Wells

A couple of weekends back I visited Niobe and on the return leg stopped off at Wells. I'd never been before but will certainly return. It is the smallest city in England with a fabulous cathedral (although I didn't get to see inside as I'd missed the start of the service - maybe next time).



Liked the name of this porch - nobody after alms last weekend!



I'm always amazed by the way in which our ancestors managed the feats of getting these huge statues raised so high without the help of todays engineering. Ropes and pulleys - wow!



The cathedral had a delightful clock where its two sentries ring the bell on the hour. A local advised that it was well worth watching so I was glad I was there in time for 12!



Around the perimeter of the cathdral area is a moat with a drawbridge! Absolutely lovely.



Autumn light shining through the trees ...



And a view through the wall of the Bishop's Palace...



What a lovely place - where the grass actually looked like grass. Look at the colour! The greenest grass ever! It's beige where I live!



Wells is also home to the oldest continuously inhabited street in England (from 1340)



Not a satellite dish, not a dustbin, or a TV aerial in sight! Delightful! Like stepping back in time. Of course a quick walk round the back revealed all those things! Need to spend longer in this place!

Oh and Niobe's doing great! What a relief!

Not the Horrockses Exhibition - when all is not what it seems!

The point at which I despair having realised I've I turned up at the Fashion and Textile Museum to see the Horrockses exhibition - on a day when it is closed!



Marshalsea Road - when I realise I'm not Little Dorrit walking towards the workhouse - I'm lost in London. Again. Fortunately I'm rescued by a Swedish lady lighting designer - yes we had a long chat as she returned me to where I needed to be and I'm reminded of the kindness of strangers...



Not a Vintage Yard at all!



Decided to turn the day into an opportunity to explore the parts other trips hadn't reached and wandered through the LBQ (apparently London Bridge Quarter) wondering at the massive block of glass reaching up into the sky imaginitively called The Shard.



Not a gallery



Not a normal city - a vertical city - clearly there is a vision for LBQ. I feel as if Ive been tranported into another world where all is not what it seems.



I cross the river to find Brick Lane and the confusion continues as I wander into what appeares to be lovely market building (Leadenhall Market)but it's filled, and I mean filled, with men in suits. Feeling completely out of place in jeans and a tweed jacket I scurry through neglecting to take a picture feeling very much the outsider.



I emerge into a sea of glass and sport a vacant look as I face another world I don't recognise.



Walls of glass and metal surround me with sunlight bouncing between buildings but the world is suddenly black and white and devoid of colour. I walk on traipsing along Fenchurch Street and Whitechapel. Ah - names I recognise - I'm walking around a Monopoly Board. Suddenly I'm in a different world again and rather than brandishing my camera and snapping wildly I clutch it in my pocket. Lost again I ask a lady with a vintage bike with a basket on the front for help. (I find being careful in my choice of help pays dividends). This lady also obligingly walked me to where I wanted to be. "Brick Lane" she said - "you walked way past it - its not called Brick Lane at the start but Osborne Steet". Ah that explains it! Silly me!



Brick Lane was a complete contrast with lots of colour and some great street art which I'm directed to by this helpful gentleman











Have I entered the after life?



and just look at this one - wow !



Not a parking spot! Parking in the area is clearly an issue with threats of retribution should one park in the wrong spot!





The heavens open and brollyless and dripping I tramp back to the tube and make my way to Anthropologie which I love for its ideas but which is ridiculously expensive to a thrifter like me!



Not a chandelier - but a collection of upcycled bottle tops.



She muses that the release from the strictures of timetables and letting adventure in can be quite liberating as she falls exhausted into the arms of Bacchus and Morpheus...

Heavy Metal

As a teenager I rather enjoyed heavy metal of the kind that you got on big black discs kept in a cardboard sleeve with a fabulous picture on the front (called an album for thse youngsters out there!)



Now I'm drawn to another kind of heavy metal in the form of architecture



and sculpture...These pictures were taken while in Scotland last month.



This is Glasgow's tallest tower...



The first and second pictures are The "Slug" - Scotlands Science centre in Glasgow.



This one, for obvious reasons, is known as the Armadillo or the Scottish Exhibition Centre.



These gorgeous bits of metal work are decorated railings outside Charles Rennie Mackintosh's School of Art,



Titan - a huge old crane as homage to Glasgows ship building industry



and more lovely Charles Rennie railings. It was great to catch some of my own - "must see before you die" sights. I know they're hardly the Taj Mahal - but I wanted to see them just as much!

Love Wend

Newcastle was another place Niobe wanted to visit as a potential uni. The weather was bright and we managed to take time to go down to the quayside to see the Millennium Bridge on Friday evening. It was well timed as the bridge was about to be raised which I hadn't seen before.



On this picture you can see the pedestrian side tilted as the whole thing swings over.



It was a beautiful sight as it moved elegantly to allow boats to pass through (although I suspect this was more for tourists than it was for necessity!)



On the Gateshead side of the Tyne is the Baltic Art Gallery which we were too late to visit. I love the way it still has the Flour Mills sign on the side.



We walked along the Tyne to the Tyne Bridge which is another famous great feat of enigineering. As you turn back and look along the river you can see the Tyne Bridge, the fabulous Sage Centre, the Baltic Gallery and the Millennium Bridge all within a very short distance.



The Tyne Bridge's higher girders were covered with the nests of kittiwakes. Apparently these birds favour the narrow ledges on cliffs so its unusual to see them in Newcastle. You only have to imagine the mess under the bridge and it was difficult to get a good pic.




Later we walked over the bridge and you could see the birds at much closer range. There were lots of little babies up there!



The Sage building used for exhibitions, concerts and music is apparently one of Britains "Top Ten Buildings.


It was pretty impressive I have to say but I liked it even more when it was lit gently by the light from the Millennium Bridge once the sun had gone down.



In line with my New Years resolution we managed to have a little time in the Laing Gallery...



where we were able to see one of my favourite paintings - "Isabella and the Pot of Basil".



Off to York this week!

Have a good week!

Love Wend