A look at Brockhole as part of my series about my holiday in the Lake District.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the Lake District. This post is the first of two about Brockhole, as I felt the exhibition about the natural history, geology and wildlife of the Lake District deserved a post to itself. Brockhole marked a switch in the focus of our explorations – it was the last of the places around Windermere that we visited, and it was our last use of the cruising boats as a mode of transport – when we had finished at Brockhole we headed for the bus stop, and that mode of transport remained our choice for the remainder of our explorations.
A NATURE RESERVE
Brockhole is a nature reserve with a former stately home housing the gift shop and the exhibition referred to in the introduction. There was much to see between the landing jetty and the house, and a bit more once we had finished in the house. If I am ever in the area again I would certainly hope to revisit this place, and see more of it than I did this time round.
My third and final post about this visit to the Eden Project – dealing with the Mediterranean Biome.
INTRODUCTION
This is my third and last post about our family outing to the Eden Project, covering the Mediterranean Biome.
MEDITERRANEAN IN CONTEXT
There are other parts of the world that have the same type of climate as the Mediterranean – parts of South Africa, southwestern Australia and parts of the USA, and they all feature in this Biome. There was much bird life in evidence in the Biome as well. My camera got steamed up and I failed to notice, so the photographs did not come out as well as I would have liked, but nonetheless I share them. After we had finished in this Biome we had a late lunch (sausage casserole with accompanying vegetables in my case, washed down with a bottle of locally brewed beer – from St Austell, the closest town of any significance) and then made our way back to the car park, availing ourselves of the bus from the visitor’s centre because I was getting tired by then (a legacy of the cancer that nearly killed me at the back end of 2018). I will certainly be visiting this place again in the not too distant future and would list at as an absolute must see place if you are visiting Cornwall.
A plan of the Biome.
These last few pictures were taken outside, on the way back to the visitor centre.
The first of several posts about the Eden Project in my series about my Cornish winter holiday.
INTRODUCTION
After a brief aside it is time to resume my coverage of my Cornish winter holiday with the first of what will be several posts about the Eden Project.
GETTING THERE
This was a family trip, and we travelled from my parents place by car. There is generous car parking provision, but you can also travel there by public transport (train to St Austell and then a connecting bus to the Eden Project). We just missed a bus from the car park to the visitors centre and walked there instead. This was my second visit, but the place had developed so massively from my first visit that it was effectively a new experience. After the purchase of tickets we decided what to do. We settled on the Walk Through Time, the new building and the Mediterranean Biome (the biomes, as you will see are remarkable structures whose architecture owes much to the legendary Richard Buckminster Fuller). Here are some early pictures before I take you on the walk through time:
I have just finished editing the pictures I took while out and about today. I have a collection of tree pics ready for the next post in my “Trees in Transistion” series, but for the moment it is the other pictures I am sharing. I will put them up in three segments…
NURTURE
These are pictures featuring my aunt’s plants, which I have been watering while she is on holiday. Barring a freak return to summer weather tomorrow I anticipate one more visit on Wednesday being sufficient.
NATIONAL LIBRARIES WEEK
This week is National Libraries Week. I have visited King’s Lynn Library today, will definitely visit Fakenham Library at least once this week after a working day, hope to call in at Norwich Millennium Library when I am in that fine city on Wednesday (an autism event) and on Saturday en route to Musical Keys should find time for a visit to Gaywood Library. Here are some pictures of King’s Lynn Library…
The latest in my series of posts about my Swedish holiday – today featuring the Linnaeus museum.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my holiday in Sweden. This post is the last to focus purely on Uppsala, although there is still the account of the journey from Uppsala to Malmo to cover.
FROM LIBRARY TO MUSEUM
Those who read my previous post will recall that while there was plenty to see in the exhibition of treasures at Carolina Rediviva I was prevented from photographing most of it, so I was quite glad once I had finished there to get back into action, starting with these pictures…
Shortly after I had taken the above pictures I came to…
THE BERLIN MURAL
This mural, which as the information board reproduced below shows is named because of its origins, is actually four walls, the front and two side walls of which are also reproduced below (I could not get a sufficient distance behind the back wall to be able to photograph it).
We now get to the main meat of this post, starting with…
A ROUGH GUIDE TO CAROLUS LINNAEUS
Carolus Linnaeus lived in the 18th century (he was roughly contemporary with Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the creator of the theory of evolution by natural selection), and the house in which he lived is in central Uppsala. He was a botanist by training but is best know these days for being the creator of the system by which all living organisms are still categorized. Discoveries made since he was around have changed some categorizations and created some new ones, but the framework and methodology used are still his.
Such names as Homo sapiens (note that with these type of names the first word is always capitalized and the second word never so, even if it derives from a proper name) come from Linnaeus’ magnum opus.
He is also significant in the history of science for reversing a previous trend – whereas previous eminent scientists had taken Latin names to sound more impressive he went the other way, changing his Latin birth name (his father, a clergyman whose birth name had been Nils Ingemarsson had taken a Latin name to emphasize his education), used so far in this post, to a vernacular one, Carl Von Linne. His reasons for making this change were it must be said just as rooted in snobbery as those of folk who  Latinized – he had been given a patent of nobility and considered his new aristocratic designation  more important than his old Latin name.
Many books on the history of science cover his career in detail, my own personal recommendation being John Gribbin’s magisterial Science: A History 1543-2001.
