The Cutty Sark

http://www.rmg.co.uk/cuttysark/

I hadn't visited the Cutty Sark since I was a child, so I was really excited to be visiting it again. I love tall ships, I think they're really beautiful, and I'd love to one day go sailing on one. It is so impressive what this ship has gone through, including the recent fire, and the refurbishment of her is a big success.

All hands on deck!

I didn't realise that the Cutty Sark was a monument to all those who lost their lives in the Merchant Navy. I found this deeply moving as my Grandfather had worked in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, and had been sunk a few times.

A perfect cuppa below sea level

The Cutty Sark was a trader ship, and carried tea from the East. The smell of the tea leaves in the hull of the ship is very strong, and really appealed to me as a dedicated tea drinker. I couldn't resist having a cup of Cutty Sark tea in the new Keel cafe underneath the ship, such a weird feeling having the boat suspended above my head! 

Underneath the ship is a display of figure heads. I love these and they remind me of the Valhalla display on Tresco, the Isles of Scilly. The level of detail and skill involved creating these pieces of art is so impressive. 

I really recommend visiting the Cutty Sark, it's such a unique and important part of maritime history, and a real treat to visit. 

London on the river

As I said in my last post my last few weeks have really been themed round the docklands and maritime life. I've seen quite a few interesting boats on my travels.

A few Sundays ago I was really privileged to see the start of the Clipper Round the World race. Tower Bridge was raised and the yachts were brought in and paraded in front of the cheering crowds. It was great to see the crews all on deck, and the beautiful boats. It reminded me of when my mum worked as a sailor for the Challenge Business in Southampton. She did some very exciting trips, sailed through a hurricane to Boston, and won the Round Britain Race. She's a great sailor and I'm so proud of what she did. After seeing the Clippers I decided to support the Londonderry boat, due to the family connections, and it was the boat I saw most of while I watching from the shore. 

Coming back from Greenwich I managed to become part of the Great River Race, organised as part of the Mayor's Thames Festival. It was amazing to see the little boats getting bumped up and down on the waves in the Thames, the rowers working hard to get up the river. It was the best Thames Clipper I've ever taken, as it had to travel really slowly. A relaxing cruise up the river after a lovely day out.

The Great River Race

Unfortunately I had to take the photographs through the Clipper windows, which were a bit blurry from the spray of the river and the rain.

Not all boats on the Thames can be classed as beautiful though. I came across this cruise ship parked up near Greenwich. I know some people like them, but I'm not very keen. I think they're a block of flats on water, I'd feel really claustrophobic. I don't think there were any passengers, at least I hope not, it's not the nicest place for a cruise!

Maritime London

So the last few weeks have been very maritime based. I had no idea of the link between London and the river before getting involved with the Thames Discovery Programme. As I get to know London I'm discovering just how important this water way is.

Museum of London Docklands

 The Docklands Museum - http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/docklands/ 

The first museum I visited was the Docklands Museum. It lies close to Canary Wharf in a really interesting area, somewhere I wouldn't usually visit. As it's not central it's a quieter museum, making it very pleasant to visit. The museum covers all periods of occupation around the Thames, with recreated streets to walk through and galleries focusing on subjects such as trade and slavery. I was really moved with the history of slavery, something I didn't know much about, and I found it really shocking. There's a lot to take in at the museum, and I definitely feel I could do with visiting a second time. 

National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum - http://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum/ 

The National Maritime museum in Greenwich was the second museum I visited. It had similar themes to the Docklands museum, and had galleries focusing on trade, exploration and slavery. The part I found the most interesting was the gallery about the search for the North-West passage, and Franklin's lost expedition. Fascinating but really sad. Another area I enjoyed was the mini models of ships, the models were so detailed and finely made. 

Last but not least is the kangaroo painted by George Stubbs. Stubbs painted the kangaroo from drawings made on Captain Cook's voyage to Australia, and also from an inflated kangaroo skin. The museum is trying to raise the money to buy the painting, and keep it in the country as it plays an important part of our history of exploration and discovery of new species. I should also mention the painting he created of a dingo, which they are also trying to buy - the kangaroo seems to get more press! 

Again I definitely feel I could do with visiting a second time, as I'm sure there were areas I missed, or could do with viewing again. 

Both museums I found really fascinating but quite overwhelming, as it's a side to London I really hadn't considered before. I'm really enjoying learning about the Thames, and it's importance in creating the city. 

