Adventures of ReenRah: Exploring the Library of Birmingham

Maps of Birmingham

When we were exploring the new library, which was only opened in September 2013, we came across a whole room filled with interesting maps of the surrounding area. As we have both lived in Birmingham our whole lives, it was fascinating to see lots of different maps from different times of all the places we have different memories of.

There were maps of different parts of the area; different scales; different colours; different styles. This is just a quick post, but I thought I’d share some of the photos I got of a small selection of them.

Adventures of ReenRah: Wollaton Hall

Revision Break in Wollaton 

A few photos from a couple of months ago, when we were in the middle of exams and needed a break from the equations and textbooks and wandered down to Wollaton Hall. It had been a very rainy day and the whole place was deserted, which made the walk all the more serene and calming.

We saw many crows and jackdaws on our walk, and one crow decided he wanted to pose prettily for me.

I love how even when it’s all wet with dark skies, Wollaton Hall and Park always looks beautiful. The power of the place to put a smile on my face during a hellish exam season is testament to this.

Reen tried taking a few photos on her iPhone to try to save the battery on my camera, but I’m not sure that they turned out that well.

But she was happy when we made our way up to the hall itself, and she became enamored with a gigantic puddle spanning most of the courtyard.

Though we did have to listen the squelching of her boots the whole way home!

Adventures of ReenRah: The Nature Reserve

Despite living in the renowned industrial city of Birmingham, England, there are a lot of beautiful parks and nature reserves around us. The nature reserve down the road from Rah is particularly stunning, with a lake and various fields and conservation areas.

It’s not that big, but it’s a great place to walk the doggies or just to relax after a long day of work.

The lake is quite large, and backs onto several gardens. It is very well populated, and you can often see a pair of swans with their brood, dragonflies, coots, fish and a whole host of ducks.

The whole nature reserve is just a beautiful mess of plants and wildlife, and once you’re in there, it’s hard to believe you’re just 6.5 miles from the Bullring shopping centre in the city centre!

So today, myself (Rah) and Reen put on our boots and made our way down there to walk Sherlock and Watson.

Reen was looking as radiant as ever, so I forced her to let me take a photo of her, since she has this strange notion in her head that she’s not attractive and hates photos of herself. What a silly, especially when she looks like this:

I  also managed to find quite a selection of white and purple flowers on our short walk:

But my two favourites have got to be these two gorgeous and delicate lilac flowers we found:

So many beautiful things in one place!

Adventures of ReenRah: Wollaton Hall

Exploring the Garden of Wollaton Hall

We decided to have a look at the garden, located at the back of the hall, and despite obvious work going on (planting new flowers and sorting out the soil), what was there was very beautiful. We came across some glorious roses and a velvety-looking pansy.

We also found a statue of a pretty lady in the garden, who Reen tried (and failed) to copy.

Though, she did slightly better on the second try (slightly):

And we noticed that the statue had very bizaare feet: with really long toes that looked almost like fingers. In other words, they looked exactly like Rah’s boyfriend’s feet, which creep her out, so we had to take a photo!

It was then that Reen spotted another statue… And once again, we gained photographic proof of Reen’s fascination and adoration of butts.

Just look at this satisfied face!

Adventures of ReenRah: Exploring the Library of Birmingham

Views of Birmingham, England, from the Library

In September 2013, the new Library of Birmingham was opened, and we decided it was about high time we went to go explore it. And it was such a beautiful day, Reen even had to fish out her sunglasses when we went out onto the gardens on the upper floors of the library.

As we went round, Rah took photos (obviously) and these are some of the photos of Birmingham that we managed to take from floors 4 to 9 of the library.

As you can see, Birmingham is a thriving city, which is infamous for its many canals (“more canals than Venice!” you can hear any Brummy saying to someone outside of the city) and for being the city at the heart of the English industrial revolution. Birmingham has a bad reputation, despite being England’s second city. But as one review of the city said, “You only think Birmingham is a bad city if you haven’t been there yet.”

The new library’s exterior is very interesting, with various geometrical shapes decorating it, which I used to nicely frame parts of Birmingham as I took photos from the inside of the library.

The sky looked lovely and blue, but in the typical style of British weather, it couldn’t wholly behave and we had a hard time controlling our hair in the wind (and, more unfortunately, our skirts!).

This didn’t affect the lovely view of the city though, and I was able to take this photo of the iconic BT tower.

We definitely enjoyed our look around the new library and we’re crossing our fingers for more of this beautiful weather!

Adventures of ReenRah: The Sleepy Ducks

On one of our many walks, we happened upon a small group of sleeping ducks. Littering the ground were various massive feathers, presumably belonging to geese rather than the smaller duckies, and Reen took a fancy to one in particular which she still has in her room as a momento.

 

I (Rah) decided to test my luck and try to take a closer photo of the closest duck, which was a male with a magnificently iridescent green head. As I approached, he sleepily opened one eye and groggily watched me creep nearer. As I got closer and closer, inch by inch, he became slightly more alert but my patiently slow creeping meant he wasn’t too bothered and eventually I was standing right next to him and was able to take a couple of beautiful photos.

I also managed to get slighter closer to his very tired mate, who was skillfully standing on one leg nearby.

So, in conclusion, I have two pro tips for taking photos of ducks (since I can now consider myself practically an expert, paha). The first is to go extremely slow towards them. In fact, go so slow that the ducks barely even notice you moving. The second is to take photos of ducks when they’re so sleepy that they really can’t be bothered to move!

Adventures of ReenRah: Wollaton Hall

Wollaton Hall Visit at the End of Exams

After our long slog of exams, we decided to let off some steam at our favourite place: Wollaton Hall and Park in Nottingham. Feeling slightly hyper from what felt like an eternity of being cooped up with revision, we found everything and anything entertaining. Reen got particularly happy upon finding some pretty foxglove petals on the floor, and decided to decorate her fingers with them.

And I (Rah) am very happy to announce that I managed to snag a photo of Reen whilst she was talking to a flower…

As you can tell, she wasn’t very impressed by it. However, she definitely enjoyed the maple tree seeds we also found, which turned us both into rhinos!

Which lead to the most beautiful selfie of us (Reen is on the left, Rah on the right):

Reen also conquered a fallen tree and rubbed a tree butt on our walk.

If there’s one thing that Reen is notorious for, it is her love of butts. With a very satisfied Reen, we headed home.

Adventures of ReenRah: Wollaton Hall

What’s so special about Wollaton Hall?

Since moving to Nottingham for university, we have discovered our favourite place there: Wollaton Hall and Parks. It is simply stunning.

And whilst the hall itself is attractive (both inside and out), nothing can beat the beauty of it’s gardens and parks.

The foxgloves in particular looked stunning with their bright pinks and whites dotted around the park last week.

And every time we visit, we manage to explore a new nook or cranny.

The trees there range from newly growing saplings to magnificent giants.

Which makes Wollaton Park a beautiful mix of dense woodland and vast open green space.