THE LINNAEUS MUSEUM
As you approach the museum it is made suitably obvious that you are doing so…
Here is the approach to the house…
The rest of this post will be devoted the photographs I took of the objects in this remarkable museum.
http://wfdrc.tumblr.com/Â The online hub of a campaign to save a vital resource for disabled people in the Waltham Forest area.
The first set of pics from today…
Mike Rosen’s name on the cover of a book is generally good sign, and this book is even better than that suggests.
GENERAL ELECTION 2015
While I thoroughly understand and respect those who wish to vote for a left-wing alternative to labour, I urge care. By voting for a small left-wing organisation you may just end up helping the tories. In my own constituency I am faced with only two remotely palatable choices, labour or green. The fact that labour have selected an excellent candidate in Jo Rust, and the fact the only time this seat has been occupied by anyone other than Henry Bellingham since 1983 was between 1997 and 2001 when labour held it have been sufficient to sway me. I will vote labour and I will do so with a song in my heart, and I want to see a huge turnout at the ballot-boxes in King’s Lynn because that is how we will do our part to ensure that we are not saddled with another five years of Cameron and his cronies.
Here in plain text is my personal voting history in general elections…
MY GENERAL ELECTION VOTING HISTORY
1997: Labour and celebrated long and hard as the government that had been in power all my conscious life was finally booted out.
2001: Socialist Alliance – I was in a rock-solid labour seat at the time and could afford to vote to the left by way of protest.
2005: Respect – see above
2010: Liberal Democrats – my worst ever mistake in a general election, but at the time it seemed sensible. The labour candidate who had been parachuted in from Leicester then torpedoed his own credibility with a speed to rival that of a Ukipper and the only other possibility to unseat the sitting Tory was the one I voted for. Five years of betrayals later I can say with certainty that I will NEVER make that mistake again.
2015: Labour – with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. We have an excellent candidate in Jo Rust, labour took this seat in 1997 (the only period since 1983 when the MP has been other than Henry Bellingham) and can therefore do so again.
Having reached this stage you deserve some more pictures…
Another vote that will be settled on May 7th – that for Britain’s national bird. Here is my candidate.
I am currently in a hotel room in Olympia, having visited one of the most famous of all Greek sites and swum in the hotel pool, but this post is about yesterday (today will come later – probably after supper). Susan Shimmin, who helped my parents to arrange the purchase of their Greek house turned 70 yesterday, and I was among those invited to the party. This featured a very pretty walk between Stoupa and a place called Kalliope’s. Some of us, including me, did the walk twice, while at the other extreme were those who did not walk at all. Back at Stoupa there was a royal spread of wonderful Greek food and then the unveiling of the cake – and what a cake it was!
Even though I decamped shortly after the cake was unveiled I have some fine photos from the day…
The beefed up flip flops in which did both the walks I have thus far mentioned in my Greek blog posts
Getting pictures of butterflies is not easy, but this one is an unequivocal success.
This was the only LIVE millipede that I saw.
These distance signs (3 photos worth) are fun but definitely not to be trusted!
This is surely the smuggest moggy you have ever seen, surveying the world from its comfortable, dog-proof perch!
For the walk from Kalliope’s to Stoupa there were canoeists keeping pace with us.
The canoeists were far from the only people put in boats.
“Who’s the slowest of us?” “Torto is” Rudyard Kipling’s version of how the Tortoise got its name!
Yacht and canoes heading in opposite direction
This striking edifice is the Stoupa Cultural Centre (the replica Byantine church is definitely ghastlier!)
Stoupa Bay and it is so clear that you can see the cold water springs that feed into it clearly.
Greece is home to some interesting plants and animals, although one rarely sees any animals large enough to be worth a bullet. This post features pictures of stuff I have thus far captured…
There seems to be no limit as to what part of the plant the fruit can grow from!
Greetings from the sea front at Stoupa on the Mani peninsular where I am on holiday. Due the fact that I can only connect to the internet when in Stoupa my posts will be somewhat sporadic, and will come in bunches (eight in total today if the internet connection and my laptop battery both hold out).
Owing to the fact that my flight out left Gatwick at 5:40AM on Tuesday, I departed King’s Lynn on the 21:37 train on Monday, and achieving precisely the set of connections indicated by both thetrainline and google maps (King’s Lynn – Finsbury Park – Victoria – Gatwick), I arrived at the airport at 00:45 and sat down to wait until I could move towards my flight. After a few trifling delays, the flight took off a tiny bit late, and therefore arrived at Kalamata at 11:10 local time rather than just before 11 as scheduled. Still, I had a seat and got a drinkable and not too extortionate coffee, which is the best to be hoped for when flying with squeezy jet.
I also managed to stay awake until a reasonably sensible time of night, so adapting to Greek time without too much of a hitch. Here are some early Greek photos…
This is one of several mosaics in the house in Tseria where I am staying.
A map of Europe which actually marks Fakenham!
We are an hour’s drive from Kalamata, home of the olive.
The views toward the sea are quite stunning!
The Mani is the middle of the three spurs pointing south from the Peloponnese.
This mosaic took several attempts to get right, ultimately needing the use of the flashbulb.
This is my parent’s holiday house from outside.
This arrangement of solar panels and external hot water tank is commonplace in Greece.
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