October 2025 Archives

Every year, Cammas Hall Fruit Farm puts on a huge pumpkin display and other events throughout the year. It is a family-run farm on the border of Hertfordshire and Essex about an hour north of London. The farm operates "pick your own" fruit and vegetables, a restaurant, corn maze, and more. They have been hosting an annual pumpkin patch with pumpkin displays and Halloween fun for the past few years, and I've been wanting to go but never got around to it until this year October. This year, the pumpkin mosaic is even larger, and they have a pyramid made of pumpkins, a couple of Halloween tunnels (one of them scary), and a lot more.

Upon arrival, I was told to go through the Halloween tunnels. The first one is not scary. The second one is scary and optional. The first was a long tunnel with pumpkin lights.

Afterwards, I entered the second tunnel, which was scary. I was greeted by the button-eyed Coraline character, and she told me to choose between one of four doors and enter. I selected the right door, I think, and I entered into an area that was maze-like with different scary or spooky scenes. I was on edge as there are other characters around, some of them animatronics and some of them "real" and sometimes it may not be easy to spot who is real and who is not real. 

Beetlejuice and Wednesday Adams were there, and I walked through a lot of different settings and passed props. 

One area of the tunnel was maze-like with glowing paint.

I made it out alive, of course, and I then had time in the pumpkin patch. The pumpkins were arranged by different colours and sizes. There were the standard orange, dark orange, light orange, yellow with stripes, grey, and a brown colour. I have never seen the brown colour pumpkins before. The grey ones are the best for eating. 

The pumpkin pyramid was actually a volcano. In the top was a real flame that would go "off" and make a rumbling sound, and smoke would also come off the other side. Visitors can walk inside it and out the other side.

I treated myself to a hot chocolate and a pumpkin sugar cookie.

There were also other people dressed up as scarecrows and taking photographs.

The brown pumpkins were unique to me as I had never seen a brown pumpkin before.

There were also gourds and squash and ones that had been crossed over to create their own hybrid. The only thing that I do not seem to find anywhere in England (which we have in America) is the decorative corn ("Indian corn").

There are many photo opportunities around.

I also had a look at the corn maze, which is dinosaur-themed this year. They are also hosting live music with a spooky Halloween theme.

Happy Halloween!

My friends and I went to Roast restaurant in Borough Market, London, last weekend to indulge in some spooky Halloween afternoon tea and cocktails. I had the vegetarian menu as the non-vegetarian one contained several beef and pork savouries. The afternoon tea and cocktails have a spooky Halloween theme. Last year, one of my friends and I visited for the "Day of The Dead" afternoon tea, which was popular: "Day of the Dead" Afternoon Tea at Roast.

The restaurant was decorated with skulls, pumpkins, and sunflowers. The sunflowers were part of the summer decorations, and these blended together with pumpkins and scarecrows. The skulls were the same as last year's but painted over.

I ordered the spiced chai tea and the cocktail "Pumpkilled". This was served in a skull glass, and it is a gin and citrus mix and served with mint and an ice cube, shaped like a pumpkin and coloured orange.

The sandwiches at the top were: Bridge roll with coronation chickpea, Nordic seeded sandwich with tofu, and bagel with cream cheese and roasted pepper. The chickpea and tofu ones were nice, but I don't like cream cheese as I find the flavour too strong and dislike the texture.

The savouries included a Bratwurst sausage roll (made with pea protein instead of pork), falafel with hummus, and a soft cheese tart (from the vegan menu to replace the Bratwurst Scotch egg made with pea protein).

The sweets were all cream-based. They included ghost mushroom with meringue and vanilla cream with berry, the spider web with coffee-flavoured cream (which I was not able to taste) and a little bit of sponge, and sweet pumpkin skull with chocolate mousse cream.

We also received a charcoal black scone with a serving of clotted cream and strawberry jam.

I liked the pumpkin ice cube in the cocktail.

I also had the "Devil's Whisper" cocktail, and this included rum and grapefruit. Sweet chilli formed horns with some black salt on the rim.

I also had the "Eye-land Curse" served in a tikki glass with an eyeball made of lychee and grape. The ingredients are rum, pineapple, and cranberry. This was the strongest of the cockails.

One of my friends had the "Petal and Poison", which was similar to the passionfruit martini.

I got some photographs of the decor before leaving. One of the scarecrows would make noise when people walked by it too closely.

