Sculptures @ Chelsea

Dr Anne has a great love of sculpture.  

Here are her 2112 favourites.

Can you see this @ East Neuk?

Maybe this?

The coloured glass was special.

Artichokes?

Colour?

This one looked really special in the evening.

Chelsea Flower Show, 2012

Dr Anne and Grey Granite headed to Chelsea for members day.  Having had a relaxing night in the Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel they were fit, enthusiastic and motivated.  Having previously visited the Show they were also focused. Dr Anne and Grey Granite being at the opposite ends of the the Continuum of Gardening, they split and headed off after their favourites.  

The Buzz Garden got a gold.  

Dr Anne liked the idea of cycling to irrigate the plot.

Dr Anne's favourite show garden.

May Day

Dr Anne and SS travelled up from Gatwick with Flybe.  The weather was amazing and the plane flew low level up the east coast of Scotland.

Roma - inside the buildings

The Vatican Museum

The Tapestry Rooms

Follow his eyes - he is watching you

The Rotonda

Apollo Belvedere

St Peter's Basilica

Madonna with the dying Christ in St Peter's Basilica

The Pantheon

The hole in the roof of the Pantheon

Roma - the buildings

The wall around the historic centre

The Palatino - the stadio

The Roman Forum

In the Colosseum

Outside the Colosseum

Outside the Pantheon

Palazzo e Galleria Doria Pamphilj

St Peter's Basilica

The Vatican Guards

The Vatican Courtyard

The River Tiber

Roma

Dr Anne and her friend SS visited Roma over the weekend to celebrate life.

Her memory will be crowds, queues and a sea of noise.

There were crowds at the tomb of the unknown soldier, a cycle protest, and the main tourist sites.  

There were queues at all the main tourist sites, three hours for the Colosseum, one and a half hours for the Palatino and five hours for the Vatican.

There was a sea of noise everywhere indoors.  Even in the Sistene Chapel there was this sea of noise although one had been told to be silent.

Dr Anne loves to be the observer so she was in her element looking and people watching.

This was the tomb of the unknown soldier.  The group in orange looked link Mussolini's youth groups.  The Italians do love uniforms.

Outside the Collosseum, the Palatino and the Roman Forum was a large demonstration for cycle lanes.

People sat around resting at every opportunity.  Here they are in the Colosseum. 

People rest in the Pantheon.

Not much wonder.  The crowd was immense and they had to hang around until the service finished.

The crowds at the Trevi Fountain.

Dr Anne could barely see the Spanish Steps for people sitting around.

The queue for the Basilica of St Peter.

The queue for the Vatican went on and on and on and on.  People tried to creep up the inside of the queue but were stopped by the Stazi, a name given by Dr Anne to three young women who kept the row in order.  One woman had a son who was hop skipping and jumping up the queue.  The woman was following until the Stazi stopped her, stood in front of her and said behind...  The young guy eventually had to fall back into position.  

It didn't matter if you were on a tour or just standing in line... queue...

Once you queued then you rested in the quad of the Vatican.

Once in the Vatican one was carried along...

There were queues in the Basilica.

There were queues in the toilet.

Departures

Parsons, T. (2011). Departures. London: Harper Collins Publishers

Dr Anne watched Tony Parsons on the Book Programme on Sky Arts.  As she was passing through Heathrow on the way to Rome she thought this might be a good read.  There were seven stories: The firefighting team; The animals; The pilot's view of the world; Customs and passport control; Air traffic control; Birds and debris on the runways; The final call - arrivals, departures, meetings and farewells.  The stories gave an excellent backroom view of the happenings at Heathrow that the passenger rarely sees or knows.  Some nuggets. Excellent, it took from lift off London to touch down Rome.  Dr Anne awards 8/10.  Dr Anne's friend SS read it on the return journey.