shewhomust: (Default)
Today we elebrate Shakespeare's birthday: last Thursday was mine. We went out to lunch, meeting our friends A. and D. at the Rose & Crown in Romaldkirk. This was a treat: a long-overdue get together with people we don't see often enough. But it didn't feel like a birthday treat, exactly: agreeing to meet on my birthday felt like getting one treat for the price of two. After I did a certain amount of grumbling about this, [personal profile] durham_rambler agreed to go out again the following day, to visit Ushaw: it isn't far, we have season tickets and he had already pointed out that their current exhibition sounded interesting: it is called The Discovery of Birds, and features relevant books from their library.

The Discovery of Birds


The welcoming display boards showed images from a nineteenth century History of British Birds: the birds were in fact identified, but in such small print that I didn't spot it until [personal profile] durham_rambler pointed it out, and was rather smug about identifying this very gaudy starling (it reminded me of a weaver I met once in Shetland, who took a similar inspiration from these not-obviously-colourful birds). After a short stroll in the gardens (the rhododendrons are just getting started: we should go back in a couple of weeks), we went inside.

Inside... )

We called in at the second-hand bookshop, but didn't buy anything; we lunched on soup and sandwiches at the café; and I went home well-satisfied with my day out. I'm not hard to please.
shewhomust: (ayesha)
A Guardian article describes the annual art exhibition in which the chosen works are displayed in front of the Pyramids. I'm ambivalent about this. On the one hand, I enjoy site-specific art, art designed to do whatever it is that art does wihin a specific landscape; on the other hand, osn't it cheating, using the Pyramids to make your art look good? But I liked the picture of Shilo Shiv Suleman's giant lotus blooms, and I scurried off to the internet in search of more pictures.

Well, the bad news is that the more I see of those flowers, the more I suspect that what I really lie here is the photograph itself (credited only to 'Forever is Now'); other pictures leave me confused. There's a good one on the artist's website (scroll down) all golden light and with a gaggle of cyclists included for scale; elsewhere, a clearer representation makes me wonder whether flowers are improved by being hugely magnified: I don't want to imagine the insects that they might attract ...

The Art d'Egypte website has more pictures of this and previous exhibitions: it is so designed that the pictures (one per artwork) are awkwardly cropped. This German site has some better images of the 2022 exhibition.

Pretty pictures: it's what the internet is for...
shewhomust: (bibendum)
I grew up in Essex: that is, I lived in the county for a substantial chunk of my childhood and adolescence. That was a long time ago, and in purely numerical terms, it wasn't a large part of my life. But it feels significant (I have been known to describe myself as an Essex girl). Yet somehow I have never been to Colchester before (I thought neither of us had, but [personal profile] durham_rambler tells me he came to a folk club here in 1965 to hear Arlo Guthrie, which he doesn't think counts...) even though once upon a time, Colchester was the capital of Roman Britain.

The guide book calls it "Britain's oldest recorded town". I don't quite know how to define the word 'town', but there was certainly something of the kind here before the Romans came. But what we see begins with Romans: their temple provided the foundations and part of the masonry on which the Conqueror built his castle. The interior of that castle has gone, but the outer shell remains, and houses the town's museum. It is currently playing host to a temporary guest, Luke Jerram's Gaia, which we last saw when it visited Durham cathedral, and were quite surprised to see again:

Gaia in the museum


The picture is a completely arbitrary juxtaposition, but I'd say the same of the insertion of a giant globe into the middle of a museum: might as well enjoy it. The amphora is at least typical of the exhibits on show. There are plenty of survivals of Roman Britain along the line of the Wall, and evidence of people living comfortable daily lives alongside the military importance of the frontier: but here is the North/South divide - Camulodunum has provided an impressive display of Roman glass. The museum wants to tell the dramatic story of how Boudicca burned the city, killed its inhabitants, razed that temple to the ground... But there's a small-print postscript that admits she was defeated, the city and temple were rebuilt, Camulodunum flourish for another couple of centuries (and here are some treasures from that time).

