Greening II in the Garden which is Green (or in Dutch) Groen

When doing the tourist thing and pounding the streets of Antwerp I discovered this sculpture. Are they descending or growing?  I thought they were growing until someone mentioned descending. The clue may be in the title "Greening II" by the artist Monique Donckers. She says that in painting you can create a world but sculptures must create their own world, and this one certainly does. Maybe it depends on the time of year how you view it, in spring or autumn.

 Here they are glimpsed from the back by the fish pond.  Monique Donckers I learn has a handful of sculptures dotted around Antwerp.  Strange how one always finds out things after you have left a place but I suppose it does mean there is something new to see if you return.

This is definitely a place to return to, a little oasis of relaxation in the city where you can sit and watch the gardener at work tending his A for Antwerp. 

 You can see what time of year I visited with the tulips full out and a

bee trying on a bluebell hat for size. 

Now I may have gone clickety click at all the tulips but this garden contains much more. It is called the Plantentuin (Plant Garden) or Botanical Garden. It was created in 1804 for students of the School for Surgery, Chemistry and Botany which was housed in the St Elisabeth Hospital and at that time grew only medicinal plants. Today there are flowers, trees and around 2000 herbs but more than that it is also a popular place to relax on the benches or just walk through and enjoy the green space.

The greenhouses are not open to the public but I did peer through the window and spot a nice display of cactus.  

Here are the plant labels ready for the summer plants to appear by them and a lone statue of Peter Van Coudenberghe (1517-1599) , a pharmacist and botanist who is famous for writing about the medicinal use of plants and herbs, he listed and described more than 600 different plants and explained how they can be used.  He also kept exotic plants which were protected during the wintertime by placing them in underground storage, unfortunately this garden was destroyed by the Spanish Army during the Siege of Antwerp (1584-5).  Like the garden the statue itself was nearly destroyed.  262 years after his death a statue was erected in 1861 to celebrate his pharmaceutical contributions but was damaged during the first world war and moved to a warehouse. Not discovered again until 1996 was what was left of the statue was restored and placed in this peaceful corner of the Botanical Gardens in Leopold Street, Antwerp.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet

    

Fishing, Flags and Framlingham

Orford Quay, Suffolk

Fine fishing paraphernalia at Orford quay, looks like good teamwork and a lot of concentration is going on here. Meanwhile

Orford, Suffolk

the professionals have netted their fish and are flogging it at the fishing sheds. No high tides at the moment but

if there were they will be well protected from flooding with these footings.  Perhaps you wanted more than fish?  Then travel not too far away to the market town of

Framlingham.  This is the market square but on the day I visited it was not scenic with stalls but just parked cars, still the town sign is pretty. It shows the mere fed by the River Ore, the village pump, the post box (it is one of the oldest in the UK if you are thinking its a bit random), the castle and the 16th century church

Church of St Michael, Framlingham

which is famous for its organ, its ornate tombs and one of the rare wall paintings to survive the Reformations white paint but I did not take any of those pictures only its flowers and flint walls  

The town itself was en fête and festooned with flying flags of all nations for  the Olympics

Market Hill, Framlingham

 Yes I failed to take a picture of the historic postbox, or even see it, but here is a stand in. You can see I was taken with the flags but wished there were less cars and

more bicycles.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet. 

Intermission

 

About to head for a totally different terrain than this well worn track up to Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales, for a few weeks in the rolling countryside and by the shingle beaches of Suffolk.   

Cycling through the Counties

Haverigg, Cumbria

 Like the track seen here what passes for summer this year has been a bumpy ride but it hasn't put the cyclists off.  I travel up a hill on the way to work each morning which has a lay-by popular as a meeting place for road racing cyclists about to set off for mega miles.  No matter whatever the weather there is never less than three cyclists waiting for the rest of the group to turn up.

Coniston Water, Cumbria

They may be travelling past Coniston Water which is not too far away.  Monday here, as can be seen by the clouds, was a day of sunshine and showers, just the day for messing about on boats, or under cover in the launch. 

Cherry Orchard, Boughton, Chester, Cheshire

Or if it turns really wet, travel south to relax in the Cherry Orchard pub in Cheshire.  I see they too have a special Wednesday but rather than an ABC it is a quiz night with sandwiches at half time to keep those little grey cells in shape.

