August 2023 Archives

A group of pips or tubes that twist and turn in multiple directions over each other is the most recent art installation to be shown on the top of Temple underground station. The artwork is by Holly Hendry and is called 'Slackwater'. The piece aims to show movement, such as the movement of trains underneath or water in the Thames river below the station. The project is a partnership with theCOLAB, which aims to bring art installations by women artists into view.

The tubes were fun to look at, but it would have been even more amazing if they were as a playground to crawl through.

The artwork is available to visit for free from dawn to dusk when the rooftop is open on Temple underground station.

This summer in Swindon, visitors can see a new charity sculpture art trail from WildInArt. The Bid Dog Art Trail brings large sculptures of balloon dogs to the streets of Swindon, and each one has been uniquely painted by an artist. There are thirty large-sized sculptures to see and more smaller ones that have been decorated by the community. The sculptures aim to raise money for Julia's House children's hospice. I went to Swindon to look for the sculptures last weekend and enjoyed visiting a new place and tracking down the dogs. Unfortunately, someone had damaged a few of them, so they had to be removed.

Raimbow Warrior - Tim Sutcliffe

Smok - Liam Kelleher

Running with the Dogs - Robert Mach; Love Grows - Judy Guillery

Creative Twist - ASingh

Reflecting on Swindon - Phil Daniels

Spike - Donna Newman

Dog Rogers - Steev Curtis

Viva la Frida - Gem van Gils

Puppy Love - Kitty Shepherd

Pup Art - Glen Brooks

Steam Pup - Morgan Gulliery

Pit Bull Terrier - Pandemonia

Verbal Camoflougue (Splosh) - David Mach; Woolfy Wiltshire - Julia Greenaway

The Life of the Lydiard Fields - Marta Zubieta

Abbe - Abbey Farm

Papillon - Caroline Parrot

Penny for your thoughts - Jane Morgan; Hot Dog - Donna Newman; Tails of Swindon - Hannah Dosanijh; Swin-'E'-Dog Leading the Charge - Mimi Salter

Sparky - New College Swindon Students

The sculpture trail is in place until early September, and an auction will be held in the middle of the month to raise funding for the charity by auctioning off the artwork.

Kirby Muxloe Castle is a 15th century castle in Leicestershire that was never completed. Lord Hastings, the owner of the castle, was executed for aligning with Edward VI after the throne was taken by Richard III. Despite never being finished, it is a great example of brickwork of the era. Parts of the castle that were finished were lived in but became ruins in the 17th century, and repairs were carried out in 1912 to prevent further decay. The site is currently managed by English Heritage.

The castle is surrounded by a moat, and visitors must walk over a bridge and through the remains of the gatehouse to visit.

Part of the gatehouse is accessible. One side contains the shop, and the other is an empty room with some steps up to the top.

There is also a fox sculpture at the entrance to the castle, and this was from a sculpture trail. It was called Fosse Foxes.

The castle was good to visit, but there is not a lot to see. A visitor could explore the castle in thirty minutes.

At the end of August, I visited Las Iguanas in Ealing for birthday brunch with friends. We were celebrating a friend's birthday and opted for the bottomless brunch at Last Iguanas in Ealing because of the different options. Visitors can have cocktails or Prosecco, and they were generous with the servings. I tried three different cocktails and also had Prosecco.

The decor of the restaurant is very colourful and contains stree art by artist Elno, who I have covered a few times in my street art posts.

I forgot to take a photograph of my main meal, but the portions are quite small, so it is easy to have too much alcohol. For dessert, I had a chocolate brownie. It was delicious.

I visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park toward the end of July on my visit to the Leeds and Yorkshire area for a long weekend. Earlier in the day, the weather was very nice but then became very rainy later on. Luckily, I managed to see quite a few of the sculptures before the rain got too bad; I had just returned from the car when it started to pour down. For those who do not know, Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an outdoor park that contains mainly modern art sculptures situated amongst grazing sheep. There is woodland and a lake, and there are a couple of buildings that house temporary exhibits and a cafe. This is a place where visitors can spend a day enjoying a walk around the sculptures.