The afternoon tea was okay and similar to last year. The only issue is that even though we gave our dietary requirements in advance and I called to confirm receipt, we had to go over them again and they could not accommodate all. The pastries are also all cream-based with not much difference or flavours between them, and the savouries were all either pork or beef. However, we liked the Halloween theme.

When the Knights of the Order of St. John came to Rhodes, they built castles to monitor the sea from enemies, such as the Turks who had previously invaded. Kritinia Castle is one of the castles that was built in three levels, and each of the levels held a different Grand Master of the Knights of St. John (Oringy and D'Amboise). It is a Venetian castle built in the 16th century with views over the coastline and the island of Chalki in the Aegean Sea. I visited the castle in early August.

The castle is high on the hill, and climbing up to it welcomes visitors with beautiful views. The castle was attacked by the Turks, but they retreated, and the castle was later restored.

I had a little bit of time here to explore the castle and enjoy the beautiful views.

The Bank of England Museum tells the story of the Bank of England and its history. The museum opens for a late visitor entrance on the third Thursday of each month until 8pm, and I visited it in September. Starting this month was the display on the "Building of the Bank" architecture exhibit about the building and architechture. The bank was founded at the end of the 1600s, and the building was first erected at Threadneedle Street several years later but used other buildings to conduct business.

John Soane created the museum buildings, which were rebuilt in the late 1700s in the classical style. He was one of most popular architects of the time, and these expandd at the end of the 1700s, and the walls were completed in 1828. The Bank was reconstructed in 1988 with the large wall seen.

The museum discussed about printing and recycling bank notes, which was related to the company I worked for many years ago. I got to take a tour of their printing factory near Basingstoke in Overton when I worked there.

To access the museum, there is tight security and scanning.

Once inside, we can read about the different displays.

We can see some of the first bank notes and models of the bank.

And an early safe.

A an signature from King Charles.

We could also see gold.

Including a gold bar which we could lift.

I took this photo a few weeks before from the office I was working at to see a good and not-as-well-known view of the Bank.

I read about the different displays and bank notes.

I enjoyed the visit to the Bank of England Museum and learning about the history. 

This summer had flown by, and it has been one where I have not had many breaks nor been out too much when compared to previous years. The weather was beautiful this year with warm temperatures and a lot of sun, and I enjoyed sitting outside and reading as well as doing my walks, listening to audio books, and attending the fitness classes. I unfortunately had an injury on my foot during the summer, and this prevented me from doing a lot of walking later in the summer. Below are some of the activities that I did this summer that I have not yet blogged. 

Back in June, I got to go to a launch party through work to celebrate the launch of the project that I am on. I took photographs outside the office building at Old Street. 

We were then treated to food and drinks at Serata Hall opposite the office, which is also part of the chain with Ealing's Teatro Hall that I previously visited. I had Prosecco and chilli margaritas. 

Afterwards, a few of us went to have karaoke at Lucky Voice in the Liverpool Street area. I had a cocktail as well, and I sang karaoke badly because I cannot sing.

Later in June, I went to celebrate the birthday of one of my friends. Her birthday party was at The Fox, in Ickenham, which has replaced Home Bar. 

I had to make a couple of visits to Swindon this summer for work, and on one of those days, I came back to Marylebone Station to wait for my train back to home. Due to the Swindon train being late, I had to wait around for my train to Ruislip and exhausted the shops. I found the famous Marks and Spencer's strawberry sandwich. It was not to my liking as I did not like the cream.

As the weather was lovely this year, I did have a lot of walks up to Ruislip and around the lido. On some of the beautiful days, the beach was packed with people. 

This is a throw-back to my visit to Bristol for a weekend. I went to an Indian restaurant in the evening. My foot injury happened a few days before my visit, and this made walking difficult. When I visited Bristol, the harbour festival was on. I did not realise this at the time, and I forgot all about this event. Bristol was busy particularly around the dock area.

I also enjoyed pancakes in the morning.

In late August, my friends and I went to Teatro Hall again this year for bottomless brunch after we enjoyed the brunch last year. I had the fried chicken and the punch; I did not like the "Prosecco", which was actually Cava. We did not enjoy ourselves as much as previously.

I also had to go offices in different parts of London a few times as well, and one of the buildings near Holborn has a nice roof top garden. I had lunch out here a couple of times.

I enjoy visiting Covent Garden to see the floral displays, which are always a favourite of mine. This display was taken in August.

As the summer started to draw to a close, I enjoyed warm days in the garden, but the evenings cooled down. I enjoyed the fires in the garden. At the end of the school holidays, I had a couple of evenings with dinner outside with my friend and her daughter. She brought some marshmallows, and we had marshmallows and chocolate. 

