A blog of my travels » Gallery

King Bladud’s Pigs in Bath 2008

Christopher — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:49:59 +0000

King Bladud’s Pigs in Bath was a summer 2008 public art event to celebrate Bath. Over one hundred life-size pig sculptures were on display throughout the summer all around Bath and beyond – at the end of September I found 59.

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Walks

Christopher — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Kent coast from the air, well GoogleEarth

Christopher — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:46:57 +0000

It has been a couple of weeks since I completed my walk around the coast of Kent, and I have just read that Google have just updated their high resolution photographs for Kent. As I write they are on GoogleEarth now, but it is normally a few days before they are on GoogleMaps.

Did they get me? Am I on GoogleEarth?? What are the views like…

I doubt that I made it :-( from the look of the flowers and foliage my best guess is that these images date back to the spring and early summer. The oilseed rape seems to be in full bloom, most of the trees are in leaf – though if you look carefully some of the largest (which I presume will be oaks) have a slight pinky-brown tinge in patches on some of the trees and I think that will be the leaves just unfurling.

Some of the views down are excellent, and compare well with some of the photos I took on my way round…

Derek Jarman’s garden

Battle of Britain Memorial

Deal Castle

Viking Ship at Pegwell Bay

The remains of St Mary’s Church at Reculver

Rochester Castle

Grain Tower

An old boat rotting away on the River Thames

Dartford Bridge

Walking the coast of Kent

Christopher — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:23:39 +0000

At the end of January and the beginning of February 2008 I spent 10 days walking the coast of Kent – from Jury’s Gap near Rye to Dartford. While there was a bit of bad weather, which curtailed some walking, I still managed over 150 miles.

I followed the route by David Bathurst in his book “Walking the Kent coast from end to end”. The route borrows heavily from the Saxon Shore Way but sticks more rigidly to the coastline – warts and all.

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Dorset 2007

Christopher — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:42:38 +0000

Spent a week or so in Dorset in mid November 2007. Visited David in Sherborne and Maureen in Charminster, went on a couple of short walks, and met a giant.

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Walking the IoW

Christopher — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:28:36 +0000

In October 2007 I walked around the Isle of Wight, around 65 miles of coastline, inlets, chines, towns and wonderful areas of outstanding natural beauty.

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Kiva Calendar 2008

Christopher — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:41:06 +0000

From a suggestion, and a whole lot of hard work, through kivafriends.org a calendar was developed to promote Kiva. Polls were held to select the photos, and to develop the layout I created.

More information on the entrepreneurs featured in the calendar can be found here on the kivafriends.org website.

South Downs Way

Christopher — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:11:18 +0000

A walk along the South Downs Way during late September 2007, through the counties of East Sussex, West Sussex and into Hampshire. Starting at Eastbourne the route mostly follows the northern escarpment of the South Downs for 100 miles to Winchester.

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Sussex Ouse Valley Walk

Christopher — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:34:11 +0000

Santa Barbara 2003

Christopher — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:02:26 +0000

In June 2003 I visited Rosminah in Santa Barbara, California. We did a whistle-stop tour of some fantastic gardens and nurseries, both public and private, including Lotusland, Huntington and Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, a new landscaping feature at UCSB, Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria, Taft Ranch (which is now private) in Ojai, and the private garden of John Rees to see his fantastic collection of palms, cycads and aloes.

Huntington Botanical Gardens

Started by Henry Huntington in 1903 the garden now spans nearly 120 acres and contains around 15,000 kinds of plants from all over the world – set within sweeping lawns, vistas and a series of theme gardens.

Lotusland

Created by Madame Ganna Walska the garden is composed of smaller themed areas, containing an array of superb collections of plants within a beautiful series of landscapes and vistas.

Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria

Created by 12 acclaimed landscape designers, the garden offer a range of separate themed gardens and a collection of plants growing in a naturalistic setting.

Taft Ranch in Ojai

Formerly part of Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, the Ranch is no longer open to the public. With Rosminah’s connections we had a wonderful tour round.

John Rees’ Garden

John has a great collection of palms, cycads and aloes in his front and back garden. His enthusiasm was infectious – if only the climate was slightly better in Sussex.

UCSB landscaping

Joining a group tour of the new landscaping, it was fascinating to hear about the development of sustainable landscapes and drainage systems that were incorporated.