Henry Moore - Large Totem Head

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is located in West Yorkshire near Leeds and covers 500 acres of grounds. It was founded in 1977 and is the largest sculpture park in Europe. It contains sculptures from popular artists, such as Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, David Nash, Sean Scully, Henry Moore, and many others. Some of the work will be instantly recognisable to most people.

Robert Indiana - LOVE

Marc Quinn: Wilder Shores of Desire

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Daniel Arsham

KAWS

Daniel Arsham

Daniel Arsham

Erwin Wurm

Roger Hiorns - Seizure. This installation was made from an abandoned council estate flat in London in which the crystals were grown from the walls and ceilings. The whole thing was then removed from the flat by removing one wall of the flat and craning it out.

Jody Kerwick - Hydra vs Bear

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm

Damien Hirst

Katrina Palmer - The Coffin Jump

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

Henry Moore: Reclining Figure Arch Leg

Henry Moore - Two Large Forms

I walked to the bottom of the sculpture park but did not walk around the lake where there were more sculptures. The weather was starting to rain a little bit.

Henry Moore - Upright Motives

Henry Moore - Large Spindle Piece

This rabbit is not a sculpture but it hung around me for some time.

Barbara Hepworth - The Family of Man

William Turnbull - Large Horse

Niki de Saint Phalle - Buddha

Elizabeth Frink - Protomartyr

If you are looking for something to do around Leeds, I recommend Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a fun attraction with the family. Visitors can become inspired and walk around the park land to explore some sculptures. They also have temporary exhibits and talks, classes, and much more to support artists. Their cafe stocks good food with a variety of options and their shop contains hand-mind items from artists, is also well worth a visit.

This year is going by in a flash, and I've had a busy year and have not been updating my blog as much as I should be doing. In late June, I met up with a friend for her birthday. We went to BarItalia in Uxbridge, and we had cocktails before waiting on some other friends and having a meal. I had pasta. We had some two-for-one passionfruit cocktails followed by other cocktails. I forgot to take a photograph of my meal as we were busy talking.

Afterwards, we went to explore what was happening in Uxbridge. Surprise but it was not too much. We went to Fig Tree and had a chat, and I had one more cocktail - a spicy one. It came with a whole chili, which I also ate.

I really should start to get some glamour photographs, but we did not have too long of a night.

I visited East Riddlesden Hall in the middle of July when I visited West Yorkshire. The hall dates from the 17th century and is in the heart of an agricultural estate with over 1,400 years of use. The hall is quite small in size and the grounds include a listed barn and a garden. At one point, the house was in danager of being destroyed, but it was saved by the National Trust, and they continue to manage the site today. There are volunteers that can inform about the history of the hall, and they were very good at explaining different details and the history of the hall and grounds.

Although the current hall dates from the 17th century, a house has existed here since the 7th century. In the Great Hall in the house is a fragment of Saxon cross that was discovered on the grounds, and it is thought to date from around 1066. Two parts of the cross were discovered in the grounds; one part was discovered in a wall.

One of the more recent owners of the estate became wealthy due to the wool industry, and in the 17th century, the hall was remodelled. In th first part of the 1900s, the hall fell into disrepair, but it was saved by people in the community. The hall was then donated to the National Trust in the 1930s.

I explored the different rooms in the house, and the first room to explore was the Great Hall.

This led up the stairs to other rooms to explore, most of which had been remodelled.

This room has an odd fireplace.

There were some bedrooms to see upstairs.

Some of the items discovered in the house were on display.

Back down the stairs is the kitchen.

After exploring the house, I went outside to have a quick walk around the gardens.

Before heading back to the car, I had a look at the Great Barn and explored it and saw some old wagons on display.

I enjoyed the visit to East Riddlesden Hall and found the property interesting. Have you ever been to visit?

Street artist HNRX has been painting across east London in the past several years. HNRX's artwork is an illustrative style and blending two unrelated items together. The below features lemon and bone, banana and sausage, sausage and cucumbers, and other food-related items. The artist uses surrealism to create eye-catching and unrelated items in a blended style. The below were painted some time ago but only just discovered on trips around the city and are the larger murals that I have seen.