That's what we did yesterday. This morning we visited what remains of the Roman city wall, with its one remaining gate. And then this afternoon we did something completely different.
shewhomust: (bibendum)
Fortified by a truly remarkable breakfast, we set off to explore Harwich, hoping to encounter some shanties along the way. A leaflet about a Maritime Heritage Trail (not identical with this one, but passing the same points in a different order) led us to a selection of interesting buildings, and we were never far from the sound of singing: mission accomplished.

If I have to choose a single image to represent the day, it has to be this one:

Esturiana on Ha'penny Pier


Esturiana, the Goddess of Creativity, Harwich and the Estuaries, stands on Ha'penny Pier: she is the work of
Anne Schwegmann-Fielding (whose award-winning toilets at Colchester Arts Centre look well worth a visit) and there's more information about the commission here. She was created by covering an old boat with broken blue and white pottery - exactly my kind of presiding deity!
shewhomust: (durham)
After the Museum of the Moon, after a visit from Gaia, this summer Durham Cathedral has played host to a flock of Peace Doves.

Artist Peter Walker invited people - community groups and incividual volunteers - to write a message on a paper dove, then strung them together to make his installation. There's a lot about this process which arouses my prejudices: I've nothing against community involvement as an end in itself, but it's about the process not the outcome - I'm not more likely to admire the result because the artist has farmed the work out to other people. And I'm not against peace: who is? This is just a way of side-dtepping criticism, isn't it: but it's in a good cause...

You can't criticise art unless you've seen it, though. So in the last few days available, we caught the cathedral bus and went to have a look. And while I can't say I was moved by it, it was very pretty:

Purple star


The BBC report linked above mentions music: I did not hear any music. But I quite liked the effect of the mass of doves, and the way they were fromed by the cathedral. I thought, in fact, that, unlike those Luke Jerram globes, this was a piece which had been devised for this space, and it wasn't until I came to write this post that I discovered a description on the artirt's website of his Doves of Peace installation at Liverpool Cathedral.
shewhomust: (bibendum)
We spent a day at Auckland Castle; it was ten days ago, but it's never too late to post, is it? We accompanied J. to visit the Walled Garden,the most recently opened component of the Auckland Project:

Fig tree


Unlike any other walled garden I can think of, it slopes steeply down from the castle towards the river, so I didn't have that sense of being in an enclosed space, even though the walls did block any view of the outside world. Well, almost: you might just see the top of the Faith Museum peering over the wall. I enjoyed pottering about in the sunshine, admiring the way flowers and vegetables had been planted side by side, here some orange trumpets contrasting with some purple cabbages, there some gleaming black tomatoes, and an abundant garlic harvest laid out to dry under the concertina roof of the glasshouse.

We lunched in the castle's café, which was fine - and very convenient - but not special: another time I'd go out into the town. But I wanted to spend the afternoon touring the castle, which I haven't done since - oh, well, since before the current renovation, anyway. J., who lives more locally, has, and wasn't tempted to do so again, so we parted company at this point.

Until 2012, Auckland Castle was the home of the Bishop of Durham (initially, one of his homes, but in 1832 Durham Castle was given to Durham's then new university): the Auckland Castle Trust renovation takes you thhrough a sequence of rooms, each presenting the period and activities of one of the bishops, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. (You could stretch that, I supose, and argue that the chapel with its elaborate carved wooden screen is a nod to the restoration Bishop Cosin.) This is Quite Interesting - Hensley Henson appears to have been a force to be reckoned with; and it's a curious sensation to see events you remember presented in such a historical context (hhello, David Jenkins!).

There's a sequence of rooms which contain an actual art gallery, hosting temporary exxhibitions, currently 'Rare European Masterpieces'. I was surprised how much I did not like these. The still life with lizard which heads the linked article (sorry, I don't remember the name of the artist) was the only one I liked at all; the star exhibits, a pair of portraits allegedly by Rembrandt, were disappointing. I note in my defence that the label in the gallery described them as being from the workshop of Rembrandt - but possibly they were touched by the hand of the master, and it's just me.

These two themes come together in the Long Dining Room, set up as if for a dinner party in the time of Bishop Trevor, displaying the thirteen paintings which he bought in 1756, Zurbarán's immense Jacob and his Twelve Sons. I have seen these before, but for some reason was very much more impressed with them this time round: were they cleaned while they were visiting the States while their home was being renovated? Or is the lighting much improved? I don't know, but they have great presence. Here's some background:



And here is a Flickr album with nice big images of each one.

