More Photographs!

Last weekend, the spring bank holiday weekend, we had an archaeologically and historically themed visit to Hadrian's Wall with some LJ friends. I ought to post some photographs of that, but we only returned on Tuesday evening and I haven't had the time to even download them from the camera, never mind sort them into labelled folders. Instead, therefore, we resume our tour of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, first with a couple of images of the Cour d'Honneur, a courtyard formed by the construction of the New Palace (on the south and west sides of the square) next to the Old Palace (on the east and north sides); then of the Cloister, the central square of the Old Palace; and concluding with the Grand Tinel and the Chambre des Notaires, respectively the banqueting and the audience chambers. (In theory, you're not permitted to take photographs of the interiors of the Palais, but you can take photographs of the exteriors, which include the courtyards and the cloister. In practice, this means everyone takes their cameras around with them and the interiors are photographed by default....when you're sure that the guards aren't looking, even though they're too few in number to properly police the photography rules.) Tomorrow: views from the roof!

Life aquatic and other notes

1) Yesterday 120 lengths (3 km) in 95 mins -- first time I've managed it within the 100 min barrier. Today a mere 1 mile (64 lengths) in just under 50 mins.

2) Sunday: despite the dodgy weather 60+ turned out for 'Palace Gates Railway' walk I suggested to Tottenham Civic Society and co-led -- principally the stretches that now run through two allotment sites, one of them ours. Railway enthusiasts waved a slim vol on the 'Palace Gates to North Woolwich Railway' by JE O'Connor, and pics in a hardback vol titled something like Old Passenger Railways. JN was hero of serving refreshments -- raised £25 for the local Save Wards Corner campaign.

3) Last week: at Norderns Ark (the Northern Ark), a conservation zoo in Sweden which focuses on breeding and re-introduction of northern temperate species. I got to go in the wolverine enclosure while they were being fed (and given their cinnamon aromatherapy fix), and since we were very good, to then go in with the otters while they played with their food. Did not go into the Amur tiger or Amur leopard enclosures while they were being fed; and 'dinner with wolves' kept the wolves on the other side of a glass-wall, though their keepers did walk among them dishing out their scraps. Lots of charming 'groda' and 'pada' (frogs and toads) in new wetland area -- all under threat from pollution, the chytrid fungus, and habitat destruction. Bronze Age rock carvings of ships just outside the zoo boundary -- where fresh water runs down to what would have been the shore of the fiord at that time. We were there as a bunch of international experts invited for a workshop on why society doesn't value nature as it should, and what role Norderns Ark could play in remedying this: discussion highlighted new parents and their babies (training and follow-up 'club' possibly including birthday books for the first 5 birthdays); Young Ambassadors scheme; and hosting key political meetings in the zoo, so politicians make decisions where they are reminded why they, and other people, actually really love nature when they encounter it (feeding them to the tigers if they make wrong decisions wasn't discussed). Special star visitors to bring in press attention were Jane Goodall (the chimp lady) and Crown Princess Victoria, whose entourage included two very impressive Arnie-Schwartzenegger look-alikes). Sure enough: double-page spread in the main Swedish newspaper on the morning we said our goodbyes.

4) Week before: Provence -- Roman remains, picturesque medieval towns, Cezanne's delightfully peaceful studio a long climb above the town centre of Aix... Must write up properly...

5) Next weekend: walking bits of Hadrian's Wall

6) Hello garden? hello allotment? First swifts spotted here last Friday. Today, about half a dozen just-fledged great tits perched fluffily gormless all around the back garden.

study break

Three weeks of study break - what a wonderful thing. Fantastic opportunity to weed the garden, re-organise my linen cupboard, clear out the old magazines and all those other jobs that just haven't got done when I have been too busy studying. I suppose I will have to do a bit of study too - but with three weeks up my sleeve it doesn't seem there there is too much urgency surround this yet!

Uni is going well - but it has been a bit hectic. I've done (or at least they will be mostly done after exams) three units so far - English, Learning and Assessment and Primary English. I have another intensive unit with Art, Drama and PE (crammed into one week)and then a Special Neeeds unit in third and forth term.

Next year I need to do Science, Technology and Environment (1 unit), a Maths unit and a nine week prac. Then it'll all be finished and I'll have to figure out what to do with this teaching degree!

Anyway ...back to re-organising my sock drawer and cleaning out the fish tank.

Feeding the wolverines

In Sweden last week, at Norderns Ark conservation zoo as part of an 'international experts' seminar on what NA should do to influence society at large to value nature and look after it. This meant I got to help feed the wolverines and otters -- going inside their enclosures with the keepers, and have dinner with wolves. But I didn't go inside with the tigers or the snow leopards. I also met Jane Goodall and Crown Princess Victoria, who arrived with a couple of Arnie Schwartenegger look-alike security guys among her retinue.

Today and tomorrow: catching up with gardening and the spring weed surge!

More anon, possibly even with pix... time and energy permitting. Cheers!