Previous street art by these artists in this blog:

HNRX, Frankie Strand, ThisOne
Street Art Round-Up January, 2018
Street Art: HNRX and ThisOne
Street Art: This One
Street Art: HNRX
Leake Street Tunnels, Spring 2016
Street Art Murals in east London by ThisOne
ThisOne and Koctel Collaborate on Street Art in Shoreditch

Dereham Street off Curtain Road in Shoreditch in London is one alleyway where there is always a lot of paste-up street art. The alleyway is covered with colourful paste-ups and is worth a quick look for those who enjoy seeing paste-up street art. I captured a few photographs last year when I visited the area. 

Street artist Woskerski is based in London and has been painting in London for several years now. His artwork is always eye-catching with interesting characters and portraits that are highly expressive. In the summer of 2021, the below portrait of a girl with big hair was painted on a shutter on Maple Road in Penge.

More street art by Woskerski on this blog can be seen below:

Woskerski Dog Street Art in Penge
Woskerski Street Art Ad on Hanbury Street
Woskerski Street Art in Penge
Recent Street Art by Woskerski in East London
Woskerski Street Art in East London
Woskerski Paints Toynbee Street for London Mural Festival
Most Recent Street Art by Woskerski
Street Art: Woskerski
Recent Spring 2018 Woskerski Street Art

While in Leeds in the middle of July, I visited Kirkstall Abbey ruins. They abbey at Kirkstall was a Cistercian monastary and founded in the 1150s. The ruins are picturesque and have featured in paintings by famous artists. The abbey started its life by the founders of Pontefract who dedicated the abbey after a serious illness, and Fountains Abbey was also founded under direction of the same man. Now in ruins, its ruins are one of the best preserved after meeting its fate after the dissolution of monastaries. After it was abandoned, it fell to ruin over the years. Some of the stone was used in other local building projects.

The first ruins (and the ones to visit without paying the entrance cost of the abbey) is that of the guest house. It was a large house set away from the abbey so that the monks would not disturb the guests.

During my visit, there was a special art and craft sale on, so the monastary ruins were busy with people setting up.

Below are the cloisters.

Sacristy.

The interior of the abbey cathedral.

A small chapel in the abbey.

Some of the other buildings on the site outside of the abbey.

That concludes my visit to Kirkstall Abbey. Across the road from the abbey is the Abbey House Museum, which is also worth a visit.

ChinChin Labs serves up delicious ice cream creations in Soho after becoming popular many years ago in Camden. I have been a few times to purchase a new flavour or creation, and they are always popular. Below are some of their summery dessert offerings. 

The lemon sorbet baked Alaska was delicious. It first featured in 2022 but was back this year, but they were sold out each time I attempted to purchase one. Lemon sorbet is one of my favourite ice cream flavours, followed by pistachio. Lemon is refreshing and perfect for a hot days.

For Pride in London, this cherry ice cream sandwich hit the mark with its rainbow sponge swirls. The ice cream sandwich was topped with flakes of cereal. It was alright but very sweet and not my favoruite creation.

Lastly, we have a sundae. Visitors can make their own sundae. I topped mine with chocolate.

See more from ChinChin Labs in this post:

• London Christmas Decorations 2022
• London Christmas Decorations 2021
• ChinChin Labs in Camden

Last month, I visited Thai restaurant Chaophraya in Leeds. I enjoy Thai food, and I found this to be a really nice restaurant although the service was very slow. I enjoyed a few cocktails and a nice dinner. I had the Golden Elephant cocktail, which came in a golden elephant teapot. It is a fruity cocktail with gin and passionfruit and mango flavours. I had a couple of other cocktails afterwards, but I cannot remember them.

I had chicken satay.

I had the chicken stir fry.

For dessert, I had creme brulee.

Overall, the food was lovely here and I would visit again. The only downside was that the staff were incredibly slow; the restaurant was potentially under-staffed.

