Not long ago I went for a walk around Woodthorpe Grange Park, which I’ve blogged about before. The park recently celebrated its centenary having been opened by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham on 1 June 1922. The weather was bright and sunny and did not at all feel like October, but some of the trees were wearing their autumn colours at least.
Owned by Nottingham City Council this 21 hectare park is so close to the University of Nottingham that it is often confused for being part of the campus. It is probably decades since the last time I spent any time here, despite trips nearby in recent years, but over the spring we managed a long overdue walk around the lake.
I’m a fairly regular visitor to the farm though I haven’t found time to visit since this trip in the spring. There were lots of baby animals, my favourites definitely being the very cute piglets, called Truffles and Penelope.
Six terraced houses, now offices, these were largely designed by Nottingham architect Thomas Chambers Hine in the Flemish Renaissance style. Built around 1848-1851 they are a striking set of buildings and are Grade II listed. Hines himself died at 25 Regent Street in 1899.
Back after a COVID break, Goose Fair is on at the Forest Recreation Ground in Nottingham for 10 days, much longer than usual, and ends on Sunday 9 October. As I often do when the fair is on I went for a wander around to take photos (and buy some candy floss and brandy snaps). There are a bunch of new rides this year that looked quite impressive though I didn’t partake myself – I’ve never been that much of a fan and since being diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease anything that may throw me around is definitely to be avoided!
Earlier today I went into Nottingham City Centre to photograph the Pride Parade and support the community. I don’t know if numbers have been calculated yet but it certainly seemed like a large turnout, with the parade itself taking over an hour to move around the Market Square with musical performances and dancers along the route and lots of fun costumes, plus some very cute dogs! A few of my photos from the event are below:
On until 19th June this free exhibition at the Djanogly Gallery on the University of Nottingham campus is on tour from the British Museum. It’s aim is to highlight the challenges of protecting Iraq’s cultural heritage following decades of conflict. It had some very interesting objects on display such as this statue of Gudea who was the king of Girsu, one of Ancient Iraq’s earliest cities. Gudea had the statue of himself placed in one of the city’s temples as evidence that he worshipped the gods.
I’ve passed Breck Hill Recreation Ground many times as its not far from Woodthorpe Grange Park but I’d never gone to have a proper look until the other week when I was on a random walk around the area. I went through the gate on what I consider the lower side of the rec ground, opposite to where the children’s playground is. It was very muddy so I didn’t venture in too far; it’s mostly just a large field though there is a nice wooded area that I did photograph.
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.
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