So now I'm confused. Am I immune to Old Master paintings, or not? Clearly we need to visit Bishop Auckland's Spanish Gallery and find out: and before mid-November, when our season ticket runs out.
shewhomust: (bibendum)
By Tuesday we could no longer postpone going shopping on the mainland - but that was fine, I wanted to go to Berwick anyway. In particular, I wanted to see the Lowry and the Sea exhibition at the Maltings.

This was not quite as straightforward as it sounds, for two reaons. One is that it isn't easy to find parking in central Berwick; the other, which I didn't discover until [personal profile] durham_rambler had dropped me at the Maltings, where the car park was full, and driven off in search of an alternative, is that the exhibition isn't actually at the Maltings, but at the Granary Gallery. Why yes, we do know where that is: in fact, that is where [personal profile] durham_rambler had found parking, valid for two hours. No matter. It was a lovely sunny day, and I wanted to explore the sreet of quirky shops we had passed on our way up to the Maltings (West Street, for future reference, and a good place to shop for cards and gifts). More shopping in Bridge Street, which is where we were parked - the Green Shop, an old favourite, and Slightly Foxed Books, a new one - and our two hours were up, so we relocated, and went off in search of lunch.

- I interrupt this narrative, because it is ten to ten, and [personal profile] durham_rambler has just pointed out that this is the moment of the actual solstice, and the nights are now beginning to draw in. Sunset tonight is still four minutes away, but we have turned a corner -

After lunch, though, we made our way to the Granary Gallery, which is on an upper floor of the Youth Hostel, the building on the right in this picture:

Dewar's Lane


- appropriately enough, if you compare this picture. A small exhibition, but an interesting one. It starts with a seaside scene in Lowry's familiar style, crowds of people enjoying a day out at the seaside (though it was painted in 1943, and I wonder if it really looked like that in wartime) and then heads off into unexpected territory: silvery Impressionist seascapes, pencil drawings of battleships, uninterrupted expanses of sea and sky... the information boards emphasised a psychological, autobiographical reading of all this emptiness. One drawing titled 'Self portrait as a column in the sea' make it hard to argue with that.

In the evening, we discovered that there was a concert in the village hall on the island, so we went along to hear Andy and Margaret Watchorn playing a variety of pipes (but mainly Northumbrian smallpipes) and fiddles (mostly fiddle as we know it, but also nyckelharpa). A pleasant surprise.
shewhomust: (bibendum)
Two years ago, I posted about seeing Luke Jerram's Museum of the Moon in Durham Cathedral. Yesterday we went back to see his new piece, Gaia:

Blue Earth


Things I never expected to hear myself ask about the Earth: "Is it bigger than the moon? Or just nearer?" According to the dedicated websites, both pieces are seven metres in diameter, so if the Earth looked larger, maybe it's because it hangs at the west end of the nave, and you look up and see it as soon as you enter the cathedral (well, as soon as you've navigated the cash desk). People were treating this as an invitation to photograph each other standing beneath the globe, arms outstretched and partly raised, holding up the Earth.

I didn't do that; I did this instead. )

I asked [personal profile] durham_rambler "What did you think of it?" After a short pause, he answered "I'm glad to have seen it." Me too.
shewhomust: (watchmen)
We went to Sunderland on Saturday, to hear Bryan and Mary Talbot speaking to the Society of Authors - and anyone else who turned up - about their new book, Armed with Madness about the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. It took place at the museum, and [personal profile] durham_rambler kindly dropped me at the entrance to Mowbray Park, so I could walk through the gardens while he parked the car. Which is how I came to be right under the flight path of this tumult of pigeons:

Fly-past


I just happened to be photographing the walrus as a father and daughter behind me did something - I don't know what: rustled a paper bag, maybe? - and I think they were pretty overwhelmed by the pegeons' reation, too. (The walrus is an Alice in Wonderland reference, but that's another story).