At Eastcote House Gardens, the apples were out at the end of the summer.

I also took some photographs of the flowers at Regent's Park in London at the end of the summer.

This year, I am very sad to see summer go because it was a nice one. I have been feeling a little low as the sunshine is less and less, and it makes me wish we had more of those sunny summer days.

One of my ex-colleagues and I had been discussing to enjoy afternoon tea for awhile at another ex-colleague's cafe, Little Tea House, in Barnet (Totteridge and Whetstone) in north London. We finally got around to making a booking in early September, and the service was perfect and catered to our dietary needs. The cafe is a blend of British, Middle Eastern, and Asian influences and serves afternoon teas, cakes and other sweet treats, and some savoury options. 

The decor of the interior of the cafe is trendy, and I loved the tile plates and placemats.  

I had the masala chai tea.

The afternoon tea came with a selection of pastries, savouries, and scones.

The sandwiches were a selection of chicken tikka, garlic quiche, mini aloo tikka burgers, and sour cream and cucumber. They cater to vegetarians and vegans and were able to adapt to my taste (a mixture of vegetarian with chicken-only options). 

The sweets included chocolate cake, Mille Feuille, mango mousse, and Halwa on a shortbread spoon. 

The scones were served with cardamon and orange jam, and this tasted delicious.

I also managed to take home a couple of the "fancy" treats. The one on the left was a "Gem" in the lemon and guava flavour (emerald). The one on the right was the "Rose Taj", which was rose, lychee, basil seed, and pistachio. They look too good to eat.

I recommend Little Tea House, and you won't be disappointed in the quality of the items and service.

When I visited Rhodes at the start of August, I visited the clock tower. The clock tower in Rhodes Old Town is known as Roloi, and it is a medieval building erected on the tallest part of the old town, which dates from the medieval time. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Visitors can pay a small fee to climb up the clock tower to see views, and this fee also allows visitors to receive a free drink at the bar (located at the bottom of the clock tower).

I first went inside the clock tower and climbed steep stairs to the different levels in order to see the view.

I could see the old city walls and the sea.

After visiting the tower, I headed to the bar area at the bottom where I claimed my drink. The drink was included in the tower entrance fee, and visitors can have an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink.

I had a glass of wine and enjoyed the views. There is a nice seating area here with shade, allowing visitors some quiet from the busy streets outside.

Embonas is a village in Rhodes surrounded by mountains, and this area in Rhodes is known for its vinyards and wine production. There are several wineries and shops located in and around the village that sell wine and offer tastings of the local wines and liqueurs. I visited this region in early August with a tour group, and we stopped in the village and enjoyed a meal at the restaurant Maroulakis, which we were told has great food and fresh ingredients. I had the chicken kebab dish, and it was tasty. Afterwards, I had a small sweet from Makarounas, a bakery and cafe on the corner opposite.

After the meal, I had a quick visit around the town before visiting a couple of the shops and tasting some of the wine before we left the town to go to another shop that does wine tastings.

Makarounas

In one shop, I tried a couple of different samples of wine - the Athiri 2024 and Kounaki Wines Armenistis 2022 and another one or two. 

The shop that we went to as a tour group sold many items, and they also gave a wine tasting of a few different types of wine - Mikpos Kupios 2023, Epiotos 2024, and a red semi-sweeet wine.

When visiting Rhodes, I recommend to try the wines. There's also some nice gin that I discovered in a shop in Rhodes Old Town. The gin is called "Grace", and it is very good and won awards.

I visited Kallithea Springs in Rhodes in early August. The location is a beautiful bay with various picturesque buildings, a restaurant, and an art gallery inside one of the buildings which doubles as a wedding and events building. The location has been used for films and is very picturesque. There is a small entrance fee to enter the location.

I had a wander around the area and checked out the building and beach, had a cocktail in the restaurant, and explored the events venue with beautiful views. It was set up for a wedding.

I also went to check out the springs next to the beach.

It is such a picturesque place to visit.

The Indian Poet in Ruislip opened its doors this August, and I went around on the opening weekend to try their food. This is the third Indian restaurant that has made this pub home in Ruislip Gardens, and the last was The Arth, which I went to for bottomless brunch and Masala & Coal, which I visited often as they had good cocktails, and I also visited for bottomless brunch.

I tried a masala cocktail and also had a glass of Prosecco with chicken tikka, naan bread, and a starter.

