Archive for July, 2020

Tower of London (1)

Posted: July 31, 2020 in History, London, Medieval History, UK
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Tower of London with the modern city skyline in the background

Tower of London with the modern city skyline in the background

 

The Tower of London lies at the eastern end of the medieval walled city. Its foundation dates from 1066, shortly after King William arrived as the conqueror in London. However the earliest remaining part of the Tower today is the White Tower, which now forms the central keep, which he began in 1078.

The White Tower

The White Tower

 

The White Tower

The White Tower

The Tower has served over the years as a royal palace, prison, treasury and mint, armoury, public records office and the site of London’s first zoo – all of which I shall be looking at in future posts.

Map of the Tower as it is today

Map of the Tower as it is today

 

The outer wall and moat

The outer wall and moat

Caléndula — Photography Art Plus

Posted: July 27, 2020 in Natural History
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A bright flower to brighten up a very wet dull day in London

Caléndula — Photography Art Plus

Missing the great outdoors

Posted: July 24, 2020 in Art, Landscape
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I guess that one of the big downsides of lockdown for me has been the restriction on travel and I am really missing the wide open spaces. I have been reflecting this in my painting and so am sharing with you a couple of paintings I have done on this theme over the past couple of weeks.

Looking forward to the time when I can experience them in reality

A moody photo of Stonehenge — Stephen Liddell

Posted: July 21, 2020 in History, UK
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This great picture of Stonehenge reminds me that I haven’t been back to the site in recent years and must plan to do so once we are back to travelling

A few weeks ago I was going through my ever growing library of photos on my iPad which stands at something like 64GB and I came across a particularly atmospheric photo I took of Stonehenge. Most people that I take there with Ye Olde England Tours like to go in the summer and they like sunny […]

A moody photo of Stonehenge — Stephen Liddell

Sevenoaks and friends

Posted: July 16, 2020 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Dragonflies, Kent, Natural History, UK
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On Monday Sue and I travelled down to Sevenoaks Nature Reserve to meet our friends Keith and Elaine for a, socially distanced, picnic lunch. It was the first time we had been able to meet up this year. After lunch Keith and I went for a walk around the reserve.

  • Photo by Keith

Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs provided most of the musical accompaniment as we searched each of the lakes that make up this reserve. Although the number of bird species present was low (not surprising at this time of year) we managed 6 species of Butterfly and 5 species of Dragonfly. it was a lovely summer afternoon and a lovely walk around the lakes.

  • Brimstone
  • Red Admiral
  • Damselfly
  • Grey Heron
  • Comma
Photos by Keith

The forlorn church of St Mary Somerset — Stephen Liddell

Posted: July 14, 2020 in History, London, UK
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Interesting blog by Stephen Liddell on one of the many disused churches in the city of London

When I was out in London last week, I went on a walk of discovery. As is often the way in London, I ‘discovered’ several places but also got the chance to visit somewhere I knew perfectly well even though I’d never been there… at least not for 6 or 7 years and never to […]

The forlorn church of St Mary Somerset — Stephen Liddell

Raging Bull

Posted: July 10, 2020 in Art
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One of my tasks over the Lockdown has been making a digital record of the paintings I have done. This is one of my favourites which I did some years ago at an art class.

Oare Marshes, Kent

Posted: July 6, 2020 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Insects, Natural History
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Come with me to one of the best Nature Reserves in the country as we visited Oare Marshes last week. The best bird was a Little Gull, sadly to far away to photograph

Hall Place, Bexley

Posted: July 3, 2020 in History, London, UK
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Join me on a visit to hall place in Bexley (Pre-Lockdown)

More details on hall place and its history can be found at https://petesfavouritethings.blog/2019/11/27/hall-place/

Nova Anglia – The Anglo Saxon refugees who built the original New England on the Black Sea. — Stephen Liddell

Posted: July 2, 2020 in Anglo-Saxon History
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Always interested to read new things and was fascinated by this article by Stephen Liddell on Anglo Saxon refugees following the Norman Conquest.

Everyone knows about the New England colony that was established on the eastern coast of North America but much less known about and something I’ve long been interested in is that accounts of a creation of a New England on the shores of the Black Sea around 500 years earlier than the one in North […]

Nova Anglia – The Anglo Saxon refugees who built the original New England on the Black Sea. — Stephen Liddell