The talk was maybe a little more 'story so far' and a little less about the new book than I had expected, but always entertaining. Here's the trailer, which is a good introduction:



I knew very little about Leonora Carrington: no, less than that, since what little I did know was inextricably entangled with Dora Carrington, an entirely different woman artist (I think it's inconsiderate of them to have so very nearly the same name... )

Now, having read the book... )

Thr plan was that after the talk, people would afjourn to the museum café; we were all for this until we realised that the only way to accommodate all those present was to sit outside. The sun was bright, but [personal profile] durham_rambler and I looked at the black clouds, heard the thunder rimbling and decided on discretion. We reached the car before the rain began, but by the time we were out of Sunderland, the barrage of hailstines was loud on the windscreen. So we lunched at Homer Hill Farm shop (I recommend the cauliflower fritters).
shewhomust: (durham)
It's been an eventful ten days, which is why there's been nothing from me but a piece of drive-by snark - and that's eventful not on the national stage, a rabbit hole I do not intend to go down right now, but here at home, where it counts.

Last weekend, then, as anticipated, family visit number one, [personal profile] durham_rambler's great-nephew and his girlfriend. I don't know which disconcerts me more, that we have a great-nephew (two, in fact, of whom this is the elder, and a university student) or that no-one else finds it in the least unexpected. They had been in Newcastle for a wedding, and took the opportunity to spend a couple of days with us. First visit to our house, we think, for Great-Nephew, first visit to his family for Girlfriend. We asked if there was anything in particular they wanted to do while they were here, and being well brought up young people, they asked to visit Durham cathedral.

I was hesitant about walking in to town and walking back (yes, I know; things have changed) so we took the car as far as Pimlico, and walked down and over Prebends' Bridge. So we came into the cathedral through the cloisters. Here's something I'd never noticed before:

The raven at the door


Detail - and more - under the cut )

Last night there was a very different family visit, my cousin A and his partner "up for the match". Once or twice a year they come north to see Sunderland play, and we join them for a post-game meal at an Italian restaurant in Sunderland. Saturday's match was cancelled, of course, but they decided that they had packed, and booked the hotel, and they might as well come...
shewhomust: (durham)
This is the weekend when Durham hosts the Lumiere festival of lights: my reactions to this are always pretty mixed, and this year, on the tail-end of a cold, I didn't plan any major excursions. Nonetheless, by the end of Friday, with letters to post, we wandered down to the priority postbox under the viaduct, ready to combine our errand with viewing the two installations in easy reach of home.

The flavour of the whole operation is best summed up by the fact that the priority postbox, the one with a late collection, was closed. No explanation, so this may or may not have been Lumiere related, and no suggestion where to find the nearest / best alternative: just a "not in service" sign blocking the slot. We carried our letters around with us while we searched for illumination, then [personal profile] durham_rambler drove up to the sorting office while I made dinner. No harm done, but a note struck.

The next bum note was self-inflicted: I had seen a piece in the local paper about the artwork under the viaduct, and thought oh, that's very similar to something they've done in the past..., when I should have thought they are using an old photograph, that's not how it will look. Which is why we spent some time waiting for the display to start, and for lights to appear. Never mind, the viaduct itself is well worth admiring:

Under the viaduct


This is just a Durham streetscape at dusk: as a backdrop, it's quite a challenge to the artist. Actual Lumiere under the cut - )

Two minor installations from what Lumiere has to offer, and it's not too late to go out and see more, but I don't think we will. (It is too late, and has been for least a week, to get tickets for the city centre.)
shewhomust: (durham)
On Tuesday, for the first time in a very long time indeed, I took myself down into town. We've been managing fine without Durham's increasingly limited retail opportunities, but I had a little list of errands, and since [personal profile] durham_rambler was busy addressing the planning committee at County Hall, this seemed like a good opportunity.

So I went to the market, and replaced my watch strap and battery (the battery had expired, with perfect timing, a couple of days earlier); while these were being fitted, I checked the bookstall, and although they didn't have any of the books I was particularly looking for, this did mean I could order them elsewhere with a clear conscience (and have done so). I went to the bank, who have locked my bank card, and established that I have definitely and incontrovertibly forgotten my pin, and they will put a new one in the post. I shopped half-heartedly for a condolence card, and didn't find one. And then I went to the cathedral, which seems to have captured a satellite:

Museum of the Moon


This is Luke Jerram's itinerant artwork Museum of the Moon, which I had been looking forward to even before [personal profile] steepholm posted about seeing it in Bristol. Her verdict was "It won't keep you enthralled all day, but it makes quite a visual impact!", and I couldn't have put it better myself.

