England

Book Bench Trail, Newark

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Louise Jayne

A couple of weeks ago I headed out to Newark to find all the decorated book benches as part of an art trail by Newark Creates and Wild in Art. Many of you may be familiar with Wild in Art sculptures that pop up all over the country, and even as far away as Sydney and Sao Paulo. The last ones in Nottingham were the robins in 2018. You could pick up a free map from either the Palace Theatre, Newark Bus Station or download from the website. I was using a downloadable map on my phone until I fortuitously bumped into one of the people who’d organised the trail wrapping up some media interviews and she gave me a paper map. The trail finished on 5 September (this is one of a series of posts I had planned to put up before the event I was writing about finished but which got delayed due to a family medical emergency).

Continue reading →
Categories: England, Newark, Nottinghamshire | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Garden Visitors

Posted on September 12, 2024 by Louise Jayne

Every so often I do a post about the birds and animals I’ve photographed in the garden. We’ve had quite a few interesting visitors that I haven’t managed to photograph or that we’ve only caught on our nature camera overnight such as cats, hedgehogs, foxes and once quite memorably a badger but there are others that stuck around long enough for me to grab my camera. One such creature was this rat which had taken a liking to the seeds I put out for the birds (I moved the bird feeder around and took a break from re-filling it and this worked for a little while). [Since starting to write this post I found the rat dead in our garden – RIP].

Continue reading →
Categories: England, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Murder by the Book at Cambridge University Library

Posted on September 10, 2024 by Louise Jayne

My main motivation for travelling to Cambridge in August was to attend the Murder by the Book exhibition at Cambridge University Library (I had intended to get this post up before it finished on August 24th but a family medical emergency – now largely resolved – impacted all my plans). I’d never been up to the part of Cambridge where the library is located before which is the main research library of the university. Designed by Giles Gilbert Scott (designer of the red telephone box among other things) it opened in 1934.

Continue reading →
Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Grand Safari Trail at the Grand Arcade Shopping Centre, Cambridge

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Louise Jayne

Recently I was in Cambridge for a couple of days to visit some museum exhibitions but I didn’t have any plans for after my arrival late in the afternoon of my first day in the city. A chance mention of this trail on social media lead me to head out to the Grand Arcade Shopping Centre in the middle of Cambridge to see it for myself. There are 13 animals to find that are made from tiny bricks (they are part of BrickLive and therefore, as they are keen to point out, NOT Lego). The exhibition ends on 27th August.

Continue reading →
Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nottingham Carnival Parade

Posted on August 20, 2024 by Louise Jayne

On Sunday afternoon I headed out to the Victoria Embankment in Nottingham to watch the Nottingham Carnival Parade. In fact, because my bus dropped me off at one end of Wilford Grove I walked along to the end of that stretch of road as I knew that was part of the parade route, rather than heading closer to the river. It proved to be a pretty good spot and I got there early enough to be at the front with plenty of space around – it definitely got busier as time went on.

Continue reading →
Categories: England, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Attenborough Nature Reserve – August 2024

Posted on August 15, 2024 by Louise Jayne

After putting in some long hours at work recently (the joys of being self-employed!) I decided to take a random day off to enjoy the sunshine and headed out to Attenborough Nature Reserve. I’ve been here before a number of times but this time I travelled there from Nottingham on the train (an all day ticket is £3.70 and the journey takes around 10 minutes). Attenborough is a tiny station with only two platforms but the nature reserve is well signposted from there and it only takes about 5-10 minutes walk through some streets lined with very beautiful houses to reach one of the entrances to the reserve.

Continue reading →
Categories: England, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cambridge Statues

Posted on July 2, 2024 by Louise Jayne

Cambridge is a city where interesting sculptures and statues are at every corner, some ancient and some significantly less so. This post is about some of the pieces that caught my eye starting with this one outside the Department of Engineering. Dating from 1967 it is called Construction in Aluminium and was made by Kenneth Martin. Apparently it represents a formula used in jet propulsion and is one of about 40 sculptures in Cambridge with the specific aim of bringing public spaces back to life after World War II.

Continue reading →
Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

The Gates of Cambridge University Colleges

Posted on June 25, 2024 by Louise Jayne

As mentioned before some of the Cambridge University Colleges charge for you to visit and some allow for photography on site in designated areas but all of the college gates can be seen for free and are certainly worth paying attention to. The first is that of St. John’s College which was built in 1516. The college arms in the middle are flanked by mythical beasts called yales that have elephant tails, antelope bodies, goat’s heads and large horns. The detail really is stunning.

Continue reading →
Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Posted on June 18, 2024 by Louise Jayne

One highlight of Cambridge is of course the beautiful university buildings. They are the home of students first and foremost so visits during term time are obviously quite restricted. Some of the colleges charge for tours and some have set up areas to allow you to take photos for free, which is the case with Corpus Christi which had a little area near the entrance set up for tourists to take photos.

Continue reading →
Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge

Posted on June 11, 2024 by Louise Jayne

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is a free museum right next to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It was founded in 1728 after a Dr. John Woodward bequeathed his collection of almost 10,000 fossils, shells and archaeological artefacts to the University of Cambridge; Adam Sedgwick expanded on the collection and so when he died the museum was set up in his honour. The museum isn’t very large but is chock full of specims everywhere you look. The entrance (those with mobility issues can access a lift) has some lovely stairs decorated with these animals that make a nice introduction to the museum.

Continue reading →
Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.