A day in ruins

More from this summer. It was so different in many ways, but the main one was that Mr Famapa worked away for most of it, leaving me and Oomoo to our own devices for weeks on end. To break it up me and O drove up to York to go and stay with friends for a few nights. The weather was all over the place (mainly on the wet side) but I had a few places I wanted to go visit.

The Kilburn White Horse was one of them, and this is the best picture I got of it. Not only can you not see the horse, it’s also not white. There’s quite a story about it; a wealthy Victorian business man had been to see the chalk hill Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, and wanted to create something similar near the village he grew up in. The local schoolmaster, together with his pupils and volunteers, set about to cut the horse out of the hill, but as it wasn’t made out of chalk, the horse did not end up having the desired white colour. Tons of limestone was instead poured over it to have the same effect, something that has been done regularly ever since. Well, it had obviously not been done for a long time when we were there, so if anything it could probably be re-branded to a more accurate name like “The Greige Horse”.

Walking up the steps up to it (and down like here) was quite an experience. They went on forever and were ridiculously steep. Quite a workout!

From there we continued to Helmsley for a spot of lunch, and walked past this ruin of Helmsley Castle.

Twice.

We didn’t stop as we had a bigger ruin on our itinerary: Rievaulx Abbey. In the depths of the third lockdown I savoured watching Winter Walks, where you got to follow various people in the public eye go for a solo walk in Yorkshire and Cumbria, accompanied only by a 360 degree camera they were filming with themselves with, and a drone. This blogpost describes exactly what it felt like for me to watch these beautiful, soulful programmes in the bleakest of winters (let’s hope this coming one won’t be as bad, because the last one was ROUGH here), and the programmes proved handy with lots of suggestions of what to explore in Yorkshire.

Rievaulx Abbey did not disappoint.

A Cistercian monastery since 1132 (!), this extension of the cloisters was completed in the 1220’s. At its most populous point around 650 people lived there, with the minority being monks, and the majority lay brothers.

Shut down by Henry the VIII in 1538, it was quickly dismantled, with the roof lead and church bells saved for the king.

It didn’t occur to me that maybe it was a bit unsafe to walk around like we did, but the upper walls were reinforced with hidden concrete beams in 1918, to preserve the ruins for the future.

Dotted around in the grass were signs showing where different areas used to be.

Must be quite something to live so close, in these houses, right next to it.

After the dissolution of the abbey, it continued on as an iron forge, which already existed, as the lay brothers at Rievaulx forged their own tools, nails and cutlery. Eventually it too got closed down, and the land was handed down generations of landed gentry, and finally given to the state as a historical monument in the 1900’s.

Lastly, in the grounds café afterwards, in a really well designed seating area. Those windows!

I’m so glad we’re finally exploring England more (and I hope we get to travel round the rest of the UK soon too), as in the ‘Before’ we usually went abroad for our holidays. I always knew that there are so many amazing places to visit here, and it’s crazy that it took a pandemic to make us appreciate what’s closer to home. But I guess sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

It's a Kew, Kew summer

Quite soon after the school summer holidays started, me and Oomoo went with friends to Kew Gardens. I’m guessing it won’t be long before he’ll pass on the offer of going there though. We’re almost exactly a year away from him turning into to a teenager (gasp), and I’m sure he’ll rather do something less walk-y by then. But then he might surprise me. Let’s hope so.

There’s still enough interesting stuff there for an almost 12 year old.

Like cool sound installations hanging in trees.

You had to stand underneath the sound domes to hear the amplified recordings of the inner workings of a tree, including the rumble that can be heard under the bark (no, I didn't know there was such a thing either) or the popping sound of water as it travels from the trunk towards the leaves - mixed with music.

We then finally made our way to Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, one of the last places within the gardens that I’ve not yet been to, but sadly it was shut. But L was happy anyway, as you can see here. In fact, maybe she was happy because it was shut… The cottage was used by King George III and Queen Charlotte in the late 1700’s, as a pit stop for a cup of tea and a rest when they went for walks in the grounds of Kew Palace, their summer holiday home. In spring the cottage is surrounded by blue bells and I hope I time it right one year, so I can see it in all its blue glory.

There were also unusual planting installations dotted around the gardens.

Noice.

And one really comfy continuous bench.

Seeing as green is going to fade away in nature’s winter palette, let’s take some in now. Delicately, like this

or layered, like that

or bright and punchy, like here

or curly and swirly, like there.

And I’ll add some nice orange and white too - before I say “Hasta la vista Kew”.

Finally, no visit is complete without a picture like this from the Hive. Standing underneath it I initially couldn’t make out if this was Oomoo or not, but then I noticed the undone shoelace. That’s him alright.

While typing in the post title I had Bananarama going round in my head, so here’s a link to Cruel Summer, from 37 years ago (OMG!). I love how their outfits are so in fashion again (like seriously), and after watching the music video I’ve got a serious girl crush on Siobhan Fahey. How could you not?!

Stranger things

Aaaah. Slightly delayed post. After having not travelled abroad for nearly two years, I’ve ended up going on two trips within a week just recently. The first one was four days away (Stockholm), and the second one two weeks (Amsterdam)! I guess you’ll see the pics from there by xmas…? Doh. So back to my fun Friday, that now happened a whole month ago, and our second cultural outing of the day. G suggested we visited the Viktor Wynd Museum, a place I’d never heard of, but which made total sense that he had (this is the same G who showed us London’s only remaining sewer gas light that runs on biogases from peoples asses) - because he knows everything about this city.

