Kew in October II

It was only when I started writing this post that I realised I've written about Kew in October here before - I think my photography's advanced a bit since then though (I like to think!). No bad thing - it is a fantastic time of year to go, just before all the leaves, well, leave.

A maple bonsai. I didn't know that was even possible. They had an oak one too, among others.


Tiny halloween lanterns.


Deadly Nightshade. Chris thought it looked "appetising". Hmm.


Fun with algae.


Of course it's not all bright colours and fun. Some plants are feeling fairly melancholy now the nights are drawing in.

Fraggle 8

It's that time of year again. I'm panic-buying jumpers, the leaves are turning and it's acceptable once more to stay in of an evening and eat biscuits, so it must be Fraggle-time. This year, a week in Plush (what a great name for a place) in Dorset. We stayed in a sprawling old farmhouse on a working farm. The cows kept us company, waking us up with moo-ing at 5 in the morning and generally being smelly.




Bunty and Jo demanded more attention by trying to eat our conkers and throwing themselves at our feet for fuss.





Once we stopped pretending we had pets, we went to Weymouth for what turned out to be the last properly hot day of the year for yummy homemade ice-cream (two flavours only - 'coconut' or 'normal') and some good fish & chips. mmm.



I even went in the sea!




After an enormous restorative Sunday roast, the remaining few that hadn't had to rush back to London were left to wander around and generally fill time.




Over the course of the rest of the week we marvelled at how small Lyme Regis is...


...ate lots of scones (they went too fast to photograph), went to see the Cerne Abbas giant, and couldn't help but be drawn by Monkey World - really good it was too!

More France

A busy 4 days with lots of wine, cheese, Wii Fit, river swimming and surprisingly no headaches.

We bought some very yummy wine from 'The Wine Woman' at her beautiful vineyard, met with much approval by Ravioli, who apparently mysteriously adopted them, having already decided that yes, he would live here.


The other vineyard we visited was Monbazillac, which apparently is very highly regarded for it's desert wine. It was very nice. The Chateau was beautiful, almost ridiculously stereotypical.


Stunning views from here too...


Next day, Sarlat, with it's ginormous market-hall (ex church) doors...


Lots more on Flickr.

A Long Weekend

IMG_4719, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

...on the banks of the Dordogne. I'll write more later. Just love this picture!

See the rest on Flickr. See where we stayed here.

Moscow

I had so much fun on my whistle-stop trip to Moscow. I was with work colleagues and we only had two full days there, but wow did we cram a lot in! Lucky for us the contact we were going to meet with was happy to help us get around so we did have a guide for some of the time. She even took us to the Cafe Pushkin for a traditional Russian dinner complete with vodka. We were also lucky enough to be staying in the opulent Ritz Carlton hotel which was an experience in itself. I'm not really a fan of reproduction antiques and gilt, but when I have a shower like that in my house I'll know I've made it. I am cursed to be eternally disappointed with every bathroom I'll ever use now.

The architecture is fantastic, although you do find it interrupted by giant lit-up logos at night. On the whole though it's a very beautiful city.


Of course St Basil's Cathedral is amazing, so difficult to capture in the picture just how beautiful and colourful it is - it shines, even on the grey day we went. The walls are covered in orange and blue patterns and the domes are just so joyous. The story goes that once it was finished, Ivan the Terrible blinded the architect so that he could never design anything better for anyone else.

A quick run around the Kremlin and a visit to the beautiful armoury where we saw a whole host of royal dresses, thrones and carriages (including Catherine the Great's 16" waist - eek) and Peter the Great's throne. He was crowned jointly with an older brother to share the throne, as the older brother was 'feeble minded'. But Peter was only a child at this point, so there was a special compartment in the back where the older sister would sit, and whisper to Peter what he should say.


The bell was a replacement bell for the big tower in the Kremlin, and was still cooling in it's cast when there was a city fire - the cold fireman's water got poured all over it and it cracked.


We went to see the ballet in the Bolshoi's secondary, smaller theatre, because the main one is being refurbished. Nevertheless it's still a beautiful building and well worth seeing - even if you're not really a ballet fan (like me!) it's not difficult to appreciate it once you're there.


The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was another highlight, and one that really stuck in my mind. The building you see is what was rebuilt in the 90's, after the original was demolished to make way for a giant socialist monument, only for the site to be turned into a giant outdoor swimming pool when that project was halted.

And of course, you can't go to Moscow without buying a fantastic souvenir...

or perhaps a slightly less fantastic one (unless you still love The Scorpions)


Lots more photos on Flickr.

Kew in October

It's feeling properly Autumnal now, so going to Kew on Saturday was a bit different to usual (although in a good way). It's even more beautiful at the moment than normal, and it helps me to exorcise that feeling I get at this time of year when I want to run around taking photographs everywhere I go (so I took about a zillion). I thought these little trees looked a bit like hearts with their red leaves. Aaah. How lame of me.

Deck-Chairs in October

Enjoyed a lazy walk around Hyde Park on Sunday on an unusually hot day for October - T shirt weather! It was great, the Park looks beautiful at the moment with the leaves just starting to turn, although it was a little bit odd to see people sunbathing on deckchairs amongst brown fallen leaves.

Small But Perfectly Formed

Yesterday I went to see Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan at the British Museum.
It was a small exibition but fantastically beautiful. It was a really nice group of pieces actually, enough for a 'wow' factor but restrained enough not to be over-doing it, as if saying "we're really proud of these pieces, but of course there's a lot more where that came from". Which I've no doubt there is. A place where creative and craft skills and pure hard work are rewarded as much as concept and delivery, Japan seems to be really good at nurturing its artist community, designating the most accomplished Living National Treasures.

I found the Kimono/textile artists particularly inspiring. In a short interview one of them explained that he had considered what he could do with a kimono to make it different, more special. He realised that he shouldn't change the simple shape because that is part of why it's special - if you change the shape once then you will change it again and again striving to make it better, and it becomes like any other clothing. The simple shape of the kimono lets the textile speak for itself. Texile designs are produced by various laborious methods, including woodblock printing with a 2" square block, dyeing individual strands of hand-spun silk and then weaving together to create complicated (and perfect) geometrical patterns, and stencil dyeing, all done completely by hand.


Tokuda Yasokichi III - Bowl, 'Genesis' (Sosei), porcelain with vivid coloured glazes (yôsai), 1991. On loan from the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
This was beautiful - a coloured glaze bowl that apparently went wrong, so the artist then re-fired it at higher temperature and the stripey effect appeared - "a gift from the gods. Or an accident." Luminescent, and perfect. Perfection seemed to be a theme that runs through each and every piece actually. It's the only word for it.

I'm getting old

I'm a member of Kew Gardens. Yes, really. Lovely scones.

A full 12 months in anticipation of when I finally manage to save up enough money for a lovely DSLR, and I will be completely obsessed with taking photos. More than I am now.