Visions of the Universe

Visions of the Universe Exhibition, The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

My father and grandfather are both space nuts and have telescopes, so I've grown up learning about the stars and spending late nights gazing into the heavens. I just find it completely fascinating, and also mind blowing. I can't get my head round the size of the universe, and how it began. I also love the hubble telescope, the pictures are so beautiful, its hard to believe they're real. So as soon as I saw the exhibition I knew I had to go.

The exhibition was stunning, and really well laid out, I loved how they showed the first ever images made of the subjects such as the moon or the sun, next to the most recent technologically advanced images. One of the show stoppers was the 13 metre long panoramic projection from NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on Mars. Very eerie, as you watch it the landscape feels both familiar and alien.  The darkness and the sound effects playing in the exhibition is fantastic, it really made you feel detached from the outside world, and focused on the exhibition. I think this was a stroke of genius, and I wish more exhibitions would play a subtle soundtrack. The space was also used well, and although there were a lot of people I didn’t feel crammed in.

My favourite image is taken on the moon during the Apollo 11 expedition, and is looking back at the earth. The quote by Neil Armstrong that was put with the image really summed up the whole exhibition for me:

"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small."

Looking at the images on display reminded me that we are just a small planet, and a very unique one. It's so important that we look after it; it's very special blue dot in this big dark universe.  

On the Foreshore at Parliament

Another weekend was spent on the shores of the Thames for the bank holiday weekend. This time it was the Houses of Parliament beach. The foreshore can only be accessed by the stairs on Milbank, so it’s quite a long walk to get to the Parliament end, slightly disconcerting with the tide changing so quickly. There was a lot of broken crockery, glass, and coca cola bottles especially near the end of the shore which lies almost underneath Parliament. As the Parliament bars are all along the river, there must have been some wild parties! As well as these finds there was the usual clay pipes and animal bones, the normal Thames finds. The main interest however was the stone mouldings that were dotted along the foreshore, and a team of FROGs (Foreshore Research and Observation Group) set about recording these and making drawings of them. I was on ‘Team Wall’. We were given the task of recording the bomb damage on part of the river wall. The wall damage has actually been covered up very well, and is barely visible from the bridge and the river. It’s so easy to forget what London went through during the war. Recording the wall was a good reminder of what the people of London went through not long ago. 

I was down on the foreshore on Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday it was really rainy, making it difficult but amusing to record and even communicate with people with our hoods up! Sunday however was a lovely sunny day. I definitely prefer spending more than one day on site, as you really get to know the area and the team, it can be hard though sometimes fitting it round a full time job. 

A pile of building materials and stone mouldings

Rainy day!

Measuring the bomb damage on the wall

A sunnier Sunday

Measuring the wall on Sunday - with a bigger ruler!

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Outside of the Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has had a revamp, and I absolutely love it. It's so modern, fresh and light, completely the opposite of the typically dark and stuffy museums. It's like a miniature British Museum. Unlike the British Museum however, it is not filled with masses of tourists and visitors (well not the day I visited anyway). So I had the run of the place without having to queue or stand on my tip toes to see anything. If you want to see Egyptian mummies this is the place to visit. I also recommend the restaurant on the rooftop, wonderful food (I had a watermelon salad washed down with a pint of Pimms!) and a little grassy area with deck chairs. Be warned though, they seemed to have a wasp issue when we visited, so don't sit near the flowers!

The Rooftop Restaurant at the Ashmolean

Lowry at the Tate Britain

St Augustine Church, Pendlebury

My preconception of the exhibition was that I wasn’t going to enjoy Lowry’s work; I thought it would be too childlike and simple. How wrong I was. I found it very thought provoking and touching. The paintings showed everyday life as seen through Lowry’s eyes, and depicted events such as going to and from work, eviction from houses... the paintings were often showing a sad event, and were very melancholy. I really loved the paintings of churches, with the graves picked out like little figures, and also the large paintings of panoramic views over the towns. When you got close to the paintings you found there wasn’t much detail, and you could see how Lowry had used a few brush strokes to form a person, this gave movement to the paintings, but you really had to stand back to get the effect. Too close and you lost the detail. Paintings by other artists were included, I think to show Lowry’s influences. For me this wasn’t needed. I felt that Lowry came across as a really individual painter, and I paid little attention to this. I didn’t like the paintings where Lowry had tried to paint in the detail of peoples’ faces, and showed the people very close up. For me this was too simplistic. The whole exhibition was very thought provoking, and I came away from it feeling sad that nothing much had changed, that Lowry had captured the monotonous events of everyday life. I would be very interested to visit the Lowry Museum in Manchester, and to see more of his work.

Returning from work