Adventures of ReenRah: Waseley Hills Walk

Though most of the photos taken on this walk were of the dogs, which you can see here, I did get a few photos of the walk itself. The Waseley Hills are quite large, and it seems that not many people in Birmingham have actually been there: the Lickey Hills nearby are far more popular.

In the Waseleys there is a play area, if you wander over to the Visitors Centre, where there is also a little cafe. But we didn’t stray over that way on our walk: we stayed among the hills, the wild flowers and the wide open space.

As we usually do on walks with the dogs, we came across some ragwort. I can’t remember if I’d already issued a warning on ragwort before, but basically don’t touch it or let your dogs/any other animals touch it: it’s poisonous!

Whilst Reen was throwing (very badly, she has appalling aim and managed to lose the ball at some point, poor Watson was frantic) balls for the boys, I decided to take a couple of (not that brilliant I have to say) photos of the view.

The fields were also looking rather pretty, and when I decided to look up with my camera, and not just down as I usually do, I managed to catch a little seagull surfing the winds above us.

We then reached some little woods, and kept on walking past them.

And we came upon rather suddenly a herd of cows! With Reen looking after the doodles, I decided to take a photo of a particular cow who had decided to have a good itch on an information sign for visitors!

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Adventures of ReenEmRah: Wollaton Hall and Park

The New Faces of Batman

As we were showing Em around Wollaton Hall for the first time, we told her about the place’s connection with batman; already hinted by the batman logos scattered across the park. Wollaton Hall was in fact used as the setting for Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight Rises film in 2011. The hall itself is in reality only five miles from the village of Gotham, where Batman’s Gotham City takes its name from.

Needless to say, the hall likes to remind visitors of its famous role in this popular film and inside the hall, as well as many Batman-related merch that you can buy, to Em and Reen’s delight there was also a dress up box with batman-esque capes and a cardboard cutout of the hero himself. Of course, as mature adults we smiled at the box and moved on, learning about the unique and interesting history of Wollaton Hall.

Well, we did do that eventually… But only after Em and Reen had bounded up to the dressing up box and cloaked themselves in the batcapes!

Hurrah for immaturity!

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Adventures of ReenRah: Isle of Mann

Part 4

On our first walk around the beautiful village of Port St Mary in the Isle of Mann, just hours after we’d stumbled off the plane, already in awe from the scenery we’d spotted through the plane’s tiny windows, the island still impressed us. As I said to Reen on this first walk (and what later proved to be true our entire stay); “The reason I am not sure what to photograph is that there is too much I could, rather than too little!”. I had hoped to use the trip to improve my (rather limited, basic and amateur) photography skills, so it was a welcome revelation that we’d come to such a stunning place.

But as I was absorbed in all the tiny details of the place, Reen gently reminded me that photos of the whole would also look stunning (and though she didn’t say it, yet another thing I needed and need to improve on!).

However, I must admit, I quickly became entranced by details, especially since I’d only very recently discovered the benefits of the macro setting (I did tell you I was amateur)!

 

I also decided to play around with focus and ended up with two photos I was happy with of the same object.

The Isle of Mann is the sort of place where it doesn’t matter which direction you look: up to the sky or out across the sea or fields or down below your feet. There is always something interesting. And for myself and Reen, who hail from English cities in the Midlands, being by the sea was a welcome change of scenery.

However, I am one of the clumsiest people you will ever meet, and in my twenty years on this Earth have racked up a reputation with my family and friends for having a certain fondness for bodies of water. And sure enough, just a couple of hours after stepping off that plane, I managed to slip on a wet rock and dip my leg into a large swathe of seaweed! Bloody brilliant.

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Adventures of ReenEmRah: Wollaton Hall and Park

The Natural History Gallery in Wollaton Hall

One of the many amazing things about Wollaton Hall is the collection of natural history exhibits it has on display. One particularly interesting part of this display is the stuffed animals and birds. Some of these are over one hundred years old, made with the intent of preserving specimens for future generations of scientists to research on and to educate the public.

I didn’t take many photos since I didn’t want to have *too* morbid a blog post but I did take a few of the more impressive stuffed heads on the walls (okay, wow, didn’t really succeed with the avoiding being morbid thing).

It does really add to the atmosphere of the old stately home though. Some of the specimens date back to the days of Francis Willughby, the owner of the house in the 1600s who was an ornithologist and ichthyologist. In one of the rooms upstairs, more exotic specimens can be found, including an enormous giraffe and a gorilla. I once watched a little girl, who looked about 4 months old, sitting in her pram under the giraffe’s long neck and looking up in absolute awe, mouth agape in wonder. It was lovely to see.

