February 2025 Archives

Prior Park is located on the outskirts of Bath city, and it is managed by the National Trust. The park was landscaped in the mid-1700s and contains one of only four existing Palladian bridges in the world. The park contains trails that encircle a valley with decorative ponds at the bottom and beautiful views over Bath along the top with a Georgian mansion, which is now a college. Over the years, the park became neglected but was reopened again in 2017, and the National Trust maintain the bridge and parkland and have planted shrubs. 

I went to look at the bridge first. There are some nice views and reflections.

I looked at the landscape from the bridge.

Snowdrops have now started to make their appearance.

I walked the circular walk from the bridge up the hill and around to the other side of the small valley. This route went just under the mansion.

The views here were amazing.

Despite living in Bath, I never visited this location, but it is just outside of the city. 

There isn't any parking for the park, so visitors should use a bus from the centre to visit.

At the end of October, I visited Stockport Air Raid Shelters. The air raid shelters were dug in 1938 out of the sandstone hillside in Stockport to protect civilians from falling bombs in case Manchester was attacked by German bombs. The tunnels were designed to hold over 6,000 people and contained a sick bay, sleeping bunks, toilets, kitchens, and more space for temporary living to house people in an inevitable attack. In 1940, Manchester was attacked, and the people used the shelters. The shelters are open as a museum all year for people to learn about the life during the second World War and to hear stories from real people via an audio guide.

The air raid shelter museum helps people understand the Blitz from the perspective of World War II at Stockport near to Manchester. There is a small shop, and visitors into the shelters start inside a room with projections that detail the history in brief.

There are many miles of tunnels, but only a small portion is open to visitors. 

Rows of bunk beds were set up along the tunnels for people to sleep and wait until the "all clear" safety.

One area of the tunnels visited was for nurses and the sick bay. The nurses had their own toilets.

A large area was reserved for the sick.

Visitors to the tunnels had a kitchen that served tea. The tunnels were named "Chestergate Hotel" because people came down to protect themselves but ended up enjoying entertainment and the bustle. Different people had their streets written in cardboard so that neighbours could locate them, and actors from the theatre would provide entertainment. The kitchen facilities were to help children.

There were women's and men's toilets as well. Everyone was expected to clean up after themselves.

The tunnels went on for awhile, and many branches were closed off.

An Anderson-style shelter was also in part of the tunnels.

Back up to the ground level, a couple of displays in the museum detailed the life and responsibilities of air wardens and food rationing.

The air raid shelters were interesting. Other posts on this blog that feature air raid shelters are listed below:

• Cardiff Castle
• Reigate Castle and Baron's Cave
• Reigate Caves
• Clapham South World War II Undrground Bunker
• Newcastle Castle
• Carrickfergus Castle
• Bethnal Green Tube Disaster
• Paddock World War 2 Bunker
• Aldwych Station
• Euston Station Tunnels
• Down Street

When I was in Battersea at the end of January, I visited the bar known as Control Room B at Battersea Power Station. The bar is in the former control room of the power station as it was left in the 1950s. Visitors can enjoy drinks and food around the power station equipment and controls, and the theme of the cocktails throws back to the purpose of the building. After a long week at work, I decided to visit for a couple of cocktails.

The bar is open open and on the first level of the station.

The menus were served on a blueprint map and in a steel notebook clipboard, which was a throwback to the decor and 1950s power station environmnt. 

I ordered the fresh olive sourdough slices, which was served with olive oil and vinegar and tasted fresh and of good quality.

Elements and furnishings around the venue gave a throwback of the 1950s, including a blueprint which features as the cocktail and drinks menu.

I had two cocktails, and both of these come in the special glasses made for the power station. The cocktail menu is pretty extensive.

Battersea Power Station comes in a ceramic model of the Battersea Power Station and is a fruity and floral flavour with gin and different fruity and herby liqeuers, such as elderflower, violet, bergamont, and floral syrup.

The Synchroscope is another gin-based cocktail served in a ceramic glass that looks like electrical equipment. The cocktail has a fruity flavour and is also made with blueberry wine and raspberry liqueur. 

After enjoying the food and drinks, I had a wander around to look at the old power station equipment. They do host tours of it, and they also sell merchandise.

I enjoyed my visit to this quirky one-of-a-kind bar.

Clun Castle is a ruined medieval castle located in Shropshire, England. The castle is Norman in style, built in the 12th century to protect from Welsh invaders. The Fitzalan family, who owned the castle, converted the castle to a hunting lodge in the 14th century and made Arundel Castle in West Sussex their primary home instead of Clun. The castle's damage comes from the Civil War. The castle was built as a motte and bailey style castle.

The village of Clun was a small Saxon village with a church, and the settlement here would have helped protect from invading people from Wales, which was known for revolts. The settlement grew rich due to the wool trade, but it suffered after the medieval period.