Kirkstall Abbey House Museum is dedicated to exploring social and children history in Victorian Leeds. The museum has special collections of toys from the past, penny slot machines, and the largest exhibition is the recreation of the Victorian street. The street has been created as an equivalent of a modern high street with different types of shops filled with items. This exhibition allows people to experience what life would have been like in Victorian times in Leeds, England with the recreated street.

The museum is situated up the hill on the opposite side of the road from Kirkstall Abbey. I combined the afternoon with a visit to the abbey and a visit to the Abbey House Museum.

I first had a look at the Victorian Street, which is the first enhibit upon entering the museum. I had a wander around the shops that were open. Below is the clay pipe shop. These clay pipes can be found along the Thames. They were used for tobacco.

There was a drug store with different medicines.

Perfumery.

A grocer's shop.

A butcher's.

A public house (pub).

Ironmonger.

Outhouse toilets.

A standard Victorian house.

A wealthy person's Victorian house.

Another house (upstairs).

A schoolhouse.

The undertaker.

Upstairs were collections of toys. Some of these were Victorian, but there were collections from all the decades. The collection also showed 1980s and some 1990s toys too.

The museum is worth seeing for the nostalgia of the toys and also to see the recreated Victorian streets. This museum is similar to Milestones Museum in Basingstoke as it also has recreated streets.

Basingstoke Milestones Museum

Indian cuisine is my favourite (along with Italian), and I love the flavours. Finding a restaurant that serves genuine Indian cuisine is always good, and I discovered a good restaurant when I visited Bradford. I am addicted to hot spice, but it's not all about the spice as it is about good flavour and a blend of spices and flavours. Also, there are many vegetarian alternatives with Indian. Since I was six years of age, I have only eaten chicken, and I try to keep that to a minimum, and there is so much choice. With western non-Mediterranian food, meat features too often, and the food tastes bland and greasy. I mainly eat Indian cuisine (or Italian) when I do have a meal. While in Bradford, I visited International Restaurant for Indian cuisine. 

To start, I had Aloo Chana Puri, which is actually a dish from the border of India (Punjab) and Pakistani. This was my favourite dish. It is made of chickpea and potato and a masala sauce, served on roti. This dish can also be served with rice. I had asked for it to be a little spicier, and it was perfect in flavour. (I always ask for more spice.)

For the main, I had Chilli Paneer Karahi, rice, and garlic naan. The food was delicious.

For dessert, I had coconut ice cream. It has been a long while since I visited an Indian restaurant and had the ice cream. 

The food was delicious, so I would re-visit next time I am in the Bradford area.

Craft Gin Club send a subscription box monthly to subscribers, and the subscription box includes a full-sized bottle of gin, mixers, snacks, and a "Ginned!" magazine with cocktail and food recipes featuring gin. I received the July box last month, and the below photograph and write-up explains what I received in the Craft Gin Club July 2023 box. This month's full bottle featured gin takes us to Scotland with the Great Glen Light and Zesty Highland Gin. The flavour is described as peppery and watercress with citrus and floral flavours. Sometimes I find the full bottles of gin a bit "hit or miss", but I enjoyed the gin this month and found it easy-going and not too dry. Read below to see the other items I received in the monthly box.

Bon Accord Tonic Water: Made with natural quinine and flavourings, this mixer is crisp and has citrus notes. It pairs well with the Great Glen Light and Zesty Highland Gin.

Schweppes Pink Soda: This mixer has citrus flavours and creates the perfect Pink Gin Spritz with the Great Glen Light and Zesty Highland Gin.

Grower's Garden Broccoli Chips - Sour Cream And Chive: Growers Garden have been harvesting vegetables in Fife in Scotland for generations, and the brocooli chips are made from mis-shapen broccoli that does not sell in supermarkets. 

Mangers Original Irish Cider: This cider is a blend of different varieties of apple, and it can be used as a mixer for the gin.

Taylors Potato Crisps - Cut Pickled Onion: The crisps are pickled onion flavour to pair with the gin of the month.

BZZD Energy Tonic Water: This tonic water contains natural caffeine and blossom honey to create a boost of energy. 

