seem to be putting anyone off, myself included. I first went to Sneinton Market Square which had this lovely sculpture called The Cat That Slept For A Thousand Years. Created by Air Giant its an inflatable cat that you can hear purring and whose tail gently moves as they sleep. Very cute and popular – took a while for the crowd to clear so I could get a picture.
For Boxing Day my dad and I did a walk around Oldmoor Wood in Strelley, about five miles from Nottingham City Centre. Looked after by the Woodland Trust it was planted in 1792 by a Thomas Webb Edge as part of Strelly Park though it was redeveloped from ancient woodland that already existed there. It is however not officially considered an ancient wood.
I stumbled across an advert for this Christmas Tree Festival the other week and decided to pay it a visit. I’ve been to St Mary’s a number of times and its a lovely church and always very welcoming. This festival event was in aid of Emmanuel House a local homeless support charity. I’m not sure the event is all that well known – I was the only non staff member there during my visit. There are donation card readers at the entrance so you can donate however much you like via contactless.
As you know from previous posts I really like the Christmas season and have decided this year to visit a few new places particularly Christmas markets/fairs as well as my usual Christmas trip with a friend. The first one was the Winter Craft Fair at Southwell Minster which I visited last Saturday. Incredibly the last time I visited the Minster (and wrote about it here) was in 2013! This is in part because it’s about a 40-45 minute bus journey from where I live but a pleasant route through some picturesque villages.
Back in the beginning of June I went along to the Open Gardens event in Burton Joyce, a village just outside Nottingham. I’m fairly familiar with the village as a friend grew up there but I’d never been to the Open Gardens event before. 11 gardens were open to the public with the ticket price (£6 if booked in advance) going towards Maggie’s, a cancer charity based at Nottingham City Hospital.
Taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine I ventured out to Holme Pierrepont Country Park recently to explore an area I hadn’t been to since I was a child. The park is home to the National Watersports Centre and British Canoeing and where many years ago I went on a school trip to try out kayaking. There are several walks around the site and I started by doing one that went through the woods but even though we haven’t had rain for a while it was surprisingly boggy so I recalibrated and went for a less muddy walk around the regatta lake instead.
This Friday and Saturday saw the return of Nottingham Light Night for its 17th year. Usually it’s at the beginning of February and I’m not quite sure why the dates moved so much, but of course this did mean that it was still quite light when I visited some of these places. I never do everything on offer as there is simply too many places to visit so this is just a highlight – Light Night is a two day event and finishes tonight (1 March).
Earlier today I went into Nottingham city centre to take photos of this recently unveiled sculpture in The Green Heart, Nottingham’s newest green space near the Central Library and on the way up from the train station. The statue represents a white lace worker and a black enslaved woman greeting each other. As someone from a long line of men and women who worked in the Nottingham lace trade from working in factories to designing lace patterns the fact that none of their work would have been possible without the cotton supplied by enslaved people has never been lost on me but it’s not something that gets highlighted as much as it should and this sculpture goes some way to rectifying that as well as emphasising the contributions made by women to the economy and society in general.
In mid November Nottingham, like many places in the UK, had its first snow of the season. We’d been expecting it but the amount certainly took people by surprise, myself included. It was perfect snow for going on a walk, compact and not slippery or icy. Since snow always helps get me in the Christmas mood I thought I’d share some photos of the snow, plus some of the Christmas markets/events I’ve attended so far this year.
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