2015 in Review: A Year of Nice Days Out

Flowers at Liberty, London

At the start of 2015 I resolved to get back into the regular habit of taking a Proper Day Off once a week and going on a small adventure - taking a break from my endless work To Do list and stretching my legs, exploring new places and seeing new things.

This was an excellent resolution to make. I had lots of Nice Days Out in 2015 (52 in total) some big, some small, some near, some far... and they were all awesome.

Writing a post about my year's mini adventures is a little tricky though as the trips I blogged about in 2015 are not exactly the same as where I went in 2015. I blogged about some 2014 trips and there are lots of trips from 2015 that I've not yet got round to blogging about (so many photos to edit and so little time!). I also spent several days catching up with friends in various parts of the country, and took my mum to visit historic buildings and exhibitions and to see my book for sale in Liberty and didn't take my camera with me (gasp!).

So, instead of a month-by-month diary of my travels, here are (in roughly chronological order) fifteen of my highlights from 2015.

1. Climbing all 528 steps to the top of St Paul's Cathedral. 

My camera died before I got to the very top (remember to charge your cameras, folks!) so this is actually the view from just part of the way up. You get an amazing view of London and the Cathedral itself is, of course, a pretty special place to visit.

2. Admiring the blooms at the Chiswick Camellia Festival.

As well as many delightful follies, the gardens at Chiswick House contain a lovely long greenhouse which is filled with a vast collection of camellias. Beautiful - and free to visit! (Psst - the 2016 show starts this week!).

3. Exploring a battleship.

The HMS Belfast is one of those places that it would never have occurred to me to visit if it hadn't been for my Art Pass but it turned out to be completely fascinating. I spent hours working my way round the ship, climbing up and down ladders and generally having a whale of a time. Such an unusual space to explore and so much history to learn along the way, I loved it.

4. Enjoying the magnolias at Kew Gardens.

Last January I treated myself to a year's membership of Kew and visited the gardens several times over the changing seasons. It's a gorgeous place at any time of the year but spring was especially wonderful and the magnolias in April were particularly magnificent. Imagine a whole grove of trees filled with these huge, beautiful blossoms! Simply swoonworthy.

5. Following the Shaun in the City art trails through London and Bristol.

The sculptures were cute, finding as many as possible was a fun challenge, and I spotted lots of other great stuff (and did sooo much walking) along the way! You can read about my London sheep-spotting here, here, here and here and about my Bristol trip here.

6. Celebrating makers and making at London Craft Week.

The inaugural London Craft Week was almost overwhelmingly special. So many amazing things to see, so many interesting places to visit and so many incredibly talented makers to meet! I can't wait to what they've got planned for this year's programme. 

 

7. Having tea with a tiger at the Jewish Museum.

I visited dozens of interesting exhibitions in 2015 but my favourite had to be the Judith Kerr retrospective at the Jewish Museum. I adored Judith Kerr's books when I was a kid and still have a huge affection for her characters (the Christmas ad featuring Mog made me blub so much!). This was such an enjoyable exhibition to explore, not least because I got to "meet" the famous tiger :)

8. Witnessing the historic ceremony of Swan Upping.

The annual census of the swan population on the Thames is a delightfully quirky tradition and was a perfect excuse to go for a walk along the river on my day off. History, royalty and swans, what more could you ask for in a Nice Day Out?

9. Climbing Cabot Tower for a spectacular view of Bristol.

I was pretty lazy about exploring Bristol when I actually lived there, so it's been a joy to take some trips back to the city and do lots of the tourist-y things I missed out on. I especially loved climbing the city's famous Cabot Tower, which is situated in a lovely park and gives you great views over the city.  

10. Visiting Osterley House & Gardens.

This is another place I'd never have visited were it not for my Art Pass. It turned out to be rather wonderful and a perfect place to visit on a hot summer's day. Osterley has huge, peaceful gardens and a fascinating house with intricate, pattern-filled decor. Even the veg for sale at their farm shop was patterned!