Dean's Shortbread Rounds: To pair with Scottish gin is Scottish shortbread. Deans is based in Aberdeenshire and is one of the popular shortbread brands.

KIND Dark Chocolate Nuts and Sea Salt Thins: These bars of chocolate are perfect for pairing with gin and contain under 100 calories.

Each month, Craft Gin Club include their own cocktail syrup for the gin cocktail and garnish for the gin and tonic. This month, the cocktail syrup is Pink Gin Spritz. The garnish is lemon and blackpepper. 

Leeds Bear Hunt is inspired by the children's book by Michael Rosen, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". There are over thirty-five bear sculptures released on the streets of Leeds from the first of July, and the sculptures will be in place until the middle of September until they are auctioned off at the end of September to raise money for Leeds Hospitals charities. I visited Leeds to visit the sculptures in the middle of July.

Flora - Hilary Sanderson

Welcome to Leeds Station - Albert Lackey

Billy Breambear - Matt Cockayne

Frankie - Emma Hardaker

Carnival - Lynne Hollingsworth

Gummie - Graham Hearfield

God's Own Country - Helen Naylor

We Are Leeds! - Ekaterina Sheath

A Walk on the Wild Side - Rachael and Phillippa Corcutt

Nettie - Christine Jopling

Bear-lieve in Magic! - Jenny Leonard

X-Bear - Martia Zubieta

Polar - Graham Hearfield

Unfortunately, there were a few drunk women who were climbing all over the bear sculpture and taking photographs. I waited twenty minutes, and they were still there messing around and climbing all over the bear, so I just had to take a photograph with them in it because I needed to move on.

The King - Donna Newman and Grizzly Stardust - Christine Jopling

Leeds Nightlife - Cathy Simpson

Balance Bear - Amelia Fry

Bear-tanical - Lizzie Rose Chapman

I enjoyed seeing the bears in Leeds, and the bears are in place until September 9th. Many of them are within walking distance, although a few of them are further away from the centre of Leeds.

Last month, i visited Gawthorpe Hall, which is an Elizabethan country house that was redesigned in the 1850s by Charles Barry (designer of the Houses of Parliament). The hall is located in Lancashire. The hall houses portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery and Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, which belonged to Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth. The house is maintained by National Trust and Lancashire County Council. I went to explore it on a dry but cloudy day.

The hall is thought to have originated as a pele tower or fortress dating from the 14th century to defend against invading Scots. The land has been occupied by the Shuttleworth family since the 12th century, but the existing house dates from 1600 and was updated in 1850.

There is a small garden at the back of the house, and there are acres of woodland to explore.

The first room upon entering the house is the dining hall with its beautiful fireplace and detailed ceiling. 

Th volunteers explained some of the items in the room, such as souvenirs that the family brought back from Italy. These were displayed in cabinets in the dining hall.

The hallway is a smaller intimate place with a staircase to the first floor.

The other main room downstairs was the living area with beautiful panelling, fireplace, and carved ceilings with high detail decoration.

The rooms upstairs at Gawthorpe Hall contained information about the residents and a collection of textiles from Rachel Shuttleworth, who collected textiles from around the world and was a teacher of them. She also was involved in social charity. Some of the rooms were dedicated to her collection of textiles and some of her own work. The house became a craft house, and she was active in educating people about textiles and creating them.

I took a photograph of some of the collections, which included her own work and examples from all over the world.

Another room upstairs was dedicated to the women of Gawthorpe Hall and their mark on society and social welfare. Many of them contributed to helping disadvantaged people and providing services for the war and for health and wellbeing. One of the women, Freydis, was one of the first women pilots in World War II and continued to fly into her 80s. Marianne was inspired by botany and travelled the world without a chaperone and donated her paintings of plants to Kew.

Another beautiful room upstairs in Gawthorpe Hall is the long gallery, and I loved the wallpaper in this room. 

Thre were also a couple of bedrooms to see with old bed.

I visited the beautiful living room downstairs on the way out as it was busy with people on the first viewing.

Gawthorpe Hall was interesting to visit and included some nice rooms with a lot of beautiful panelling and collections of interesting items.