Rewind – Cambridge 2008

I have been sorting through my photos for various reasons, and I came across the blog photos I used on Windows Live Space a few years ago. It was lovely looking through the old blogs, and it reminded me of many lovely things.

Crossing a bridge to ‘The Backs’

Kings College

The Mathematical Bridge

Way back in 2008 our daughter was applying for Universities, one of which was Cambridge, so we visited this beautiful city twice in 2008 for Alice to have a look round, and for me to take lots of photos!

The Bridge of Sighs, St Johns College

Henry Vlll watching over the city.

A beautiful garden in one of the Colleges.

The photos from the first visit were taken on my very old ‘point and shoot’ camera, but already the photography bug had taken hold, and by the time we made the second visit I had upgraded my camera to the Canon G8 which I loved. That camera was replaced in 2011 for a Canon G12 which I am still using.

Approaching The Bridge of Sighs from the inside.

Proudly bearing the date.

The Bridge of Sighs

Combining the photos of the two visits for this blog I can tell the difference in the two cameras, and we visited Kings College Chapel when I was using the old camera – sadly the photos of the interior are not good, so perhaps I need to go and visit again?? Good excuse I think

Kings College Chapel from The Backs.

Wonderful carving in the Kings College Chapel.

The magnificent ceiling in the Chapel.

I love the colours spilling on to the window sills.

Both visits to this beautiful city were amazing, our daughter went to University at SOAS (School of African and Asian Studies) where she got her degree in Chinese Studies. She is now working in a Translation Company near Gerards Cross in Buckinghamshire, and ultimately she is hoping to move to Beijing to work at some time in the future.

Queens College.

I hope you have enjoyed the rewind, I must see what else I can find in my saved photos!

And to finish there are Angels – there had to be Angels!

Kearsney Abbey after the rain..

The weather has been hitting the headlines for months, rain, rain and more rain! There are many people who have had their homes invaded by water, my heart goes out to them all, it will be many months until their lives get back to anywhere normal.

Here in South East Kent we have been very lucky, we have had the rain and there are fields that have turned into lakes, but in our immediate area there are no flooded houses that I know of. The golf course to the North of the town has been flooded and there has been a lot of water in Kearsney Abbey.

The water leaving the lakes in Kearsney Abbey to flow down to the sea.

The young swans..

…and the geese were quite happy!

I had a few days off work this week, on Tuesday the sun was shining so I decided to pay a visit to Kearsney Abbey just to see how badly affected it was by the water.

I stayed on the Abbey side to start off with, the lakes had overflowed their very small edge walls, but this has happened before and minimal damage has been done. The geese and swans were unperturbed by the extra water, and seem to be spending a lot of time preening themselves.

Crossing the road to the Russell Garden site there was a different story, the river was running very quickly, and instead of the water running through the centre parts of the bridges it was wooshing around each end of the bridges too. 

The water rushing round the end of the bridge, as well as through the middle archway.

The bridges were out of bounds because of the water – you can see the small wall which usually marks the edge of the water is totally submerged.

Walking to the end of the gardens on the ‘top’ path you reach the part of the gardens known as ‘Bushey Ruff’ which includes a beautiful lake. I didn’t have wellingtons on, so I couldn’t get right up to the lake as there was water everywhere. I did try to get close but just ended up with wet boots, socks, feet and soggy jeans!!

The closest I could get to the Bushey Ruff part of the site, this is usually a path leading up to a grassy area in front of the lake..

I enjoyed my walk, especially getting close to the swans and I hope the weather will improve all over the country, until then keep safe and dry everyone

Wingham Wildlife Park revisited.

Cooling off!

I expect a lot of you will remember our last visit to Wingham Wildlife Park a couple of years ago (2011) For some reason it is one of the most popular post on my blog, but I think that is because of that beautiful otter photo… the otters are still there, but were not being photo co-operative on this visit, which was a shame.

I can stand on one leg….

 

Beautiful flamingos.

Pelican just about to go for a swim.

We visited the park on a beautifully hot day last August, this time my daughter was with us, she loves penguins so she was over the moon to see so many playing

I think they were lining up for a swimming race…

This one just looks bemused..

Take my photo please, I am so handsome

Meerkats yay!!

To our big surprise the park now has just one Red Panda! We love Red Pandas, so it was a real treat to find one so near to us. It is a shame there is only one though, I hope they can find a playmate for this one. He was just so cute, we all wanted to take him home with us!

Finding a good spot in the tree…

….to have a snooze – I love the tongue sticking out

Even the tigers were sleepy.

Because of the heat a lot of the animals were resting or asleep, which was a good plan as far as I could see

My son and I were the only ones that went into the Butterfly house, it was even hotter in there than outside, but worth it

I love butterflies, my daughter hates them..

I am not sure which end is the front of this caterpillar!

Sleepy owls..

 

So beautiful

This one was wide awake, and as curious about us as we were of him!

Not totally sure what was going on here, but I am guessing the smaller tortoise just didn’t get out of the way in time…..lol

This beautiful parrot seemed to be saying Goodbye to us. We had a lovely day, so nice to remember hot summer days in the middle of Winter.

Stay warm and dry everyone x