11. Soaking up some history with Oxford Open Doors.

Oxford's annual heritage festival is something very special: dozens of interesting buildings across the city open their doors to the public in a celebration of the city's architecture and history, and it's all free to visit! I still haven't blogged about my 2015 visit but it was a wonderful, busy day spent exploring some really amazing spaces. You can see some of my photos from 2014's equally awesome festival here (Oxford is such a beautiful place).



12. Visiting a tiny island in the Thames.

Guards Club Park is a petite, riverside park with a bridge that leads to the equally petite Guards Club Island. This is quite an enchanting space to visit - and how often do you get to explore a tiny island that features in one of your favourite movies? Magical (and just as delightful in the autumn).

13. Going behind the scenes at Windsor Castle with a tour of the Round Tower. 

I love Windsor and visited it several times in 2015, exploring the town itself (and neighbouring Eton), following the Castle's audio tour, watching the Changing the Guard ceremony (the band played the Star Wars theme, to general delight!) and seeing the magnificent spaces decorated for Christmas.

I also took a couple of special tours at the Castle, one of the Great Kitchen and one of the Round Tower. Both the tours were really interesting (so many fun facts!) but it was particularly wonderful to get to climb the Tower and look out over the Castle and the surrounding area - especially as I grew up being able to see the outline of the tower in the distance from our house!

 

14. Taking a magical autumnal walk along the Thames.

The riverside is so beautiful! Autumn is so amazing! Even on a grey day this was an excellent combination.

15. Last but by no means least, celebrating Christmas at Kew. 

Okay so I know I already picked Kew in the spring as one of my 2015 highlights, but their winter light trail was something really, really special. The mile long trail of sculptures and installations was beautiful and fun and filled my heart with joy. The perfect end to a year of Nice Days Out!

It was ridiculously difficult to select just 15 things to include in this post, which I guess is a pretty good sign that 2015 was filled with good things!

Here's hoping that I have just as much trouble picking my 2016 Nice Day Out highlights :)

P.S. You might also enjoy my look back at my crafty 2015: part one & part two.

A Trip To Bristol: Shaun in the City & Climbing Cabot Tower

Time for another summer Nice Day Out flashback!

I love Bristol and miss living there and don't get back half as often as I'd like thanks to the steep train fares (I miss my student railcard, too!). This summer I realised it had been over a year since my last visit so I splashed out some cash on some advanced tickets and booked myself three Bristol day trips.

I spent two of the days catching up with old friends and meeting up with new ones, but the third was free for me to do whatever I wanted in the city. After a bit of umming and ahhing I decided to spend the day following the Shaun in the City trail.

I'd really enjoyed the London leg of the trail earlier in the summer. All the Shaun the Sheep sculptures were delightful, tracking them down was like going on a treasure hunt, and the sheep-hunting was a great way to tour the city (and get some exercise!)

I got into Bristol nice and early and spent a long, busy, happy day working my way round the map - I did a lot of walking and managed to see 31 out of the 70 Bristol Shauns (told you it was a busy day!)

 

 

It was a gorgeous, sunny day - perfect weather for a day wandering round the city, ticking Shauns off the map and enjoying the sights along the way. The bright colours of the harbourside were looking particularly lovely in the sunshine!

 

 

I also squeezed in a quick visit to the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (one of my favourite places in the city) to see this awesome temporary exhibition, and made my first ever visit to the nearby Georgian House Museum. At the Georgian House you can step back in time and see how the house might have looked in the 1790s - it's free to visit and well worth doing so! 

Another Bristol attraction I'd never visited before was Cabot Tower. The tower was built in the late 1800s and looms over the city from the top of Brandon Hill (a lovely park, conveniently located near the museums). When I actually lived in Bristol I wasn't that interested in sightseeing so I'd never been to Cabot Tower and had no idea you could actually climb it until I read Polly's blog post about her own visit earlier this year.

 

The landscaping around the tower is totally charming with winding paths, a little waterfall, and lots of semi-hidden spaces to explore. Some of the paths up to the tower are very steep!

The views across the park and the city are rather special from the base of the tower...

... but if you're feeling brave you can climb up the tower for some even better views. Cabot Tower is 105 feet (32 metres) high and has two viewing platforms. The higher platform is apparently 334 feet (102 metres) above sea level!

