Waddesdon Manor Christmas Lights 2015. Bruce Munro’s installation of lights at Waddesdon Manor called SOS, This is his final year of three years at Waddesdon Manor. The lights on Waddesdon manor were by Woodroffe Bassett design. We visited with Ian and Julie. Lovely warm evening for December. You must watch the video to hear the sound track associated with the lights in the tent.
Rosemary and I ventured into London to see The Amazing World of M.C. Escher exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. His graphics were truly amazing, from his original portraits and drawings, onto metamorphosis, and tessellations. There was also the iconic waterfall. He worked with British mathematicians, like Roger Penrose who gave Escher the idea for the stairs picture. Exhibitions of his work are very rare in the UK, and this one is well worth visiting. It is on until the 17th January. We also ate lunch at the gallery restaurant, tad expensive, but very nice meal.
Back in Central London we visited the Chris Beetle gallery. They are the gallery that sell the original Matt cartoons which are published in the Telegraph. I have an original Matt which Rosemary bought me for my birthday, its of Cyber Crime. Sorry Guv I had to taser the computer. R had tried to buy me a Glastonbury Matt, but it was sold in minutes of being published. The gallery staff were in fact setting up an exhibition of Matt Cartoons, presumably the ones which did not sell. They also sell originals from many other cartoonists and etchings from a variety of books.
A coffee in a Cafe Nero, then a stare at some of the shop windows as we walked our way to Piccadilly Circus and back home.
Crystal Palace from West Dulwich
Fortnum and Mason
Fortnum and Mason and Selfie
On Saturday, Rosemary and I visited Dulwich Picture Museum to view an exhibition of Ravilious pictures. Ravilious painted water colours before WWII, he became a war time artist, and painted until 1942 when he disappeared on the 2nd September, presumed dead, after his flight never returned from a mission in Iceland. We first saw his work in a Gallery in Saffron Walden at the Fry Art Gallery a couple of year ago. There we were impressed by his Submarine Lithographs.
At this exhibition we saw so much more of his work, including much before the war. A famous picture of his was painted at the outbreak of WWI, this is the Westbury White Horse with a steam train passing by.
We had chosen the hottest day to visit London, sitting outside in the sun, having a lunch at the Picture Gallery proved to be quite toasty. Afterwards we went over the the Shard, Rosemary refused to pay the rather exorbitant price to take the lift to the viewing platform. Instead we had a drink in a nearby bar. Rosemary going for an Aperol Spritzer and me for a boring lager.
Journey back to Aylesbury rather was fraught, our trip was abruptly halted at Harrow on the Hill, where we were all ordered off the train. The points ahead had failed. There was a complicated alternative route, which we took by tube, only to see a Chiltern train passing us by and going to Aylesbury Vale Parkway. The points were working again. We resumed our trip to Aylesbury from Rickmansworth, and arrived at Aylesbury Park Way an hour late. Needless to say Chiltern Railways compensated us, extremely quickly!, for the late arrival.
Early morning appointment at the eye hospital in Aylesbury, and then into town for a coffee at Cafe Nero while we waited for the Bucks County Museum to open. There was a small exhibition of Dr Who memorabilia on show, sourced from collectors throughout the county. Open until September 5th. The star is the Dalek, called Darren. Neal Davies, who works for Fremantle Media, a company that makes TV shows including Grand Designs and Escape to the Country, constructed him from plywood and fiberglass for a £20 bet. Apparently it moves, talks and lights up, all through remote control. There were some fab womens shoes decorated in Tardis Livery.
Of course there was a tardis, a K9 and Cybermen along with posters and signed memorabilia all the way back to William Hartnell in the days I watched the original series in black and white from behind my Gran’s sofa.
My first visit to Aylesbury’s Waterside Theatre. Selina had bought Rosemary, Phil & me tickets to see “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime”, a play about an autistic teenager. The staging of it was fantastic. A black box, with a grid pattern and lights at the grid intersections which indicated a houses, or furniture, or a tube station. Very, very clever. It took me a while to understand what the plot was, never having read the book (both girls had, of course). All I had heard was a mention of Sherlock Holmes, so I was wondering when Sherlock would arrive, or was this a great detective story? My problem had been a quick google of the title only without reading even a synopsis.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime” is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title quotes the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story “Silver Blaze”.
Think I missed the word title in the above quote when I read it.
As a first time visitor to the Waterside Theater I was quite impressed.
Wonder what it will be like when it’s rearranged for the King Crimson concert I am going to on the 31st August (without Rosemary).
Rosemary and I visited London for the day. Caught the 9.00am into London. The weather was kind, sunny, ideal for doing some grockling. We were visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Royal Institute of British Architects, The Museum of London and The London Transport Museum,
We started off by walking to Baker Street to view the Sherlock Homes Museum. (It’s not quite at 221B, but near enough though.) The museum is a private one and is basically a house which has been decorated in the fashion of Sherlock Holmes house, but with imaginative objects (such as severed ears) from the stories and some waxworks. Rosemary thought it all very cute & well done.
