July 3, 2010

Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Scotney Castle

We decided to head down to Kent for a country drive since it was such a lovely day.

We drove just over an hour to get to Tonbridge (not to be confused with Tunbridge Wells).

Tonbridge has a nice old castle ruin that we had a wander around before heading off to Tunbridge Wells.

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Tunbridge Wells was founded around some iron rich natural springs back in the 1700's and "taking the waters" soon became a trend for the dandies and how dee doos of English society.

There is a lovely pedestrian mall called the Pantiles with shops, cafes etc. We stopped for lunch at a cafe and listened to music from a country & western group. There was a whole bunch of yanks promoting 4th July independence day (I don't really understand why considering it was a war with England that they are celebrating, but hey, the yanks are a strange lot).

After lunch we decided to head over to Scotney Castle. This is a National Trust managed property that was bequeathed when Mrs Betty Hussey died in 2006. Everything was handed over lock stock & barrel leaving furniture, art works, clothing and all manner of personal effects - and 1 cat still lives there.

It was £10 each to go to the house and gardens, so we decided to splurge and get an annual National Trust membership for the 2 of us for £80. This gives you free access to all 300 National Trust properties - so we figure that within a few weeks we will have covered the cost of our investment.

The new house was built in 1836 from stone quarried from the back yard. The house sits on impressive gardens that have 2 major highlights:

1) The quarry used for the house was converted into a lovely garden which accentuates the fall of the land,

2) The old castle - a stunning old building on an island in a lake for protection. Now in partial ruin it is a delightful building in a stunning setting.

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We ended up spending quite a few hours just enjoying the day (26 degrees and mostly sunny - believe it or not) in the beautiful gardens.

May 17, 2010

Check Out my QR Code Signature & Contact Details

QR Code of my business card.

May 2, 2010

Art Connoisseurs? Not us! A trip to Tate Modern

The wind, the rain and the general unpleasantness of today made it an `indoor' day.

Being the weekend we wanted to actually go out and do something, so decided that we would head over to the Tate Modern (just near the London Bridge train station) for a dose of culture and nice wander around.

The Tate Modern itself is pretty spectacular comprising of a huge space reclaimed from an old power station. The mind boggles now at a power station like that being built on the banks of the Thames looking directly across at St. Paul's Cathedral - particularly as it sat empty from 1981 to 2000 when the Tate Modern moved in.

Apart from the building, the space and the location we were pretty underwhelmed at the art. Now neither Ying nor I are experts in art, but I just have to say that this modern art is a bit odd.

It seems to me that these artists are just not part of the fabric of reality - it seems everything is over analysed and just a little too `interpretive'.

Take a look at these examples:

Sticks with Ribbon

What's this one mean - no idea but I think it would make a pretty good bonfire.

Greek Nude with Pile of Clothes

Now Ying reckons this is means that your naked body is wonderful and that you don't need clothes. I said it was representative of a material society where it is easier to dispose of your clothes than to wash them.

Either way - it's a naked statue with a pile of clothes - not really art is it?

There were a couple that I liked, this one is definitely my style:

This is pretty big at about 4m wide, the entire thing is painted in dots. I could see that on the lounge room wall no worries.

Then this one was really good - this bloke took photos of himself getting buried in the dirt and you can see in the sequence that he slowly disappears - but what is really great is that with German TV, over 9 days during a prime time TV show they showed one of the photos each day for 2 seconds - no announcements, not information - just a guy slowly sinking into the ground over 9 days. That is quality art in my book.

So it was a fun day out exploring, but I think that we will be happier looking at the art in the British Gallery and places where the art has a bit more realism (is there a comic museum I wonder - that would keep me entertained for awhile).

April 25, 2010

Dulwich Farmers Market at Dulwich College

Today we took a walk down to the beautiful Dulwich College to the farmers market.

On the way there we went through Dulwich Park and enjoyed the lovely flowers still blooming, lots of white & pink blossoms in the trees.

Ying and the blossoms at Queen Mary's Gate Dulwich Park.

Dulwich College Main Building

I wasn't that fussed about the farmers market to be honest, I just wanted an excuse to be able to walk around the college which is made up of these absolutely gorgeous buildings with amazing ornate finishings and details. In the above pic, each window archway for example has a stone carved head, probably of a former head master. The buildings were lovely.

Dulwich College is set on quite large grounds firmly butting up against Dulwich Wood, and Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Golf Course - check it out on the map here. It is a boarding school for boys from age 7 - 18.

It has large sports grounds which gives it a really sense of grandeur and of being in the country.

This is the cricket pitch and club house at the college.

They have a small farmers market at the school (we aren't sure of the frequency - probably monthly). Not too much there, but some nice breads, olives and meats.

Stalls under the school clock tower.

Sun shining on the college and the market.

Looked like a little chapel with a wedding going on.

On the way home we ducked back through Dulwich Park and found a section where there are 4 ping pong tables available to be used. They are made of concrete with steel nets, very sturdy.

We'll be looking to get some ping pong paddles & balls now for a bit of a friendly game (any challengers?).

And a spring walk wouldn't be complete with some pics of lovely flowers in the park - so here are my 2 choice ones.

In front of an old gate keepers cottage.

April 17, 2010

Look! Up in the Sky - it's Empty

The weather this week has been amazing - nice long sunny days, clear blue skies and spectacular red sunsets.

One noticeable difference for the later part of this week to other blue sky days is the total absence of the usual criss crosses of vapour trails (contrails) left by jet air craft ferrying people across Europe.

We won't be seeing any of this for a while.

But courtesy of the Icelandic volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajokull Volcano (nope I can't pronounce it either - but you can hear it here) no aircraft can fly across most of the UK. Airports have been closed for 3 days and it looks like the volcano is still erupting and spilling ash & gas out into the UK airspace - insert Iceland joke here (at least they are back to exporting something, they didn't cripple the UK with their dodgy banks but they'll get us this time etc).

The ash is also causing spectacular sunsets bursting with red & orange and really setting the evenings on fire. We are seeing colours that could be similar to those immortalised by JMW Turner back in 1815 when he painted many scenes with amazingly vivid colours attributed to the ash that was in the sky from a massive volcanic eruption of that year.

Chichester Canal by JWM Turner.

I love this painting and I think that it captures a magically sunset to a greater degree that a photograph.

So enjoy the crystal blue skies - you may never see them again (unless you are back in Oz in the outback!).

April 17, 2010

Daffodils in Spring

A lovely part of London in the early spring is the sudden awakening of millions of daffodils. They literally pop up everywhere, some (like the photo) are planted, but many just seem to appear in random places providing a lovely splash of colour after the drab winter.

April 5, 2010

Driving on Tower Bridge

I recently had to drive across London and unwittingly ended up driving over Tower Bridge (at the royal speed of 20MPH) and couldn't resist snapping a few pics as I was rather excited.