Aswell. Day 3

On the Sunday morning we were enjoying coffee in the garden and were delighted to have low flying display by a red kite over the garden house.  We had superb views, allowing the rich colours to show well.  In the afternoon we visited Cambridge in order to visit the excellent Kings College Fellows gardens.

Ashwell, June 2019. Day 2

Slightly more active today.  While Heather went for a wander round the village, I walked up to nearby Arbury Banks to look for the marbled white butterflies I had seen there a couple of years ago.  There were quite a few about, although photographing them was a different kettle of fish.  With it being late morning and a hot day (35C) they were fairly active and it was also quite windy, blowing the plants around on which they perched.  There were large whites, meadow brown, red admiral and painted lady on the wing.  On our return we drove to Hitchen lavender fields  for tea and stickies and some photography of the spectacular show of flowers. In the evening we sat outside and played with Malcolm's new bat detector.  It was a fscinating experience as we were able to identify those we could see flying around the garden: daubenton's bat and common pipistrelle.

Ashwell, June 2019. Day 1

Back at Malcolm and Maureens in Ashwell, it was time for a well-earned rest and relaxation in the garden. 

London, June 2019. Day 2

Another excellent day in London today where we visited two Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibitions.  First was an exhibition of his notebooks in the British library and then in the Queen's  Gallery, Buckingham Palace was the complete exhibition of his drawings which had been touring the country.  We were blessed hot weather and enjoyed our day before meeting up with Maureen at St Pancras to return to Ashwell.

London, June 2019. Day 1

We were up very early this morning for Maureen to drive us to the station to catch the early train into Kings Cross.  We were heading into London for my graduation ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall. We were able to call in at our apartment situated opposite The British Library before continuing on to the South Bank.  The whole of the journey had gone seemlessly and we arrived slightly early, but it wasn't long before othe students began to arrive and we were admitted to the hall to be fitted up with our gowns, hoods and mortar boards.  It was then time to take some photographs before the ceremony and as we were going in we ran into fellow OCA student, Yiann.  I was absolutely delighted as mush of my studying had been done with her as part of our Google Hangout group which provided much mutual support as well as critiques of each others' work.  I was very moved by the ceremony and its multicultural nature especially in today's parlous political climate.  Yiann and I had to laugh, though, as 9 years of hard work wre condensed into a 30 second walk across the stage and a handshake with the vice chancellor.  Well worth it, though.  There was just time for a celebratory fizz and some more photographs before Yian and her husband had to leave to drive back to France where they now live.

 As Heather and I were staying overnight we now had the rest of the day to ourselves so we found some lunch along the South Bank a pint at the excellent Founder's Arms before popping into Tate Modern where we took in a couple of free exhibition: Monet and Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter and Mondrian.  

We then headed back to our Studios2let apartment which we can highly recommend. A snooze was the order of the day before heading out to Camden lock,  Gas Holders and Coal Drop Yard before dinner in Nenno's italian.

An excellent and emotional day.