Chemistry at the Sherlock Holmes Museum
The Slipper, Sherlock Holmes Museum
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Steve as Sherlock
Sherlock Holmes Museum – Moriarty
Next, one tube stop to Portland Road, and the Royal Institute of British Architects to see the exhibition on Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This exhibition was about his architecture and not his other work. There were numerous plans and drawings of buildings he designed. Some built and others not. We have been and visited some of them, from the Glasgow School of Art, to The Hill House he build in Helensburgh.
We then tried to see a Forensics exhibition at the Welcome Collection. Unfortunately, it was not open on a Monday. Instead we headed across the road to Drummond Street for a lunchtime veggie buffet curry at Diwana Bhel Puri House. For under 7 quid you get an all you can eat buffet, including a sweet. There are so many unusual flavours, colours and foods to choose from. It’s now my favourite restaurant. Near by is also a camera shop, Calumet (Now WEX), where we paid a short visit and came away with Canon EF 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM Lens. Made the lunch rather expensive after all. [Ed. I am told the proximity of the camera shop was unknown before the outing. My other leg has bells on it.]
Next over to the city, getting out at Bank (mobile phone navigation is a God send), we made our way to the Museum of London to see their exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. This was a large exhibition, started of with masses of TV screens showing clips of the many Sherlock Holmes films and TV series. We were able to see videos of the many the actors who have played Sherlock and Holmes, from the 1920s to Benedict Cumberbatch.
The exhibition also featured many pictures and drawings, some with little relevance to Sherlock Holmes, other than a picture of London Bridge in the smog. There were several like that, including one by Monet. The exhibition improved again with more objects associated with Holmes.
This was a picture depicting Sherlock Holmes London. I loved the illumination in the clouds.
Final museum was the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Here they have the history of London Transport, from horse drawn carriages (including Sherlock’s beloved Hansom Cab), horse drawn buses, the start of the rail network, the underground and the buses. Thankfully they did not have a Ken Livingstone bendy bus. You had the chance to drive a Central Line tube emulator. Love to know how they managed to move some of the vehicles to their resting places in the museum. There were some lovely 1930 taxis on display. Very relevant as there is an owner of a similar taxi in our village.
Rosemary and I visited Valerie and Norman in Leicester along with Maggie and Ravi on the 27th September 2014 to visit King Richard III. We looked around the recently opened exhibition, saw where Richard III had been excavated from under the car park. Drank a few beers in the local pubs, and even joined BBOWT at a Sunday Market. Great time was had, lots of lovely food.
Rosemary and I enjoyed the annual weekend away organised by the Berkshire Branch of the Cambridge Society. The weekend was in Carmarthenshire from May 16 to May 18. We met up with our friends at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines, old Roman workings, more modern Victorian workings and the 30’s mine. We took a tour through the old workings. On the way to the hotel we stopped off at Talley Abbey, a ruin. I managed to capture a reasonable image of a Nuthatch feeding its young in a small crevice in the ruin.
The evening was spent in the Cawdor Hotel in Llandeilo. The rooms were recently modernised, alas ours was a bit on the small size. The food was very good, and they even had draft real ale on tap. That is almost a first for a hotel.
Saturday we walked through some beautiful woods to Dinefwr Castle and then on to Newton House. Dinefwr was the original castle, which was left to decay after Newton House had been constructed. Some reasonable photographs of nest building Housemartins. After lunch we walked back to the hotel for our cars and travelled to The National Botanic Garden of Wales. This is the newest Botanic Garden in the UK, and was funded by the Millenium project. The site is based on Middleton Hall with many of the old gardens being recreated. The Great Glasshouse forms the centerpiece and was built where the old house used to be. This garden was a highlight of the trip, we really needed more time, there were areas we did not visit. I look forward to the trust raising money to reconstruct some old lakes. The glass house was used in the making of the Dr Who series ‘The Waters of Mars‘
Back at the hotel, another lovely meal accompanied by Welsh Harp music.
Sunday another garden, this time Aberglasney Gardens, another smaller but spectacular garden. All these gardens looked so fresh, and the blue skies definitely made them look their best. A good snack lunch and then on to the Gwili Heritage Steam Railway, where we had a ride up the track and back.
It was a great weekend.
Hot sunny day on Saturday July 10th, we ventured forth to a sculpture exhibition nearby in Asthall Manor, Asthall, Burford, Oxfordshire, OX14 4HW. The exhibition was by various artists and can be seen on the site onformsculpture.co.uk. Not only was some of the sculpture impressive, so was the house. Setting the sculpture in a garden setting was a fantastic idea.
Food was not a success for the day, we had intended having lunch out. We spent too long in the gardens, only to find any decent eating places closed. Eventually had a cream tea in Woodstock.
The sculptures may be viewed here.