The castle is accessed over a bridge and a climb onto the mound on which the castle sits. There are good views from the castle. Only a few of the walls of the tower remain. 

Some of the walls of the keep remain upright.

Below is the wooden bridge over the small river, and the castle mound can be climbed to reach the castle remains.

I spent about thirty minutes walking to the castle and admiring the views, and the castle is open during reasonable hours for free. A lot of local people walk their dogs here. English Heritage maintains the castle ruins.

A couple of my friends have milestone birthdays this year, and we celebrated one early by visiting Coppid Beech to enjoy music, afternoon tea, dinner, and the facilities. We were there last weeknd to enjoy an ABBA tribute act. Before this, I went to the gym and the swimming area too, but the jacuzzi was very cold. We were not too impressed with the swimming facilities.

Coppid Beech was built in the early 1990s and is located in Bracknell. The hotel is huge, and there's a night club, restaurant, bar, and pub area here.

I went with three friends, and we had a party package and shared a couple of rooms. When we arrived, we had a cocktail in the bar before our afternoon tea booking was ready.

I had a margarita.

The afternoon tea was good, and this came with a scone with clotted cream and jam, and we received a delicate lemon dessert (our favourite), a mango dessert, and a vry sweet sponge roll.

The afternoon tea also came with four afternoon tea-sized sandwiches.

After the afternoon tea, we had some drinks as one of the rooms we got was a suite room, and it included a jacuzzi bath and a separate lounge area. We headed to the pool and gym as well. I also brought a book to read, but I did not read too much as we were having fun. We then got dressed and went to dinner where we had a three course meal and half of a bottle of wine included in the party package.

I had the tomato soup to start, which I found delicious.

This was followed up with chicken and fries, and the food was delicious.

For dessert, I had an apple tart. This was good but a little too sweet for me.

I liked the presentation of my friend's vegan cheesecake dessert. She didn't have more than a bite, and I also tried it.

We did not have too long to get ready for the ABBA tribute act. We arrived just as the music started, but the place was packed so we did not get a great view. Afterwards, we went to the night club. We found the atmosphere a little bit strange so struggled to get into it. 

I enjoyed dressing up. I had the 1970s look with bell bottom jeans, a 1970s bright shirt, the peace sign necklace I have owned since my first year at university, 1970s make-up look, and a gold headband. 

After a sleep, which was a bit difficult with the live music until 2:00 in the morning, we had breakfast. Overall, I enjoyed the evening with my friends.

Over twenty-three statues of Paddington Bear sitting on a bench with a marmalade sandwich have been placed around the country with a couple of locations being near to Paddington in London and Newbury where the creator of the character was born. The sculptures have been commissioned by StudioCanal for the newest installment of the "Paddington Bear" movie.

Two of the sculptures are located in London. The one photographed is located in Connaught Village near Paddington station, and the second one is located in Westfield at Shepherd's Bush/White City. 

Street artist Mobstr has painted many walls across London and has had a few games going on with the wall being repainted and he returned to keep painting on the wall. His work is constantly evolving. The artist is anonymous but was from Newcastle in northern England, and his work is often subtle text that could always go unnoticed. I captured a couple of pieces of his work near to BSMT in Dalston. 

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The first piece is on a wall with a lot of growing weeds and reads "Love the Weeds". The second is on a brick wall at the back of the BSMT gallery, and it reads "Free Public Art" next to a stencil of what looks like a bird.

More street art from Mobstr in this blog can be seen below:

Mobstr: "He left me hanging when I was alone and high"
Street Art Round-Up in East London
Street Art: Mobstr

This year, Westfield London at White City/Shepherd's Bush, have set up a display of illuminated artwork around the shopping centre. There are eight different illuminations to see known as "Here We Glow", and the works are on display until the beginning of March, and they are free to visit.

A star bench illuminates outside of the tube station.

Twinkly Tree Lights provide a colour and glow to the walkway at Shepherd's Bush.

Visible Light by Liz West uses the architecture of Westfield to illuminate a glowing canopy of colour that changes.

Light orbs

Tessellis by Angelo Bonello is a series of lights set to sound, and they shift shape and colour.

Anooki by David Paddegand and Moetu Batlle is an inflatible duo of figures that encourage play and photographs.

Evanescent by Atelier Sisu is a series of giant bright shimmery orbs that provide an element of discovery and immersive play.

Shifting Visions by Adam Povey Lighting is a series of mirrors and lights set to a soundscape, and they change colour and pattern and encourage visitors to immerse themselves.

I enjoyed seeing the lights and wandering around Westfield.

It has been awhile since I visited Peggy Porschen's as I have been adopting a healthier lifestyle in the past eighteen months, but I enjoyed seeing the special seasonal themed treats across London and at Peggy Porschen on Ebury Street near Victoria station. I decided to have a treat for all of the walking that I have been doing, and the popular cafe hit the spot as they were serving up Valentine's Day treats.