Em, however, was equally amazed by the giraffe’s massive balls!

In the upstairs of the hall is yet another room filled with various specimens, including a huge hippo skull (modeled by Em) and a kangaroo. Sadly there were no more dead animals to touch or gape at after that.

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Adventures of ReenRah: Isle of Mann

Part 3

So, after a long day travelling from Birmingham, England to the Isle of Mann to see our friend Izzi, we were both kinda sleepy. But I (Rah) had been looking forward to the trip for months, and I couldn’t wait to start taking photos of the beautiful island. Whilst Reen collapsed into an armchair, I dragged my weary butt over to the windows to take some photos of the village we were staying in: Port St Mary.

However, I was soon distracted by pretty things within the apartment as well: a paint set that Izzi had received from her grandmother and the beautiful big wooden beams that spanned the living room.

I took one last photo out of a window of the apartment and decided that I couldn’t bear to stay in the apartment much longer when there were walks to be had (and photos to be taken).

Reen quickly agreed and with much gusto we pulled on our boots and water proof coats and, ignoring the need for rest that we both felt in our bones, we heaved ourselves out of the front door, which I noticed had a beautiful sign on it. Tynwald is the goverment of the Isle of Mann, is of Norse origin and hence is over 1000 years old.

Though it was Reen’s first visit to the Isle of Mann, I’d been before in 2012 with Izzi here for a week, and we stayed in the same apartment then that we were staying in this time. So I decided to take Reen on a short walk I’d been on before with Izzi two years previously.

It was a bit hit and miss as I couldn’t remember the way exactly but it was vaguely the same! We walked through the village and past the church and quickly ran out of village and was looking out at a hell of a lot of fields and sea and boats.

The boats were old and beautiful and looked like they had seen better days.

But even amongst all those boats with their quaint names and peeling paints, this little gem stood out.

Adventures of ReenEmRah: Wollaton Hall and Park

A First Glimpse of Wollaton Hall for Emily

In the middle of July, Reen and I had one of our best friends, Emily, over to stay with us. Em is from Arizona (unfortunately a far cry from Birmingham, England where we usually reside), and so thus far we had only been able to speak to each other through the internet. But after a year of skyping for Reen and Em (and a couple of months for me), we could finally all talk in person and show her around our favourite places! After a long flight from Texas to London for Emily, and a quick tour past Buckingham Palace and through Harrods with another penpal friend Emma (from Australia); Emily, Reen and I hopped on a coach from London to Nottingham! The next day, after a suitable lie in (I’m really not a morning person), we all traipsed off to have a wander around Wollaton Hall.

It was Em’s first trip to old England, and I must admit we purposefully chose Wollaton to show her on the first day, not only because it’s one of our all time favourite places but also because, well, it’s bloody pretty and we’re kind of proud of it! It was lovely not only to have Em in the flesh to have a natter to, but also to show her around this beautiful and historic building and park.

So, because we had so many adventures during the week with Em, I’ve decided to split it into smaller sections so I can post them occasionally and get all happy for longer remembering everything we did, as opposed to doing it all in big posts. In other words, expect many more installments of The Adventures of ReenEmRah in the near future!

I shall leave you with a photo of Em and Reen standing outside the very dramatic looking Wollaton Hall for now.

Adventures of ReenRah: Isle of Mann

Part 2

After a day of travelling from Birmingham to the Isle of Mann airport to see our friend Izz, we reached her apartment we were very tired and decided to rest. But before long, the desire to take photos overcame our weariness, so we reached a comprimise: I (Rah) would take photos out of the open windows of the apartment. The view was spectacular, and it’s strange to think that all of these photos below were taken out of a single window.

Since we were staying in Port St Mary, which is a village with a small harbour, there were many small boats dotted around.

Bobbing gently in the waves or resting quietly on the sandy shore, it was refreshing to be surrounded by so many boats and the sea, since we’re so used to an ugly backdrop of cement and buildings. Yes, sadly we are city kids.

From our third floor apartment, we could see an assortment of birds, settled on rooftops and lamp posts. A chilled out jackdaw was our closest neighbour, sitting on an chimney, casually surveying the area. It was a little wary of us: a couple of girls sticking a big camera out of a nearby window, but he was clearly too comfy to really move.

The houses around us were pretty adorable too. The whole village was a cute collection of higgledy-piggledy houses, all with their own characters, looking out to the sea.

Adventures of ReenRah: Exploring the Library of Birmingham

The Shakespeare Memorial Room

The new Library of Birmingham is a stunning, huge, modern building (usually I would never use beautiful and modern together to describe something, but they really did a lovely job with the library). New. Shiny. Geometrical. The Library of Birmingham exudes new money and has a style which will still be modern and beautiful in decades to come. However, on the eighth floor, hides a room which is so opposite to the rest of the building, you wonder if you’ve stumbled into another world.

