Last week I chanced to look out into our garden and saw this wonderful jay. I was taken a bit by surprise as we’ve never had one in the garden before but it was lovely to see it hopping around the trees and even taking a big chunk out of the fat balls!
Last week I took a walk around the Christmas Market in Nottingham’s Market Square in order to take some photos. There’s no ice rink this year for obvious reasons and it’s also supposed to be more spread out than usual (after last year’s debacle), though it honestly didn’t feel any more spread out than usual to me. There are some familiar sights however such as the tree, the wheel, the helter skelter and the flashing snowflakes on the front of the Council House and the lights certainly do brighten up the gloomy evenings.
Last weekend we attended the Christmas light trail at Wollaton Hall which was really very good. This is the second year the hall has put on a trail through its grounds – we didn’t go last year for obvious reasons. The trail takes around an hour to explore and is simple to follow with each section having its own theme.
Just by the Leadenhall Building in London were a series of sculptures of heads. Made of aluminium they are the sculptor’s exploration of Greek, Roman and Egyptian traditions for the 21st century. They were part of the Sculpture in the City programme, an annual sculpture park that uses London streets as its gallery. You can learn more about the programme and this year’s sculptures here. The heads are currently on display at Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Somerset.
Just over a week ago I took a walk around Woodthorpe Grange Park as I wanted to photograph the changing of the leaves. A surprising number were still green but there were also some beautuifl reds and golds on display.
Built in 1842 this Grade II listed church designed in the Gothic Revival Style, is close to Jephson Gardens and the Royal Pump Rooms. It is one of England’s largest parish churches.
We’ve had a couple of squirrel visitors in our garden for several months now. One of them looks perfectly healthy, the other has an injury and at one point all of the fur on his right paw was missing, but now that seems to have grown back. Only the last photo shows the squirrel’s injury clearly, so if you’d rather not see that then simply stop scrolling after photo number five.
A Grade II listed building, it dates from around 1450 and is one of the few remaining medieval buildings in the city. It used to be located near Middle Pavement, roughly near the old Broadmarsh Shopping Centre, but was moved closer to Nottingham Castle in 1970. Originally a merchant’s house it then became officers for a firm of architects, a wine business and then a lace museum; I’m not actually sure what use it has now.
Last week we decided to go for a walk around the lake at Clumber Park. Run by the National Trust entry is free for members (which we are) or £5 for an adult. The park spans 3,800 acres and was quite busy; we had to park in the overflow car park which we’ve never had to do before, but as it’s so large it never felt crowded at any point, and at plenty of sections there was no one else around at all.
Located in the heart of Amsterdam, Centraal Station was built between 1881 and 1889 and designed by Petrus J. H. “Pierre” Cuypers – Cuypers also designed the Rijksmuseum.
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