• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Uganda 2013

Musiewild's blog

~ An occasional blog, mainly photos

Musiewild's blog

Monthly Archives: July 2015

The Kittiwakes of the Tyne

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Something new, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Gateshead, Kittiwake Tower, Kittiwakes, Newcastle, Tyne, Tyne Bridge

As I walked around Newcastle, especially near the river, I couldn’t help noticing that there seemed to be an awful lot of ‘seagulls’ around, and that at times they made a heck of a row.  Personally, I loved them, and couldn’t help admiring how they made their nests in the most ingenious of places:P1110454

P1110460

P1110455

P1110462

Under the Tyne Bridge

When I reached the top of the Baltic Flour Mills, now the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, my breath was taken away with surprise:

P1110490

P1110493

I had already been thinking that no doubt the powers-that-be spent thousands of pounds trying to get rid of them, but I was delighted to be absolutely wrong:

P1110492

Impossible to read here, and difficult even on site, but broadly the panel indicates that Newcastle Gateshead is proud to assist the kittiwakes, and does so through a partnership of local authorities and wildlife bodies.

P1110491

Kittiwakes usually nest in sea-cliffs from March to August (the rest of the year they are at sea) but these were used to nesting on the Baltic building. When this was redeveloped and finally opened in 2002, a Kittiwake Tower was built a little down-river for them to move to. Some did, but many returned to the Baltic building, and even more continue to nest on and around the Tyne Bridge. This is the most inland colony of kittiwakes in the world. More information here.

P1110496

Young kittiwake preparing to fly off to sea.

For me it was a thrilling discovery, and it’s so good to learn that these kittiwakes, which bring so such pleasure, are being protected.  Searching for information on them does however sadly indicate that not everyone agrees with me.

Next post: on to Glasgow.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

A second day in Newcastle

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Music-making, Travel

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Baltic Flour Mills, Bessy Surtees, Charles Avison, Charles Avison Bessie Surtees, Charles I, Maddison Memorial, Newcastle, Newcastle Cathedral, Newcastle Millennium Bridge, Newcastle Railway Station, Northumbria University, Sage Gateshead

The view from my hotel bedroom window was not brilliant, but there did seem to be one interesting building over to the right.

P1110421 - Copie

Having checked out of my hotel, I was able to look for its frontage, and found this:

P1110422

I am afraid I had never heard of Avison. But found out more here.

My walk today took me past more splendid 19th century buildings, including the Post Office.

P1110431

Next was a visit to the cathedral, a huge 13th to 15th century church which only became a cathedral in 1882.P1110430tors

At that point some very fine neo-gothic alabaster work was added, among many other things.

P1110433

P1110434tors

P1110437

The Cathedral’s own hand-out describes the mid-17th century Maddison Memorial as its ‘most attractive and lively monument’. It commemorates three generations of the family.

P1110441tors

Once upon a time, Newcastle had, of course, a new castle: here is its keep.

P1110443tors

I moved on towards the River Tyne, via the mediaeval Sandhills area,

P1110449tors

and was amused to see this:

P1110451

Bessie’s elopement with John, who came from a poor family, was not approved by her own, but they came round later…

Moving on towards the quayside, I wondered what this building was.  It made me think of a cinema.

P1110470tors

It turned out to be the Law Courts.

P1110471tors

I was now on the quayside, and got my first glimpse of Newcastle’s famous Millennium Bridge, swung upwards at that point.

P1110474

Now, I had heard of Paris Plage when I lived in France, but was very surprised to come across Newcastle’s Quayside Seaside (and wondered whether Teesside had thought to get in on the act).

P1110475

Time to cross the bridge, back to its normal position now, and to look up river to see the Sage Gateshead building, (a splendid concert hall, home to the Northern Sinfonia), and many bridges, including the nearest, the Tyne Bridge, announcing the Rugby World Cup 2015, to be held, it would appear, in the UK this autumn.

P1110482

Having crossed, I was now in Gateshead, and visited the top floor of the Baltic Arts Centre (more tomorrow, with a wildlife flavour).

P1110489tors

P1110499

(The line is a corner join in the glass through which the panoramic photo was taken.)

I walked back along the Quay on the Gateshead side, through the Sage, by now getting rather chilly (the weather had now turned for the bad, and so it was to remain for the rest of my time away), and crossed back to Newcastle over the red Swing Bridge, which is opened regularly to keep it in working order.

P1110512

The tourist office walk I was on suggested studying the station, which I did, admiring particularly the huge doors.

P1110522tors

My feet were by now pretty sore, so with the prospect of quite a walk to Northumbria University, where the geology symposium was to be held, I went to rest them in the lobby of my hotel which had kindly stored my suitcase, before setting off again.  Least said soonest mended about the problems I had getting to the university, but, on the way, I did notice these two interesting features.

P1110526tors

P1110527tors

I was not aware that the Scots had occvpied the city.

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

First real post, a few hours in Newcastle

29 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Geology, Travel

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Annie, Craig Revel Horwood, Dominicans, geology, Great Reform Bill, Lord Grey, Newcastle, Open University Geological Society, Richard Grainger

Having decided a couple of weeks ago to start a blog, I thought a sensible time would be when I had something to say, and more importantly to show, since the purpose of the blog is mainly to share photos I have taken. (The six previous posts were really just practice.)

Newcastle upon Tyne station

Newcastle upon Tyne station

I’ve  not long been back from ten days ‘up north’, as we southerners say, in Newcastle, Glasgow and beautiful Dumfriesshire, but I am not going to post all 550 pictures I took. Over the next few days, in hopefully reasonably sized chunks, I’ll be sharing some of them, with as little explanatory text as I can limit  myself to.  After that, it could be quite a while before I post again.