I was impressed with the food, and I would visit again for lunch and cocktails.

LUAP is an artist who uses a pink bear as the main subject of his work, and the pink bear theme hopes to allow people to think about mental health. In this work painted a couple of years ago in London's east end, the pink bear is sitting down looking sad with a bunch of flowers. This is one of 2,000 murals painted (or sculpted) in the UK with the pink bear.

Bristol-born street artist Inkie started placing up street art in the 1980s, and he has worked with many big brands and regularly paints in Bristol and is a firm favourite in the town and often painting for Upfest. The artist uses an illustrative style with text and bold colours. When I was in Bristol this summer, I captured a few of his murals; a few of them are located in Bedminster with others more central. The first one was painted on Tobacco Factory in 2023 for Upfest and is a collaboration with Silent Hobo, who created the illustrations of characters. 

The mural supports local community and the environment and is titled "Planet Local". Below is detail of Silent Hobo's work in the mural, and Inkie created the text.

Another Upfest mural was painted in 2018 featuring previous famous resident and engineer Brunel.

A lot of Inkie's work contains illustration as well, and this is normally a female with long hair. The next few murals use the same imagery.

The below mural was painted in 2022.

More street art by Inkie on this blog can be seen in the following links:

Inkie in Worcester
Inkie Street Art in Camden
Leicester Street Art
Worcester Big Parade Elephant Trail
Bristol Street Art Round-up 2018
Bristol Upfest 2018
Minerva's Owls Sculpture Trail in Bath
Street Art Tour of Birmingham
Bristol Upfest 2015
Whitecross Street Party 2014
British Phone Boxes BTArtbox

At the beginning of the month, I went to the Sherlock Holmes Escape Rooms at London's Shepherd's Bush in order to indulge in the Sherlock Holmes Boozy bottomless Afternoon tea with unlimited Prosecco. The escape rooms are served in a room laid out like a Victorian-era library and includes a tabletop puzzle to solve to unlock a couple of treats. 

Finding the venue was a little difficult as the front is designed to appear as an optician's shop. It's located in the older mall at Shepherd's Bush. 

After entering, we were led into the library to have the afternoon tea, and at the table was a quiz for us to complete to unlock the code on the book. 

The book held two brownies with the address of Sherlock Holmes inscribed with icing. 

Of course, we solved the puzzle while we were indulging in the bottomless prosecco and sandwiches.

I had the vegetarian menu with a selection of sandwiches, and this included cucumber and cream cheese, cheese, tomato and mozarella on pretzel bun (salmon for those non-vegetarians), a cream avocado choux bun, and a feta and pepper quiche. My favourite was the quiche as it was full of flavour.

Next up was the scone, which was served with jam and clotted cream. The scone was a little bit too dry for my taste.

To complete, there was a ginger and orange choux bun, a caramel breton, and a pumpkin tart. The pumpkin tart was my favourite. There was also the fourth sweet dessert in the locked box.

We also could order our own choice of tea with Earl Grey, breakfast, lemongrass, and green tea. 

After the afternoon tea was finished, we went to play a couple of games that they had in the bar area. Solving one of the puzzles would give us 5% off of the bar bill, so we did this. 

We ordered a couple of drinks. I had the Watson's Remarkabl Remdy cocktail - tequila, pineapple juice, mango, bitters, and a choice of a red or blue antidote. I selected red. My friend had the Moriarty's Bitter Revenge with cherry syrup, Campari, cranberry, and bitters.

I also tried to special mystery cocktail where the cocktail became free if I could write down all fiv flavours. I guessed two correctly and was close on a third, but it was not meant to be.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience and would like to visit again to do the escape room experience.

Street artist Taqi Spateen, who is from Palestine, painted a mural at Upfest in Bristol in 2024. The work in Bristol is part of a series with other pieces in Leeds, Glasgow, Stroud, and London. The mural painted features his two children and symbolises them unlocking their future. The artwork is a symbol of hope for many young people caught in conflict.

Other work on this blog by Taqi Spateen can be seen below:

Taqi Spateen and JimmyC Collaborate on Hanbury Street

I visited Bristol in July this summer, and it has been awhile since I have been to the city. On my visit, I wanted to see the new street art since I last visited, and I was not disappointed as I discovered several new works from the previous few years that were painted for the famous Upfest street art festival and at other various times. Bristol is a popular place for street art, and two of the areas to look include Bedminster, where the majority is, and around the centre of the city. Below are some of the works that I discovered, although readers of my blog will have seen that I've already posted particular pieces in separate posts.