Not better, but at greater length, ... )
shewhomust: (bibendum)
Long ago, when the Angel of the North was still a not-altogether-popular proposal for which Gateshead council was engaged in a charm offensive, [personal profile] durham_rambler and I went to see Antony Gormley's Field for the British Isles, in what I remember as an ill-lit engine shed somewhere in Gateshead: thousands of little clay homunculi staring up at us out of the gloom. Since then it has won the Turner Prize, and the Angel has become not just a National Treasure but a local hero as well - and the Field for the British Isles is paying a return visit to the north east. So yesterday we went to the Sunderland Glass Centre, to see it again.

Field 2


More of the same ... )

After which we ordered a pot of Earl Grey tea each to drink at the café's outdoor tables, and I stocked up on cards from the gift shop while I waited for it to arrive.



shewhomust: (Default)
  • I'm constantly irritated by news reports - mostly on the radio - which tell me to enjoy the new freedoms bestowed by the government: to host a barbecue, or flock - on a responsible manner - to the Lake District, or the seaside... I would love an outing to somewhere nice, but at the best of times I try to avoid Bank Holiday weekends, and these are not the best of times. Oh, well...


  • Here's a strange and tiny landscape, almost on my doorstep:

    Tiny landscape


    Spotted on our very brief walk on Wednesday - I was out out of breath by the time we reached the top of the hill (it was a hot afternoon, but I am indisputably very unfit), and although I recovered, I was wary about going too far down the other side, because of having to come back up again. A pleasant stroll down a lane lined with daffodils, a conversation through the hedge with a neoghbour, a glimpse of a miniature elsewhere - and home in time for tea.


  • Wednesday's pub quiz opened its virtual doors wider than usual. The quiz itself is online, and open to anyone who wants to play with it, but we are two teams who take the quiz every Wesnesday evening: our team Zooms with the Quizmaster, and the other team communicate with him by WhatsApp (or similar). We celebrated our year's anniversary by all Zooming together (plus a third team, hooray) and conferring in break-out rooms. This worked well enough that we will do it again, though not every week...


  • I have been immersed in S.J. Morden's Gallowglass: Simon Morden writing in the hard and technical SF vein, not to mention the bleak outlook, of his One Way / No Way Mars books. Gallowglass took me out beyond Mars, just, to the asteroid belt: runaway Jack takes the only job that will have him (because reasons), asteroid mining, risky, unregulated and potentially hugely profitable - what could possibly go wrong? Well, everything, obviously. Then, two thirds of the way through the book, when you think you know what shape it is, there's a shift, and you are somewhere else...


  • Courtesy of GirlBear: A Wing and a Prayer, stained glass art installation under the wide skies of Suffolk's wetlands (scroll down to find the video).
shewhomust: (Default)
On Saturday I accompanied [personal profile] durham_rambler, dutifully but without much enthusiasm, to the demonstration against the proroguing of parliament.

This was in Millennium Place, in front of the Gala Gallery, which was a reminder that I hadn't yet seen the Norman Cornish exhibition there, and it was about to end. So once the speeches started, I slipped onto the Gallery. Norman Cornish was a local artist, best known for his townscapes and scenes of mining life (imagine Lowry if he'd cared more for people) but this was a small show of his portraits. Mostly, these were of easily available models - the artist's family, himself - from rapid sketches to formal oil paintings, s collection any family would be happy to own. A second group of outsize pastel (possible; what do I know) heads had been commissioned for a Tyne Tees Television programme The Burning Question. These were larger than life (in all senses) characters, exaggerated, almost cartoonish: Cornish had apparently sketched them at the local pub (or so he told his wife, as he set off for the evening's session) but they looked like the figures who people his paintings, walking home from work, propping up the bar, but here isolated, scrutinised, their cartoon liveliness magnified. All this was interesting, but the only portrait I really liked was one which stood out from both groups, forming a bridge between them: a charcoal study of the artists father, a big sketch in extreme close-up, but entirely alive: it felt like being in the presence of a real person.