The excuse for the trip was a symposium of the Open University Geological Society (OUGS) in Newcastle, though there’ll be no photos of that.  I couldn’t go all that way without adding quite a few days on to explore places I had never been to, and meet up with people I was in contact with but had never met.  So on Thursday 16th July, I went up 24 hours before the start of the symposium, by train, and was delighted to find that the hotel I had booked online was not only conveniently placed, opposite the station, but was somewhat above my own normal station in life.

P1110524tors

Having settled in to my comfortable room, and with much of the afternoon left, I decided to do one of the tourist office walks I had downloaded, starting in Grainger Town, named after the 19th century property developer, Richard Grainger, and dominated by Grey’s Monument, erected in 1838 to commemorate the passage by Lord Grey of the Great Reform Bill in 1832.

St John's Church and Grainger Street

St John’s Church and Grainger Street

P1110387

P1110388

Off Grainger Street was the Central Arcade, with it beautiful Edwardian tiling.

P1110393

P1110392

And round the corner was the Theatre Royal, where that evening I was to see the musical ‘Annie’,with Craig Revel Horwood as Miss Hannigan, in a new touring production. Highly recommended.

P1110398

Blackfriars was rather older.  Dominican friars arrived here in 1239.

P1110407

P1110408

The original town walls date from 1280-83.

P1110417

But this sculpture, round the corner from my hotel, is very recent.

P1110419

The rest of my time in Newcastle, tomorrow.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Coming to the end of training…

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Something new

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

learning, Strode, Wordpress

P1090787

It’s been a great course, in very good company. When I started it yesterday morning, I was far from sure that I wanted to get involved in having a blog. (Why have I come on the course then? That’s a long and complicated story.) But I’m totally sold on it now, and when I return from a trip up north in a couple of weeks’ time, with no doubt lots of photos, I might just do some ‘serious’ posts and start inviting people to have a look. Thank you Jane, Lisa, Barry, and particularly Kev Cook of Strode College.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Gallery

Photography course at Aigas

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Photography, Wildlife

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aigas, Easyjet, Inverness-shire, John LIster-Kaye, pine marten, salmon

This gallery contains 15 photos.

I’d long wanted to visit the nature centre, Aigas, in Beauly, Inverness-shire, founded and run by the wonderful naturalist/author John …

Continue reading →

Day two of training

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Something new

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Glastonbury, Polden Hills

Tuesday morning. All seems to be going well, and my three co-learners are all pursuing their own very different purposes, one even having been inspired to something completely different from her original one.

So I’m continuing my own practice by posting a picture I took last year, when St John’s Church in Glastonbury High Street held an open day. They took groups up to the top of the tower.  Looking south towards the Polden Hills, with glimpses of the Abbey in the foreground.P1020625

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

A porpoise at Burrowbridge

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Wildlife

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Burrowbridge, geology, Harbour porpoise, Somerton, U3A

The King Alfred Inn at Burrowbridge may possibly ring bells as the ‘community HQ’ during the Somerset Levels flooding a couple of years ago. I was there recently having lunch with the Somerton U3A geology group. As we were having a drink beforehand on the upper deck of the pub, I spotted a fin in the River Parrett alongside, and I knew it had to be either a cetacean (= whale family) or a small member of the shark family.  It couldn’t be the latter, from its style of swimming, and almost involuntarily I cried out “I’ve just seen a dolphin”, feeling rather foolish as I did so. Fortunately others saw it as it rose to the surface again after a few seconds.  The barmaid Harbour porpoise at Burrowbridge, 07.07.2015on duty had never seen the like in 20 years. It swam up and down the river for perhaps 300 metres – it was high tide – a few times, but was not there an hour later. I now know, from Somerset Wildlife Trust contacts, that there have been as many as five Harbour porpoises – for such they are – seen in this river recently.  It is thought they are coming up this far – some 15 miles from the mouth of the river – after the increasing numbers of sea bass now available.  It was a wonderful sighting, and I managed to get a photo on my phone. Wish I’d had my zoomy camera with me.

 

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Just testing…

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Something new

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

garden, Scarlet tiger moth

P1110271

Scarlet tiger moth in my garden

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Being trained at Strode!

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Something new

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

learning, Strode, Wordpress

Monday morning. Shall I ever get the hang of this WordPress stuff? Tutor is very helpful, and there are only four of us on this two-day course, so hopefully at the end of it all will be (fairly) well…

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • Norway 2022/23 – 12, An even quieter morning, though not without a degree of anxiety
  • Norway 2022/23 – 11, A quiet day
  • Norway 2022/23 – 10 New Year’s Eve
  • Norway 2022/23 – 9, Turnabouts and changes
  • Norway 2022/23 – 8, Hammerfest
  • Norway 2022/23 – 7, Kirkenes
July 2015
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
    Aug »

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015

Blogroll

  • Avalon Marshes 'Hands on Heritage'
  • Londonsenior
  • Salmon Brook Farms
  • The Jaguar
  • Tootlepedal's blog

Recent Comments

Musiewild on Norway 2022/23 – 12, An…
maryh on Norway 2022/23 – 12, An…
maryh on Norway 2022/23 – 12, An…
Musiewild on Norway 2022/23 – 5, Boxi…
Musiewild on Norway 2022/23 – 4, Chri…

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Musiewild's blog
    • Join 195 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Musiewild's blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: