Betty Blythe tearooms

We've been to Betty Blythe tearooms before and had such a fabulous time, we decided to go again. The tearooms are located inbetween Kensington Olympia and Shepard's Bush train stations, they can be slightly tricky to find, so make sure you bring a map.

More pictures under the cut:-

Wimpole Estate & Farm at Easter

Spring has well and truly sprung at Wimpole Estate and Farm, we spent the day there on the Easter Monday, the house was all done up with Easter eggs, lambs and goats were gambolling and the daffodils were turning their faces to the sun.

Wimpole

I've blogged about Wimpole estate and it's library before, but it's such a beautiful place one more post isn't going to do any harm.

The British Museum

I had a half day of annual leave yesterday (plus I'm off for the rest of the week) so I treated myself to a jolly around London doing a few of my favourite things. I got a hair cut, ate a ridiculous amount of Korean food (at Bibimbap, 37 Museum Street) and visited The British Museum.

The Egyptian mummies tend to grab all the glory, in fairness the displays are fantastic, but they are also very overcrowded. I wandered in for a quick look and was soon irritated by the hordes of inconsiderate school groups. Thankfully the museum has plenty of interesting exhibitions that were practically deserted.

Colchester day trip (part 2)

More pictures to show you from my day trip to Colchester. The sky was conveniently blue and the sun was shining, so I'm pretty happy with how these photos turned out:-

Colchester Castle

I've taken some annual leave this week, so we popped over to nearby Colchester for a wander and a look around the castle. Of course, it's school half term at the moment so it was pretty busy.

Diagon Alley

Finally getting my arse in gear - I've started to edit the pictures I took on my visit to the Harry Potter studios

'Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin. "Three up...two across..." he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry.' He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. ' 

- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K Rowling 

5 top tips for visiting The Making of Harry Potter, Warner Bros. studio tour

For Christmas my sister gave me a brilliant present, a trip to The Making of Harry Potter, Warner Bros studio tour.

It totally lived up to me expectations, and I'll be posting some pictures of my visit in a couple of upcoming posts, but first I wanted to share some tips, so you can plan your own visit.  

winter walk

It's tradition to go for a walk on boxing day. Most of the photos I took were of my family and I messing about, climbing trees etc. and this blog is faceless,  but I have a couple to show you:-

IWM- modern warfare

I'm going to step away from the Christmas posts and show you some more (rather un-festive) pictures from my recent trip to the Imperial War Museum, London.

I've followed the floor plan of the museum and split my posts to reflect the different exhibition, these pictures are all from the modern warfare section:-

WW1, Imperial War Museum

As I've already said, the First World War galleries at the Imperial War Museum have recently been renovated.

Let's take a closer look:-

The Imperial War Museum, London

This weekend I went to The Imperial War Museum. It has recently been renovated to coincide with the centenary of the First World War this year. 

 

I'm going to split up my photographs, to cover the different exhibitions in depth, but I just wanted to briefly give an overview if you are considering visiting IWM. 

The museum is free to visit, open daily 10:00-6:00. Due to the high volume of visitor at the moment, it is timed entry for the WW1 exhibition, but again this free (but still very crowded). 

Photograph is allowed in the museum, apart from (and rightly so) in the Holocaust exhibition. Another thing to note- the Holocaust exhibition is not recommended for children under the age of 14, and includes graphic photographs. 

We spent about 4 and half hours in IWM and didn't manage to see all of the exhibitions. We didn't go in Truth and Memory or A Family in Wartime, simply because we ran out of time. 

I'd recommend you bring your own food and drink. There was a poor choice of sandwiches and both the tea and coffee are horrible.    

Stowe- part 2

A lot later than I originally planned, here is the second part of my visit to Stowe. (first part here)

I thought he most logical thing to do was to split the photos into two- the first part is mainly trees and autumnal landscape.  This post is about the follies that are scattered around around the grounds. For those of you who don't know, a folly is a fanciful structure, built to be primarily decorative and to be an ornamental part of a large garden or estate. Some follies can however also be practical, a place to rest, take tea or even to sleep if they are far from the main house. 

Lest we forget

Like 4 million other people, I went to pay my respects at the commemorative art installation at The Tower of London.

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red comprises of 888,236 individually hand-made poppies planted in the moat of The Tower to represent a British military fatality during the First World War.

Stowe part 1

I went to Stowe a couple of weekends ago, but I took far too many photos and I've been putting off editing them. So many photos in fact, that I'm spreading them over two posts.

St Pancras

Ok, St. Pancras is just a train station, but it really is stunning! Therefore this small post is justified. It is grade 1 listed building, which was opened in 1868.

Heybridge & Tiptree tea rooms

Heybridge is a pretty village, lovely old houses, waterways and a fantastic tearoom. Ideal for a weekend jaunt really. After our trip to Bradwell, we popped in for a cream tea.

Hatchlands

Hatchlands is just up the road from Clandon (see pictures from my trip here) so we paid it a quick visit whilst we were in the area.

Unfortunately, just like Clandon, photographs are forbidden inside the property, so I only have a few pictures to show you.

Harwick Hall (old hall)

This is my final post about my trip to Hardwick Hall, I did warn you I took to many photos! (part 1, part 2, part 3)

more pictures after the jump:-

Hardwick Hall (inside)

The interior of Harwick Hall is just as grand as the outside. Some National Trust properties I've been to are pretty much empty on the inside with the furnishing and paintings been sold to private collectors, but Hardwick has plenty of things to look at.

More pictures under the jump:-

To see my photo from the outside of Hardwick see here, and for the gardens see here