The centenary of Cornish's birth is being celebrated by a rolling programme of exhibitions the year and around the county, which I think is a rather neat idea.

When I returned to the demonstration, speakers were still speaking. [personal profile] durham_rambler was talking to a friend who had arrived late, because he had been to an exhibition of old photographs at Gilesgate church: oh, yes! we meant to go to that, didn't we? So we caught a bus up Gilesgate, and joined the crowds admiring photographs from Michael Richardson's collection. I had had Norman Cornish to myself, but this was a much more sociable event: you walked round at the speed of the queue, and occasionally you chatted with your neighbour to identify a location or to compare memories.

I'd call that a Saturday well spent.
shewhomust: (Default)
We did not go to Danny Boyle's Pages of the Sea last Sunday, although we could quite easily have gone to Roker, one of the participating beaches. Why did we not go? As you know, I was feeling ambivalent about all this remembering, and marked the moment of the Armistice by composing a post about it. And I was afraid the event would be horribly crowded, that too. Seeing photographs of the event, I think I was wrong on both counts: here's my favourite picture (the photographer reserves his rights, but it's worth clicking through. Also, a description of the event, and more photographs in this set.).

Why Pages of the Sea? It's a line from Carol Ann Duffy's poem, The Wound in Time, which also does a fine job of balancing solemn commemoration with actual remembering.

We did, though, watch Peter Jackson's film, They Shall Not Grow Old, though I watched a fair bit if it with my hand over my eyes. It's an astonishing piece of work, opening with the familiar jerky black and white film flickering in a small square in the middle of the screen, the men's voices telling cheerfully how they had signed up, singly and in groups (and many of them so young) and been trained for war. And as they set off for France, the image began to fill the screen, the motion became smoother and more natural, until suddenly there was colour. Like Summer Holiday, only completely different.

It was fascinating, but I wasn't as moved by it as I had anticipated. There were moments when I had to look away (not always fast enough!) but overall it left me with more questions than emotions. I'd have loved to see an accompanying 'making of', not so much for the technical 'how did they do that?' questions (some of which are answered by this Radio Times article) as the editorial questions: who filmed this in the first place? And how, and why? What choice did Jackson have from the material available to him? Likewise for the commentary, which is compiled from oral archives recorded in the 60s and 70s by the BBC and the Imperial War Museum. Jackson comments on its extraordinary stoicism, which is true, but only part of it: against the background of every idea we now have about the war, it is positively cheerful. Not just in the opening scenes, when you might expect the film-maker to select extracts which reflect the light-hearted, optimistic expectation of a war which would be over by Christmas, not just the matter-of-factness of the descriptions of life (and death) in the trenches, the cold, the mud, the rats, the man next to you falling dead from sniper fire, but at the end of the film, the men who looked back and 'wouldn't have missed it for the world'... These were, of course, by definition the survivors, and more, the survivors who were prepared to speak to authority about what they had survived.

Meanwhile, the camera reminded you all the time of what voices were not saying. Who was the intended audience of these scenes? The cheerful groups at mess tables, or marching past the camera shouting "Hello, Mum!", I can imagine these scenes being shown: but the squalor of the trenches, both in tragic mode (those youthful faces now looking up from corpses half eaten by the mud) or comic (the rows of bare bottoms strung along a pole above a latrine pit), would this ever be shown to those at home? The footage of life in the trenches was so immediate and candid, too, it was a struggle to remember that it wasn't filmed on the ubiquitous iPhone, but on heavy cameras that had to be manhandled into position.

'Manhandled'. that's another thing: this was the war as we have only recently learned not to think of it, exclusively male and white. Was it Jackson's decision to focus in this way, to exclude the women who overcame official opposition to do their bit at the front? Or are they absent from the IWM's archive, neither seen nor heard? Similarly, it's a very European view of the war to be made by a New Zealander: Jackson talks about his interest in the war beginning with stories of his grandfather, who signed up (admittedly with the South Wales Borderers) in 1910, but fought at Gallipoli as well as in the Somme.

