A very Tudor day at Hampton Court

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Yes, we know it’s out of season to visit Hampton Court Palace and make the most of the beautiful gardens, but we had two crucial things… A beautifully crisp, sunny day, and [perhaps more pertinently…] half price entry (valid until 13th February 2015). So, we headed out to one of the prettiest parts of suburban London to visit the huge Tudor palace.

Hampton Court Palace

Henry VIII, responsible for large parts of Hampton Court, was a proud man – nowhere more evident than in the Tudor rose emblem found throughout. Except maybe his relationship history. That could take some beating.

Tudor Rose ceiling at Hampton Court Palace

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The Donkey Sanctuary

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Over Christmas, while at home with my parents in the North, I visited the nearby Donkey Sanctuary. 

Donkey eating

The sanctuary is home to a variety of donkeys who have been rescued from poor treatment elsewhere. This site is one of many across the country run by the national Donkey Sanctuary charity, which was founded in 1969 by a Yorkshire-woman, Dr Elisabeth Svendsen MBE.

Donkey scratching

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A trip to Bradford

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While I was back North, I spent a day in Bradford, which has a variety of free museums run by the council. Being a bit of an engineering nerd naturally meant that the Industrial Museum was first on the list. They have a variety of machines, many of which are kept in working order and run throughout the day.

Industrial machine oil

After exploring the steam engines, there is a section dedicated to the evolution of the printing press, and how the process was gradually automated and optimised.

Bradford Industrial Museum sign

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A walk around Newmillerdam

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One of the main things I miss about the North are the many beautiful places to walk, and whenever I’m back there I always make an effort to get outside as much as possible. Today, before the winter frost had had chance to melt, I headed for a morning walk with some friends at Newmillerdam Country Park, an area of woodland surrounding a large lake near Wakefield.

Sun shining in the woods

Just as we set off, my friend somehow spotted a spider frozen on the ground. We wondered whether it would just carry on as normal once it had defrosted!

Frozen spider at Newmillerdam Country Park

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Bubbly St Paul’s and other London wanderings

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Hello everyone! We’re excited to share with you a few photos today which are hopefully just a little bit different… We were happy with the colours we achieved amongst the rather grey skies.

We planned a festive wander around some rather famous London landmarks. We aimed to take in some of the traditional Christmas markets, but ended up more fascinated by some of the photo opportunities we discovered.

St. Paul's

We enjoyed how the dramatic, austere, grey St Paul’s (above) was brilliantly offset by this fun bubble (below) created by a riverbank entertainer who was entrancing a large group of children, as well as us!

Bubble over St. Paul's

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Walk on the Heath

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One evening we went for another walk on Hampstead Heath (we’ve previously talked about it here). The sun was setting as we headed up, so we enjoyed some dramatic silhouettes of our fellow walkers…

Couple under a tree

A pretty church spire in the distance…

Hampstead skyline silouette

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Wintry museums day in London

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Before the madness of Christmas week properly kicked off, we took time to spend a festive day together in London. We wanted to try a new skating venue, having been to Somerset House and the Tower of London in previous years, so decided to try the Natural History Museum‘s rink.

NHM ice rink by day

Before that, though, we went inside and checked out the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which is always wonderful, whether you’re into photography or not! [It’s an incredible collection.]

Natural History Museum

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Trip oop North

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My sister and I aim to go on a walking holiday every year. As we had (ashamedly) not spent as much time in the Yorkshire Dales as we should have, having grown up so nearby, we decided to head to Swaledale this year.

On the first day we headed to Aysgarth Falls, along the River Swale (the falls themselves are behind me in this picture!)

Aysgarth Falls

Our cottage in Reeth had a lovely garden looking down into the valley. 

View from cottage in Reeth

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A rainy City walk

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As you may have spotted on our Twitter, we decided to venture on a rainy walk around the City, taking in some lesser-known historical bits and bobs and ending up back at the Tower, before the poppies exhibition that we’ve blogged about before is finally taken down. This time, we aimed to see them from an angle we’d not previously spotted – around the ‘front’ of the Tower, nearest the river. Here, there was another ‘wave’:

Wave of poppies at the Tower of London

It was fascinating to see the poppies up close, via the means of some rather heavy camera zoom:

Rain on the poppies at the Tower of London

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Cambridge at night

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By the time we reached Cambridge itself, had done some wandering and had a pleasant late lunch at Harriet’s (great food, less great service) [they have a pianist though!], it was starting to get dark. An excellent opportunity to practise some night photography techniques, including some long-exposure shots of the Cam – punts included…

View from Magdalen Bridge at night

He even managed to capture some beautifully soft light quality (I think, anyway!) in this shot, taken of Mathematical Bridge at Queens’ College.

Mathematicians Bridge at night

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