So, through the door we went, into The Last Tuesday Society, the absinthe bar that the museum is in the basement of. The writing on the door says: “Those easily offended by death and decay should stay away.” A fair warning I reckon.

The ceiling of the bar gave an indication of what was to come. It’s so weird to look at these pictures now, as they’re so grotesque. On the day, everything was just intriguing, eccentric and quite funny, but I see now how weird it all must look to you.

Well, it gets just weirder and weirder. Believe me.

Walking down a tight spiral staircase you end up in a small, dank and mould smelling basement, greeted by a taxidermied fusion of a shreiking monkey/fish. Viktor Wynd has been an avid collector of the very strange for many years. He initially started out as an artist, but got disillusioned with it all, and decided to make money by opening a museum, where people would pay to see his vast collection of the freakiest shit you’ve ever seen. Literally. There are jars there with turds by Kylie Minogue and Amy Winehouse. There are also a hell of a lot of taxidermied stuff, as well as a lock of Elvis’ hair, strange skeletons, art and general weirdness.

So let’s have a look at some of this freakery then. How about some toads having a drink in a Corona bar (topical!)? There are also a lot of erotica about, and I had to do some hasty photoshopping to make the picture in the background here decent enough.

I quite liked this miniature artwork of a shop, but I don’t remember who it was by.

And this tiiiiiiiiiiiiny fairy skeleton was really cool too.

Hey, let’s have an intimate chat with a cow and a puma. No you say? Why not?

A lion then? Still no?

Well, how about a fly covered dinner on top of a spider crab? I’ll pay.

There was so much to look at, and so much to take in. I’m glad places like this exist, where you get to see something else, away from the conventional.

Once we were done we went back upstairs to the bar, to have ourselves a drink.

And when you’re in an absinthe bar you have to try the stuff right? We tried two different flavours, turning on the dripping taps that would water the drink down, through a sugar cube to sweeten it, using this amazing contraption, which made it really feel like an occasion. Have you tried it? I thought it tasted a bit like Pernod, and very aniseed-y.

D was the only one who liked it, so she got to finish it up, all by herself. Weirdly, none of us felt even remotely tipsy, which was strange, as it was late in the afternoon and pre-dinner. I suspected foul play, haha. How can something be like 67% alcohol proof and not in the slightest affect you? Hmmmmm I say.

To correct the disappointment we ordered Pisco Sours, which were just delicious, but I think these were alcohol free too. Well, it didn't matter, as it was a nice way to round off a really fun day. If you want to read a bit more about Viktor Wynd and the museum you can - here. Cheers!

A Fri-yay

Time to jump forward in time a bit, to Friday a couple of weeks ago, which is still back in time, but not as far back as all my recent posts. D & G, my old work friends, both had the day off, so we decided that we should have a day of culture. We were to spend the day in East London, and D showed me this crazy looking building she had spotted the evening before. And having just googled it I’ve learnt that it’s Nobu Hotel. How very swish. The actual rooms look nowhere near as interesting as the outside though.

Walking down Brick Lane we walked past this building and the tiled ‘Mayfair’ caught my eye. “Must’ve been a cinema back in the day” thought D. She was right.

This fool knew that we were going to a gallery and on to other things, but I needed to do a bit of ‘getting ready for winter’ shopping, so I felt a bit like a pack mule with my two bags (you can only see the shoulder strap of the other one here). I also dressed way too warm for the day, in fact just remembering that has given me a hot flush this very second…

Soooooo, we went to Whitechapel Gallery to see the Theaster Gates exhibition and great it was too. The initial exhibits where a selection from the ceramic collection at the V&A that Gates had chosen for the exhibition.

An amazing looking tool that Gates makes bricks with. It almost looked like a sculpture. I guess you could argue that if you put any object in a gallery, it looks like a sculpture.

D’s friend K came with us too, and here they both are, not looking at what was in front of them at all, haha.

Walking up to the second floor of the exhibition we had to try out this ‘social sculpture’ (not by Gates, can’t remember who it was by), which was built so whenever people sat in there, their knees would touch.

From two ladies with knees touching to two heads with necks joined together. I’ve wanted to see Theaster Gates’ art for a while now after having read about him in Will Gompertz book ‘Think like an artist’. Gates has over the years put the money that he has made from selling his art back into the community in Chicago’s South Side, where he lives. He’s been buying up derelict properties, turning them into cultural community spaces for everyone, but in particular for local residents. You can watch these YouTube videos and find out more here and here. I really admire his way of thinking, and all that he’s done.

So let’s look at some of what pays for his community projects. These pots had been glazed or covered in tar, and the inside was filled up with it too. The scent as you stuck your nose in it was tar-iffic.

So many cool huge ceramic objects in this room. We were really in awe.

Finished with the exhibition, we walked down the road to catch the overground. I had to excuse myself at one point to walk over to take this.

And seeing this guy squashed against a shop window like this made me very happy.

We got off the train in Haggerston and walked along Regent’s Canal.

And around Broadway Market for a little bit, in search for a something hot to drink and sweet to eat. This place didn't make the cut, but had great light.

Bellies full, we walked back along the canal, and these coots seemed to be squabbling over something.

“Run Forrest, run!”

This little doggie just missed the action.

G, K and D, ahead of me - rhymes yo.

Canal abstract. We were actually walking to our next cultural stop of the day, but that’s a whole post of its own.

All in all, a great day, where we felt like we were on holiday, doing only nice things as one does when away. Even just waiting for the train back home looked good.