Against all this, my last question is trivial, but I stumble across it every time I try to think or talk about the film: how did they decide on the title They Shall Not Grow Old? The phrase draws so much power from Binyon's For the Fallen, and then stumbles, because it's wrong: I keep wanting to say the familiar words, ",They shall grow not old..." Does it work with that association? Someone must have decided it does.

And that's it, a century plus a week has passed. Will World War II be commemorated in the same way? I find that unthinkable, it seems such an entirely different matter (don't ask me why).
shewhomust: (bibendum)
We took Thursday off, and went to see a temporary art installation which is coming to the end of its time:

Natural Creation 2


This oughtn't be such a big deal: we work for ourselves, we control our own time, but we don't often drop everything midweek, even though we can. As it was, [personal profile] durham_rambler spent the beginning of the morning in a meeting at County Hall. But he was home by mid-morning and we set off, down to the southern border of the county, the river Tees.

And this is what we saw... )
shewhomust: (Default)
Belsay Hall is an English Heritage property in Northumberland, and one which is, depending on your point of view, either somewhat anomalous or ahead of the curve. There are gardens, including a spectacular quarry garden, and there is a genuine ruined medieval castle, which is the sort of property I associate with English Heritage. But the Hall itself is early nineteenth century Greek Revival, and not ruined. Neither is it furnished like a stately home: English Heritage explain "Under the terms of the guardianship agreement by which it passed into state care in 1980, the hall is displayed without furnishings, revealing to visitors the fine craftsmanship that went into its construction." It's an empty shell, in other words, and this is deliberate. They don't, however, leave the visitor to appreciate that fine craftsmanship and classical severity unaided. Each year the Hall hosts a different art exhibition or installation. This year's offering is Susan Philipsz's The Yellow Wallpaper.

Meandering account of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' )

Fringe benefits )
shewhomust: (guitars)
We haven't been avoiding the Festival of the North which is happening at the moment; but neither have we been seeking it out. Nonetheless, last Saturday (yes, Saturday a week ago - this post has been long in the writing) we did two things which come under its capacious umbrella - and one that didn't. We went to two concerts at the Sage, and spent the time between them exploring the 'Winged Tales of the North' trail in the Ouseburn.

Alistair Anderson presents... )

Where your wings were, and other stories )

A concert of two halves )
shewhomust: (Default)
  1. Puffin numbers are in decline - but not on Skomer. A BBC report includes a video, which would be better with fewer pictures of ornithologists and more of puffins, and insists on moving on automatically to a report about pig-walking in the Brecon Beacons, but any puffin pictures are better than none.


  2. Shopping triumph! My swimming costume disintegrated - I thought there was something odd last time I wore it, but it's so clingy when wet that it wasn't until I was folding it up to go swimming on Monday that I found the very large hole that was causing the problem. So on Tuesday I went into Newcastle early ahead of my reading group, and found not one but two swimming costumes in the first place I tried (Bon Marché - I miss their Durham store, which is being redeveloped as student accommodation, but that's another story). Neither is ideal, but both are my size, neither is absolutely hideous, and I have already tested one in the pool, without disaster. I also bought a copy of The Other Side of the World in a charity shop, so that's my next two books lined up. I call that a successful afternoon's shopping.


  3. I hadn't taken my camera to Newcastle, so these are not my photographs of Grey's Monument, which has been transformed into the Workers' Maypole for the Great Exhibition of the North by artists Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich:

    Tyneside: Earl Grey's monument

    Tyneside: Earl Grey's monument


    Thanks to KaysGeog for the pictures!


  4. Someone gave us a jar of Hari's Lime and Green Chilli pickle. Thank you, somebody, whoever you were! It was excellent, and we have scraped out the jar - but thanks to the internet, I know where to find more...


  5. Below the Surface allows you to curate your own collection of finds from the excavation of Amsterdam's new metro line: hours of fun for all the family! If I (and the Guardian) understand this correctly, the line follows the route of two canals which had already been filled in, so many of the finds are things which had been dropped into the canals, but have been excavated from canals which are no longer there. The archaeology of ghost canals...

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