 

When you walk in, the first thing you notice are that lining the walls are old style wooden cabinets, with intricate wood carvings and light entering the room by sky lights.

 

Though the room wasn’t very big, it was filled with Shakespeare-related “memorabilia”, if you will. It was very hard to take photos in the room: the light was awful and since everything was locked behind glass within the cabinets, it was hard to take a photo without an awful reflection blighting it. I managed to take a few okay photos though, which give a feel for what the room contained.

The room really set off its contents well, and there was detail everywhere. But the wooden carvings in the cabinets and the doors really grabbed my attention. The whole room was stunning, and I just wish the lighting had been better! Maybe another day and another time will allow me to take more photos of that room. Sigh.

Adventures of ReenRah: The Isle of Mann

Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit our amazing friend Izz in the Isle of Mann for five days, since she was living and working there for a couple of months. I (Rah) had been before in 2012 with just Izz so I was excited to show Reen the beauty of the island. I’d already tentatively come to the conclusion that the Isle of Mann was my favourite place in the world in 2012, but visiting again definitely clinched the deal.

Also, may I just say now that the Isle of Mann flag is the most awesome looking flag in the world (in my opinion, of course). But just look at it!

We arrived at the Isle of Mann airport in the afternoon, to glorious weather (despite the weather forecasts saying it would rain) and with Izz waiting for us. After some friendly banter (we’ve been friends for nine years now, teasing each other is the norm) and Izz mucking up our bus tickets by folding the sticky over-layer badly, we got on a bus from the airport to the quaint little seaside village of Port St Mary.

When we arrived at our little apartment we would be staying in during the week, we decided to go for a walk to the local shops to get something for dinner before Izz had to go to work in the evening. Shopping for food with Reen is always a challenge, because she’s allergic to an assortment of foods, is lactose intolerant and (as of the last couple of months) is a vegetarian. She was born to be bloody difficult! It was a task and a half finding food she could eat in the small village shop but we managed it in the end and I took a couple of photos of the walk on the way back. It’s worth noting at this point that I am not going to omit any photos from this trip, and (like with most of my photos because my computer refuses to accept Photoshop software) they have not been edited at all. The photos of the island don’t need tweaking because they are so beautiful anyway. The sky was so blue and the sea so clear, the whole place was almost magical to look at, especially when you are used to living in a big city!

When we reached the building we were staying in, I noticed this unusual car parked inside and just had to snap it! I could just imagine driving round the isle in it, hahah. Very much wishful thinking!

When we got up to the apartment, we cooked our dinner, ate it then bid farewell to Izz as she left for her long shift. Exhausted from all our travelling, myself and Reen slumped into some armchairs and lay there for a while, until my fingers started itching to take some photos and I walked to the window to have a peek outside. Looking straight down from one of the windows, I could see this old and haggered ickle boat. At some point, it may have looked sad and abandoned, but nature had now reclaimed it.

Looking out to the right, of the same window, you could see the little harbour, and across the bay to more of the island.

The whole view was beautiful. Boats and sea and sky and birds. The whole place was just serene, and a feeling of quiet contentedness fills you when you’re in such a place.

Adventures of ReenRah: Wollaton Hall Deer

Wollaton Hall and Park not only is a beautiful stately home with serene fields and gardens and a lake. It’s a haven for wildlife. Birds, insects, plants. It’s full of them. But what sets it out from other stately homes, you may ask?  Well, my deer, if you were to have a wander around the place, it would’t be hard to spot what sets it apart.

The park has two types of deer, which you can see roaming the site freely.

The fallow deer are much smaller, lighter brown and with white markings.

  The red deer are much larger, with a reddish brown coat and the males have huge majestic antlers. This big boy below was clearly the stag leading the harem of females we spotted. He was practically swagging around the place.

The herd was massive! It was fun pointing my camera at a deer shaped spot a while away and zooming in to see a pretty individual looking back at me.

We purposefully positioned ourselves quite far away from the herd, so as not to scare them, so we were very surprised when Reen happened to look to her right and saw two massive stags standing together under the tree. There was a wedding going on in Wollaton Hall that night, and we watched with interest a man stumble down the hill from the hall, clearly drunk. He swaggered down quickly and right past the two stags who gave him the eye before clearly dismissing him as a threat (lucky for him).

We decided to carry on walking around the park at that point, when unwittingly we bumped into this handsome fellow!

He very nicely posed for a few more photos, and then we bid him farewell and carried on with our amble around the park.