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.

WOW 2015

Hope everyone had a fabulous International Women's Day yesterday!

picture source

I sure did. I went to the WOW festival this weekend and had a brilliant time. 3 days of talks, debates and performances celebrating women and discussing the challenges we face, just had my little feminist heart singing with glee. 

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.

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.  

Shakespeare in Love at the Noel Coward theatre

It's my mum's birthday so we treated to her to a trip to the see Shakespeare in Love at the Noel Coward theatre. The play is based on the hugely popular 1998 film of the same name, that stared Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes.

It tells the story of a young William Shakespeare, who is suffering from writer's block and struggling to write a comedy entitled Romeo and Ethel the Pirates daughter. Viola de Lesseps, is a wealthy woman, obsessed with the theatre, disguised as Thomas Kent, she auditions for Shakespeare's new play.  When Shakespeare discovers Viola's real identity they embark on an affair, which inspires him to write his most enduring and tragic play.

Rating: 3.7/5
full review under the cut:-

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:-

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.

Terror and Wonder at The British Library

I've never actually been to The British Library before, which seems like a huge oversight for a bibliophile that lives close to London. So to rectify this, me and mum took a trip over to see an exhibition, 'Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination'. The event is Halloween appropriate, but will running until the 20th January, so you have plenty of time to catch it.

 

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.

Bradwell & St. Peters

We were starting to feel a bit trapped indoors by the afternoon so decided to go for a walk at nearby Bradwell.  

When me and my sisters were small we used to go to the power-station at Bradwell every other weekend. A nuclear power-station may seem to be an odd choice for a family outing, but it has a beach, a nature reserve and was more importantly free entertainment when we were strapped for cash.

The nuclear facility has now been decommissioned and is in the process of being demolished, but the area is still a popular site for walkers (and unfortunately also for doggers, the ground is littered with used condoms so be careful where you stand).

The landscape looked rather bleak in the grey weather, but I think I managed to get some half decent pictures.

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.

Clandon Park

We want to get as much use of possible out of our National Trust membership before the properties close for the winter, so this bank holiday we took a trip over to Clandon Park over in Guilford.