The spiral staircase up the tower is quite steep and narrow - you have to get quite cosy with anyone going up/down the stairs in the other direction! - but the views are wonderful. It was delightful to spot so many familiar places and to look down at places I'd visited earlier that very day as I followed the Shaun in the City trail.

P.S. You can read more about Cabot Tower and see its opening times here. The Shaun in the City trail has now finished but you can read more about it here and buy lots of Shaun-themed goodies in the fundraising shop here. Until late December you can also buy raffle tickets for the chance to win a giant Christmas-themed Shaun sculpture!

Finishing the Shaun in the City Trail + a Visit to Canary Wharf

As the weeks of May zipped by and the London leg of the Shaun in the City art trail drew to a close, I was determined to get the final 7 Shaun the Sheep sculptures ticked off my list before it ended. So, I took a day off for a Nice Day Out and got the train to London...

The trail of 50 sculptures was divided into four main trails across London with five "lost sheep" scattered a little further afield. I'd found three of the lost sheep and had followed most of the main trails, but there were a few at the ends of the trails that I'd missed as I'd not had time to complete them on my previous days of sheep-hunting.

First up, I got the Tube to St Pauls and walked to the nearby Guildhall, where The Guardian was getting a lot of hugs from happy kids doing the trail with their parents.

 
Then I headed to the Barbican, walking through the estate (which was looking fabulous in the sunshine)...

... to reach the entrance to the Barbican Centre where Counting Sheep looked like he was about to nod off.

Next I headed towards Liverpool Street, where I got a little bit lost and went round in circles a couple of times before finding the exact square I was after. On the way I spotted Candy Baa, which had relocated after the trail was extended by a few days (it was previously at Covent Garden). Spookily, it was standing in front of a giant five... which was exactly the number of Shauns I had left to find.

Eventually I found the elusive Mr Shaun...

 
... then walked back to Liverpool Street Station to visit The Pearly King.

I went round in even more circles finding the next Shaun on my list - the perils of trying to find a sheep statue you've not seen before in a place you've never been to before with just a paper map and a rough location to guide you (also, let's be honest, navigation is not my strongest skill). Stopping briefly to admire this knight on his horse...

... I eventually tracked down Ruffles. Totally worth the wait, this Shaun was one of my faves with a design inspired by Blackwork embroidery and featuring lots of traditional motifs. Just look at all that gorgeous detail!

I had just two more sheep left to find - two "lost" sheep out at Canary Wharf.

One of the joys of a trail like this is that it takes you to lots of parts of the city that you've never been to before. I'd never visited Canary Wharf and I was quite excited about going on the DLR for the first time. Sitting at the front of those driverless trains = so much fun! (I am easily pleased, I know, shhhh).

The final two Shauns were the Golden Fleece (SO SHINY) and Hello Kitty's #OneKindThing.

With a lovely sense of satisfaction at having completed the trail I had a relaxing picnic lunch in Jubilee Park, enjoying the sunshine and listening to all the water features bubbling away. 

After lunch I walked to the North Dock...

... crossing the footbridge to the Museum of London: Docklands.

This free museum housed in a 200 year old warehouse focuses on London as a port city: a hub of trade and migration from AD 43 to the present day.

Like the main Museum of London, this is a fantastic and fascinating museum! It's huge, with lots of interesting artifacts to see and lots of information to read along the way. Some of the galleries are more creatively displayed than others but it would be worth a visit just to see Sailortown "a full size reconstruction of the dark, winding streets of Victorian Wapping".

I'm already planning a return visit - to see their current (free) exhibition of photographs by Christina Broom, who was the UK's first female press photographer. 

After a cuppa and a tasty cake in the museum cafe (and an entertaining flick through the local property papers, boggling at all the prices) it was time to head home... and to start thinking about maybe visiting Bristol to spot some of the sheep on their Shaun in the City Trail... hmm...

 
P.S. You can read about all my Shaun-spotting adventures here, and read more about Shaun in the City and how to get involved here. The Bristol trail features 70 Shaun sculptures and runs until the end of August, after which all 120 Shauns will go on display in special exhibitions in London & Bristol then be auctioned for charity.