I also saw Peggy herself doing a photoshoot with the seasonal cakes, cupcakes, biscuits, and other treats.

This year's theme is the cherry.

One of their special Valentine's Day cupcakes featured a cherry.

I enjoyed the strawberry and vanilla cupcake that I had and made sure to walk it off.

For Valentine's (or Galentine's) Day this year, Lush delivered some new items in the Valentine's Day range and some items in previous ranges. I visited the shop and bought a few of the items in the Valentine's Day range, and I am looking forward to using them in a warm bath over the coming weeks.

Love Letter Bath Bomb: This is a love letter bath bomb made with coconut milk and cocoa butter, and it has a strawberry scent. 

Love Potion Bath Bomb: This is a purple bath bomb with caramel scent and popping candy; the scent wasn't for me, so it's not pictured above.

Whispering Heart Bath Bomb: This pink bath bomb has a heart-shaped hole in the top that is for whispering into or putting a note inside.

Strawberry Crumble Bubbleroon: This is a bath bomb designed to melt into the bath and make the water extra-moisturising, perfect for the dry winter air.

Sex Bomb Bath Bomb: This bath bomb has a sensual and relaxing scent with ylang ylang and jasmine.

Posh chocolate range (shower gel, massage bar, and body lotion): This range of products smells like chocolate and is the perfect zero calorie gift.

Tunnel of Love bath bomb: This bath bomb is made of cedarwood and has a musky smell and inspired by a leafy railway track in Ukraine that is popular with lovers.

Love Burger: This product is four or five bath bombs in one, and it can be used separately with each slice providing a different scent.

Strawberry Heart soap: This is a fruity and rose-scented soap that smells of strawberry.

Cherry on Top soap: This soap is inspired by the Japanese sweets that are cherry and strawberry flavoured with hints of almond.

Love Struck bath bomb: This large-sized bath bomb contains a shimmery dust, and it is highly fragranced and can be used more than once. The part of the arrow comes off to reveal the dust. It has a berry fragrance.

Rose Argan massage bar: This vintage-looking rose product is a massage bar that contains cocoa butter, rose, and argan oil.

Love Spell melt: This bath melt is the scent of the rose jam fragrance with geranium and rose.

Sweet Talk lip scrub: This juicy lip scrub uss raspberry seed oil and caster sugar to help keep lips soft.

Sex Bomb Sugar scrub: This sugar scrub helps keep skin soft, and it has ylang ylang and jasmine ingredients.

Shut Up and Kiss me lip scrub: This is another lip scrub that uses raspberry oil, and it also uses rose oil.

Dust the Two of Us dusting powder: This dusting powder contains sensual scents to help get in the mood for some love. It adds a soft shimmer to skin.

Love Bug Bath Bomb: Shaped like a Volkswagen Beetle and pastel-coloured, this bath bomb is a citrus and orange scent.

Battersea Light Festival is an annual light art installation event that brings a few light scultpures to Battersa Power Station. The light festival has been taking place for the past few years with the Battersea Power Station shops and area opening up its doors only a few years ago. I visited the light festival for the past few years and was happy to return to it this year. 

Parabolic Lightcloud: This sculpture changed colour and pattern

In Bloom: This sculpture with blue orbs could be interacted with. When touching an orb, it would change colour and glow, but once the touch stopped, it quickly went back into th blue shade.

Never Ends: This illuminated playgroud toy horse encouraged play.

Tornado: The lights around the sculpture swirl.

These women dressed as light faries had colour-changing dresses.

Aurora: These ribbons of colour were installed inside the new mall.

Spin me a Yarn: This illuminated pink sculpture resembles a ball of yarn.

Spider: The white lights change intensity.

Atlas: Inspired by the figure holding up the globe, this sculpture features a statue with an illuminated city on its arms.

The light festival will run until 23 February. For previous years of Battersea Light Festival, see below.

• 2024
• 2023
• 2022 

At the end of October, I visited the Roman ruins of Letocetum. The ruins are managed by National Trust and English Heritage. There is also a museum on site, and this was meant to be open when I visited, but it was not open. I was still able to see the ruins, which are open to the public. The ruins are located in Staffordshire in the village of Wall. The ruins mark the point of crossroads, which were used as a stopping point for travellers. A bath house and mansio (hostel) was located here, and the ruins can be seen today.

The 2nd and 3rd centuries was the height of the settlement here, and the numbers declined in the 5th century. During the time the bath house and mansio were erected, a small settlement was formed for the labour of running these places and providing a stopping point on the way to other locations for the Roman army. The ruins were discovered in 1912.

I had a look around the ruins and read the information boards describing the bath house and the mansio.

In the parking area in Wall, a modern day Roman milestone has been erected for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. These milestones were markers on roads to measure distance.