Yet More Photographs of Provence

Here's another selection of images of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, this time showing (in order), a view of the tower of Notre Dame des Doms from the southwest (the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary was added in the nineteenth century and is now regarded as rather kitsch -- but as the Palace complex is on the UNESCO World Heritage list nothing can be done to remove it); a view of Notre Dame des Doms and the adjacent Campane Tower of the Old Palace; a view of the Pont de Benezet from Rocher des Doms (note the papal vineyards on the slope immediately below the point from which the photograph was taken); a reverse view from the bridge of Rocher des Doms, a very defensible position which was the site of the very first settlements of the area, in the neolithic and bronze ages, against which the Palais des Papes was built and which was transformed into a public park after the French Revolution; and, lastly, part of the steps up to the top of the rock from the road. No prizes at all for identifying the figure trudging up those steps....

More Photographs of Provence

Here's the first of two groups of photographs showing the exterior of the enormous Palais des Papes in Avignon, the home of the Popes from 1305 to 1378. The move from Rome was prompted by political and military upheavals caused by war in Italy between two powerful families contending for control of (or the defeat of) the Holy Roman Empire, which made stable government of the Holy See almost impossible. Avignon was chosen as the alternative residence because it was owned by the Count of Provence, who was also the King of Naples and thus the Pope's vassal; the Pope could therefore exercise temporal authority there without interference from other rulers.

Although the Papacy returned to Rome in 1378, a French Pope continued to hold sway in Avignon because the French cardinals disputed the circumstances of the Roman Pope's election; both factions had a high old time excommunicating each other until a Papal Council in 1409 declared both of them deposed and elected a third Pope. By that stage, the last French Pope had been driven from Avignon; he died penniless and forgotten in Spain in 1423, still convinced he was the rightful head of the Church.

These five photographs show, in order, the west facade of the New Palace, built between 1347 and 1351; the enormous buttress which supports the weight of the New Palace's Grand Chapel; a view of the Pope's Tower and the Trouillas Tower, on the rear (eastern) side of the Palais; a view of Notre Dame des Doms, the cathedral attached to the Palais, from the north; and a composite view (apologies for the odd curvature) of the western front the the complex -- the Old Palace, built from 1335 to 1346, on the left and the New Palace wings and towers on the right.

Photographs of Provence

Here we go, then -- the first of a projected series of uploads of selected photographs of our recent short break in Provence. The first set, rather fittingly, is of the famous bridge of Avignon -- or, to give it its proper name, the Pont de Benezet, originally constructed 1177 to 1185, probably of wood re-using Roman foundations, at the urgings of a shepherd who claimed to have received dreams from God telling him to construct a span across the Rhone. (They obviously treated loonies differently in those days.) That bridge was destroyed during a siege of the city in 1226 and rebuilt in stone, but the river was never very kind to it -- it was repeatedly damaged by flooding -- and attempts to repair it were finally abandoned in 1633. Only four of the original twenty-two arches now remain.

The first photograph shows the bridge taken at evening on the day of our arrival in Avignon, where we stayed throughout the trip; the others were taken during our visit to the bridge a day or so later. The fifth and final photograph is a panorama looking back from the end of the bridge, showing the Rhone and Rocher des Doms to the left and the Palais des Papes in the centre.

Speaking of Makeovers....

One of the things we had done last year, as part of the work on the house, was the construction of a (glass-)covered passage down the side of the house, to provide a dry storage area for garden stuff which was otherwise exposed to the weather or taking up space in the kitchen. Here are a couple of photographs, showing the linked water butts, the long wooden bench, and the fold-away shelving. And, of course, the clutter. Mostly Judith clutter, but clutter nevertheless. I'm sure there must be some way of surreptitiously slimming it down!

Pond Makeover

Without a "before" picture for comparison, it's perhaps difficult to show the extent of the remodelling of the garden's pond area, although the photograph of the frogspawn attached to my previous post of 1 March may give you some idea of its former look. Nevertheless, here's a photograph of it as it is now: enlarged, deepened, the front bank raised (with the help of the extra soil dug out) to the same level as the back, and new coping laid. We've also taken the opportunity to clear out the rubble deposit in the corner and lay down (re-using the old coping stones) some proper staging for the pot plants (where previously they were just plunked down on a convenient bit of level ground). The fence, where we've ripped out the old dark green ivy, looks a bit bare at present, but we have plans to plant some golden ivy to replace it. You may notice the netting laid over the bank at the front of the pond: this is to prevent the birds and the local cats from interfering with the new plants until they've become properly established.

We have been intending tp remodel the pond for some years now, because of a known pinhole leak somewhere in the upper part of the old liner, which necessitated its frequent topping up; the issue was always getting around to doing it. But this year, we were finally impelled to get on with it by the death od the tadpoles shortly after they'd hatched, presumably because of a sudden deterioration in the quality of the water. So we ordered a new liner, and in three days over Easter had installed a new and better pond. We are obviously getting very good at this pond-building lark, to have managed it in so short a time; but then, to be technical, this is the fourth one we've dug. (The allotment pond has also been redug and relined.) Of course, it probably helps if you start with an existing hole to work from....