KMG and MUL

Remho

MUL

Unknown

Ivan Tortajada

DFTE

ATM

Sepc

AL Grime and ILLDES

Unknown

Maybe Paints

Wrdsmith

Jacqui Butterworth

Cheba

Jody

Hazard One

Angie Jerez

Sophie Long

Michael Henry

MUL

unknown and Taina

Victoriano

Cheo

unknown

Anna Higgie

unknown

unknown, Alex Lucas, Zoe Power

unknown

unknown

Rainbo

Emily Joy Rich

Ments

Jess Knight

Farrah Fortnam

Secp

Kashink

Grb Stobbs

Dino

Farrah Fortnam

Tony Stiles

Audkawa

3rd Eye

Uncle

Paul Monsters

Unknown

The_hass

unknown

DNZ

Rainbo

Alba Bethclub

unknown

Andis

unknown

Martin Dacy

Street artist Irony often paints for Upfest in Bristol. When I was in the city earlier this summer, I captured her work on a shutter. The female face has two nose ring piercings, and the viewer can only see the bottom part of her face. The artist paints detailed street art featuring people or animals, and the style is realistic. This artwork looks like it has been painted awhile ago.

More street art by Irony (collaborations or otherwise) on this blog:

Kingston and East London Street Art
Irony Anglefish Street Art in Penge
Irony Paints Molly the Dog in Penge
Irony Street Art in Penge - dog, cat and other work
Badger Street Art in Penge by Boe and Irony
Portrait Street Art by Irony in Camden
Boe and Irony at Upfest 2018
Camden Street Art Self-Guided Trail
Meeting of the Styles 2018
David Bowie and Brixton Street Art
Street Art by JimmyC, Boe & Irony, Trust Icon, and Others on Paradise Row
Street Art: Artista, DecoLife, Binty Bint, Ino, Irony, Pixie, SeaPuppy

Whitecross Street in London has a street art party each year, and when the festival is not on, the street art produced is displayed on the street throughout the year and does get replaced each year. Over the past several years, I have gone to check out the work hung on the buildings on Whitecross Street and the couple of streets that intersect it.

Woskerski

Srcell

Tizer?

Worskerski

Jive

The Real Dill

Cristina Reyes

Nonita

Goya Torres

Artista

unknown

Roo

Nathan Bowen

Airbourne Mark

unknown

unknown

DS

Cityzen Kane

unknown

Zadok

Sia and unknown

Woskerski

unknown

unknown

unknowns

unknown

Perscipere

unknown

At the start of this year, I discovered that the walls inside an alleyway parallel to Code Street off Brick Lane had been freshly painted with a variety of exotic animals, birds, and reptiles. These are on the side of a block of apartments, and the gate was open so that I could take a look. I am not exactly sure when the work was painted, but I assume it must have been part of a street art jam with different artists. Let me know if you know anything about this.

The artwork nicely tidies up the walls in this neglected little corner.

When I visited High Wycombe at the beginning of July, I took some photographs of street art that I discovered in the centre of the city. Below are the street art walls that I was able to photograph during my visit. The work is by Decreate, Griff, LSW and more.

Stewy is a Bristol-based street artist who uses stencils to create artwork and paints a lot of animals, celebrities, famous faces, and more. I have photographed some of his work before in Bristol. When I was in Bristol (Bedminster) this summer, I photographed a few of the work that I discovered. I especially liked the street art fox.

More street art by Stewy on this blog:

2018 Bristol Upfest
Street Art in London

Th artist responsible for painting the toothy smiles and grins is London-based Sweet Toof. In the past couple of years after a bit of a break, Sweet Toof has returned to the streets to paint. The artist paints toothy smiles on London's walls, inspired by identity that the smile, the dental work, and structure create. Over the past couple of years, I photographed several new pieces that appeared around Brick Lane and east London.

More street art on this blog by Sweet Toof is below:

Phelgm and Sweet Toof 
Street Art by Sweet Toof on Brick Lane
Street Art By Sweet Toof, Mo, and Gold Peg
Street Art: Gee, Paul Insect, Sweet Toof, Bortusk Leer

"The Mild Mild West" street art by Banksy is painted in Bristol and features a teddy bear throwing a fire in a bottle at police officers. It was painted in 1999 and was painted in response to the police arresting people who were having parties in abandoned buildings in Bristol in the 1990s.

I also photographed one that I had previously showed, which has since been vandalised by someone throwing paint onto it.