When I was recently in Bath for a day, I had lunch at Dough. Dough is a pizza restaurant, and they use sourdough or gluten-free dough and can add additional vitamins and spices (such as tumeric, hemp, purple corn), which turns the dough into different colours such as purple, yellow, green, and grey. The owner has been experimenting with different doughs. Dough has two branches in Bath, and I visited the one located at The Corridor, a small narrow pedestrian street in the centre of Bath. 

I had the standard pizza dough sourdough on a margarita pizza and tried some of the garlic bread.

The pizza was good and not too heavy in my stomach. Sometimes the dough is a bit too filling or stodgey, but this was nice and light.

Bath Assembly Rooms is now maintained by the National Trust, and there is a current conservation and programme ongoing to open the venue as more of a tourist destination celebrating the Georgian period. At the moment, the venue is only open to events, and one of the events hosted for the majority of this month is Helios (or the sun) by Luke Jerram. The artist has showcased his Earth, moon, and Mars sculptures across the world in different venues. The sun is the most recent, and it is touring different venues across the UK for the next few months.

The Bath Assembly rooms was the location of balls and parties in th 1700s and 1800s, but the decline in this lifestyle saw the purpose of the building change to smaller and more intimate meetings for artists and writers, such as Dickens. The building was largely destroyed in an air raid in the second World War but reconstructed.

The ballroom where Jane Austen visited is now housing the display of the Helios art exhibit.

A couple of the other rooms were open, such as the octagon-shaped room.

In this room, a small model of the Earth sat on display with a notice that the sun in the ballroom is to scale with the Earth on this table. It really puts things into perspective of how large the sun is and how small we all are on this planet in the universe.

I visited Luke Jerram's other sculptures of planetary bodies over the years, but I have still not seen the moon one, which I want to see. 

Earth at Canary Wharf 2023
Earth at Southwark Cathedral in 2022
Mars at the National History Museum in 2022

I also saw Luke Jerram's earlier artwork "Play Me I'm Yours" pianos, which have popped up since 2008 and are still located in various places. To see and read more about the pianos, view here: http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2012/07/street-pianos-in-london.html

Last year I headed to SHIOK! Patisserie in the City of London at Pan Pacific to check out their sweets. I had decided to treat myself as I saw how cute the treats looked online. As it was just before Chinese New Year, year of the Dragon, the treats played on this theme. I ordered a prosperity money bag sweet, a hot chocolate, and two macaroons. The pastry was really nice and had a good flavour and texture. I loved the attention to detail.

The macaroons are not the best in my opinion, and the flavour and texture just was not quite there. The hot chocolate was also not my favourite.

I enjoyed seing the other offerings and too.

The patisserie is a little on the expensive side, and as it's in a hotel, it may be a little bit overlooked by locals.

When I visited Shropshire and Worcstershire last summer, I went to Daniel's Mill. Daniel's Mill is located near the town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire where I stayed for two nights. The mill is the largest working waterwheel mill still working in England. It has been restored and is open for tours, and our tour guide was a friendly man whose ancestors owned and worked the mill, making it in the ownership of the same family for over 250 years. He showed us some photographs of his family and also told us about the roles and responsibilites of working in the mill. He was a wealth of knowledge in the technology of the mill.

We were shown the office or family room where we saw some old photographs, and the first room contained the little shop with some items for sale, including flour created in the working mill. We were told about the name of Daniel's Mill (Dunnings Mill) too. This mill was closed in the late 1950s but reopened to the public in the mid-2000s and is a site of interest particularly as the mill is a working one and helps educate people about industry, which we take for granted today. 

The Severn Valley Railway operates via the viaduct next to the mill, and we saw a couple of trains go past on our visit. 

We checked out the offices and comfortable rooms on the ground floor.

And we then were led downstairs to see the other rooms which allowed for the operating of the mill, and we were showed how the machinery worked. There were three floors that we covered and down into the lowest room, where we could go out of a back door and see the water mill. We also watched how the water wheel turned.

I recommend visitors in the area to enjoy visiting this mill and this fascinating working piece of hisctory which can be seen with a tour guide. If you're lucky, you will get the current owner of the mill whose family owned the mill for over 250 years. 

I recently made a visit to Feya cafe in London, which is located near St. Christopher's Place off Oxford Street. I have been wanting to visit this cafe for awhile but just never got there. I opted to try the pistachio milk cake and a S'mores hot chocolate. I love anything pistachio flavour, and the milk cake was very light and fluffy.

The cafe also had a variety of other items, such as cronuts.

The S'mores hot chocolate was not my favourite as it just was not indulgent enough, but I loved the twist on it with the toasted marshmallows.

I will visit again during the day instead of the evening as I think there will be more items on offer to purchase, but it was a chilly day and worth a sit down and a bite to eat and drink.