A nice cup of tea and a biscuit

In a moment of madness I decided to do the A-Z Challenge again this year. So I'm sitting down with a nice cup of tea and biscuit and reviewing my blog.

The challenge involves posting every day (except Sundays) throughout April, thematically from A-Z. Last year I took my camera around my home town of Leicester and posted the results.

Being new to blogging the challenge really helped get me going. It also gave me an excuse to take my new camera out, as well as getting to see the City of Leicester in a fresh light. It was lovely when people commented about how nice the place looked (though I sometimes worried I was making it look too good!).

So what to do this year? That is the question.

I'd like to do something similar but will I find enough things? We shall see. Although I struggled once or twice last year it was an enjoyable process and I learned a lot. In particular that less is more.

Good luck to any other A-Z challengers looking in, especially if it's your first time.

The spire of St Mary de Castro, Leicester, back in the summer and
as it is now looking pagoda-like as it's dismantled.

A while back I posted some pictures of historic Leicester taken close to the remains of Leicester Castle. Sadly the spire of the nearby church of St Mary de Castro has become unsafe and is currently being dismantled. The spire is something of a landmark and it'll be strange when it's gone. However they hope to reassemble it sometime in the future if they can raise sufficient funds.

St Mary de Castro (St Mary's by the Castle) was founded in the early 12th century by Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. The spire was added in the 14th century. There's a possible literary connection as it's been said that Geoffrey Chaucer married Philippa de Roet here sometime around 1366.

http://breaking-cover.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/a-quiet-corner.html

Bad Hair Day and other random things

Welcome to the first blog of 2014 and a belated Happy New Year.

Yes I know it's a bit late but I've been a bit preoccupied with editing my Work in Progress and haven't been going out with the camera much. However I spotted this in Leicester the other day on the side of a barber's shop. In case there's any one left on the planet who doesn't know, the remains of Richard III were found beneath a car park in Leicester back in 2012 and he's been making his presence felt round the city ever since.

I acquired Adobe Lightroom just before Christmas as part of a photography course I was doing and managed to get sidetracked sorting and cataloguing all my photographs (yet another reason why I'm behind with the blog). It was surprising how many I'd forgotten about, such as this one. Am I being paranoid or was this building watching me?

And while I'm on the subject of things with faces, how about this wheelie bin? Do we really need CCTV?

King Lear

This week I took my camera to Watermead Park which is just to the north of Leicester.

The park consists of numerous lakes and ponds surrounded by meadows, woodland and reed beds which were reclaimed from disused sand and gravel pits in the early 1980s. Both the River Soar and the Grand Union Canal run through the park and the place is haven for bird watchers and fishermen.

One of the lakes is named after King Lear, the legendary 8th century BC king of the Britons on whom Shakespeare based his tragedy. Lear (or Leir) was said to have given his name to Leicester and after his death was reputedly buried in a chamber beneath the River Soar somewhere close to where the park is now.

There's a concrete sculpture showing the final scene from Shakespeare's play mounted on a raft on the lake. Normally the raft is visible but with the recent rains, water levels were high and the figures appeared to be floating on the water.

A kneeling King Lear mourns his daughter Cordelia while the
Earl of Kent and the Duke of Albany look on.

Below are a few more pictures of the park.

Open at last

The Silver Arcade in the centre of Leicester has at last reopened after a major renovation and it looks fabulous.

It’s a Grade II listed Victorian shopping arcade dating from 1899, the only surviving four storey arcade in the country. For a long time it was home to many small independent shops but has stood empty for the last 13 years. Although it still retains most of the original features it now has a new glass roof and a new glass lift as well as various other sympathetic improvements.

The Silver Arcade was designed by Amos Hall who was in practice at the Leicester based architecture firm of Isaac Barradale (see: http://breaking-cover.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/retail.html).

Something completely different…

Autumn is truly here. The leaves on the trees are turning red and gold and the days are getting colder. On a walk in the country this week I spotted these amazing fungi and thought I'd share them. I've no idea what they are but they are rather lovely.

Seen this week…

After my encounter with the DeLorean (see my last blog) I came across another unusual vehicle whilst wandering about the town this week. It’s a 1911 tower wagon that once belonged to Leicester Corporation Tramways. It’s normally to be found in the Abbey Pumping Station Museum where it’s lovingly cared for by a team of volunteers, however it was in the town centre to help see off Leicester’s bid to become City of Culture 2017.

Apparently Leicester rock legends Kasabian later made a surprise appearance at the festivities but I didn’t wait around long enough to see them.

I thought I might include some pictures of the Abbey Pumping Station I took one overcast day earlier in the year.

The pumping station was opened in 1891 to pump Leicester’s sewage to treatment works at nearby Beaumont Leys. It closed in 1964.

The pumping was done by four beautifully decorated beam engines which were built in Leicester by Gimson and Co.

Back to the future…

Oh dear, the blog seems to have lapsed a bit of late. I've no excuse and even my recent holiday only accounts for a couple of weeks though more on that some other time. Just to get me back into the swing of things I thought I'd share this with you. Spotted this morning in Leicester outside the Phoenix Cinema, a real live De Lorean complete with hover board and flux capacitor.

The car belongs to a gentleman called Mark Sutton who was raising money for Parkingson's disease and was kind enough to let me take these photos.

The car is available for events.