Clown Fish, Blue Planet Aquarium, Chester

Not too far away another indoor attraction at the aquarium are the fish that Disney made famous in Finding Nemo - Amphiprion osellarais - the clownfish, in its natural habitat found in the coral reefs of the Pacific.

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journey through the alphabet now on its 11th circuit

ABC Wednesday - Bandstand

The bandstand stands silent in Barrow Park, surrounded by bushes and clipped hedges in the middle of the 45 acres of the park,  originally designed by landscaper gardener Thomas Mawson

Wandering around the other side and shooting into the sun which, from the notice on the gate,  it will be hoped will be shining on Sunday

when there is a Bandstand Picnic with music

 And maybe one of the teams will be on the bowling greens.  No matches on Monday, no players and not a trace

 of a bowl like this on the green only two seagulls so as no action photographs to be taken here is another game played with spherical objects - 

boules players in Belgium.

An entry to ABC Wednesday. A journey through the alphabet.

Antwerp from An Angle

On a overcast day by the side of the Scheldt River the signs tell both walker and sailor where they are, Antwerp or its Dutch name Antwerpen.  The building is the Zuiderterras café and restaurant which in a country that has two languages Flemish and French appears to combine the two in this word, so we have the south terrace.  Interesting how languages shift and adapt.

Walk further along and the goddess of wisdom and patroness of the arts and trade Minerva stands gazing down the river.  The tall tower belongs to the Cathedral of Our Lady and its 404 feet can been seen from every part of the city.

 Its other end is just as unique.

To get the best view of the Antwerp skyline a walk from the city through the tunnel under the river takes you to the verdant banks on the other side. On this still sunny day the sound of the church carillon on the clock drifted across the water. 

as we walked along the river path which had lots of photo opportunities which will make another appearance for this round of ABC (if I don't absent-mindedly forget, a common occurrence).  But lets head towards that red square building the MAS (Museum aan der Stroom) where one can get  

a 360 degree view over the city.  The building is situated near the location of the old Red Star line quay where 2.7 million emigrants set sail for North America. Today the area is being regenerated and there are more yachts than liners.

Setting sail for another round of ABC Wednesday

Pram-bulating

An entry to Sepia Saturday "Using old images as prompts for new reflections"

From the gardens of the Schloss Belvedere and the wonderful needlework seen on the Sepia Saturday prompt picture lets journey to northern England

and wave.  I'm waving at my father here but was told I used to wave at everyone from the pram; I still enjoy waving.  This is Bardsea Road one Sunday in June 1950 it encompassed a walk which I would take with my mother Sadie shown here until her old age, you had to take up a brisk pace because she considered that slow walking tired her out. While browsing through the many pictures of me in a pram I noticed for the first time the pretty woven basket which seems to vary from half to brimming full.

Wheeling back in time a month to

May 1950 here at Canal Foot by the side of Morecambe Bay, the railway viaduct just visible in the background.  Now there are two elements from the prompt both a pram and a blanket. My mother and her life long friends Julia and Harry Boyd share a rug while it looks as though my 'Aunt' Julia is instructing her son Roger to do something or more likely not do something, I'm an 'innocence bystander'. 

Five years later and I don't think I quite fit a pram although it was good fun to roll up and down the garden path in it. The month is August and the photo says it is a warm day; I look brown so, unlike this year, it has been a good summer. I once stayed with Mrs High, the mother of my friend here Marion (who you can see is blond with complexion to match).  She tried to scrub the 'dirt' off my knees in the bath until I told her it wasn't going to come off because that was me.   But lets get back to the pram, I suspect this is the one from which I saw a tyre in a stream and insisted on visiting it every day which meant that the Bardsea Road walk in the first photo was one that my mother could not deviate from for some time.

Not long after this photo only the wheels survived of the pram when they were turned into Go-cart, not by me but one of the neighbourhood boys, although I did get rides on the completed construction, bliss. You never see home made go-carts today and I have no photos of these particular wheels but to relive those memories of simpler times with the help of Flickr and the National Library of Wales

The Longden Bay Go-cart Racers, September 1953 - Photographer Geoff Charles (1909-2002)