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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 19:42:04 GMT
Any market anywhere always merits examination.
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Post by lugg on Jun 24, 2013 19:43:41 GMT
What a brilliant job you have done, -really " barely breaking the surface" is so not true. A lovely and informative insight into this city. The shrub is a cotoneaster - insignificant flowers in the summer, ( white or pale pink ) much beloved by bees nevertheless, and then lovely berries in the autumn. I have one that surrounds my front door. Although the end of the academic year , the few days you were there coincided with a huge amount of social activity for the students - balls , graduations etc, perhaps that is why the streets were quiet during the day
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Post by htmb on Jun 24, 2013 19:48:01 GMT
Thanks so much, Mich and Lugg. Lots more to come, including a garden visit.
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Post by htmb on Jun 24, 2013 19:51:37 GMT
What a brilliant job you have done, -really " barely breaking the surface" is so not true. A lovely and informative insight into this city. The shrub is a cotoneaster - insignificant flowers in the summer, ( white or pale pink ) much beloved by bees nevertheless, and then lovely berries in the autumn. I have one that surrounds my front door. Although the end of the academic year , the few days you were there coincided with a huge amount of social activity for the students - balls , graduations etc, perhaps that is why the streets were quiet during the day Thank you for the shrub explanation. Yes, I figured there was lots going on " behind closed doors." Plus, most hotels were booked. I was lucky to get my room.
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Post by mossie on Jun 24, 2013 20:01:39 GMT
Your shrub is cotoneaster horizontalis We have one growing on the back wall of the garage. There are numerous little ones around the garden due to the birds eating the berries and depositing them ready fertilised.
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Post by htmb on Jun 24, 2013 21:27:50 GMT
Thank you, all. It's a pretty little shrub. Off to the Cam River again. This area is know as "The Backs" because the river runs along the back of several colleges. This bridge, which I've shown before, is the Clare College bridge. The college was established in 1326, and features the oldest surviving bridge, which was built about 1640. Former members of Clare College include Sir David Attenborough and James D. Watson, co-discoverer of DNA's structure. Source: Cambridge Official Map & Mini-Guide While walking along a path alongside a sort of a canal, I came across this Pike. I watched him for awhile, but he never did move. Waiting for something tasty to come along, I suppose. One of the men who had also stopped to observe the pike told me where I could find this chick. I was really charmed by this little thing. It was being cared for by both parents, who were taking turns. Just look at the size of his feet. It amazes me to think those little nubs On his sides are going to grow into wings. In this next photo the other parent (the mother?) has just handed over a little morsel of food.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 21:43:18 GMT
Cute little ugly thing. Any cats in the area?
The boaters look a little silly, but they also look like they are enjoying themselves, so that's all right.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 25, 2013 2:36:01 GMT
Htmb, I am almost as green with envy as the expanses of greensward in your glorious pictures. But the envy is easily outstripped by the sheer gratitude I feel for this report. I've long felt that if I can only visit one foreign country, it will have to be England and your photos and text have cemented that. Lord Peter figures greatly in my imagining of Cambridge and your pictures have corroborated and immeasurably enhanced my mental picture of the place. The photo of the peahen(?) in that perfect stretch of lawn and the 4th photo in #35 make me out & out happy. Sorry to burble, but it's all sincere. Looking forward to more!
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 6:21:03 GMT
Oh, thank you, bixa.
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 6:37:00 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 6:48:12 GMT
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Post by mossie on Jun 25, 2013 7:01:56 GMT
Another delightful photo essay. One thing puzzles me. In your moorhen pictures they are perching on a discarded piece of cast iron fencing, the left hand end is gripped by some great evil claw, where was the rest of that creature?? Because from the angle it must have been nuzzling your left shoulder
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 7:09:22 GMT
I guess those tree roots do look a lot like claws. Either that, or it was the mysterious Cambridge monster that lurks about the riverside.
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 8:45:42 GMT
An interesting history of Clare College and the Fellows Gardens may be found here for those who may be interested. The gardens are under a ten year restoration plan. In the last line of the college history section a professor writes: ...in 1972, Clare was one of three Cambridge colleges to admit undergraduate women, a change which had a dramatic effect on the nature of the society, particularly in the immediately enhanced academic standing of the college in examination results.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 9:39:51 GMT
The gardens are lovely, but I don't think those banana trees are going to produce much fruit this year.
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 9:47:05 GMT
Yes, I was very surprised to see the banana trees. I don't suppose they ever produce fruit. One little frost and they're dead.
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 14:09:01 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 14:52:34 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 15:22:55 GMT
Back at Parker's Piece activity had picked up since the rain was holding off for a bit. Some Italian kids were playing football (soccer). There was a cricket match across the way. Everyone was dressed in their whites. Meanwhile, an anti-government songfest and picnic were on for the left side of the field. As I sat on a park bench a bloke came out of a pub and stood screaming into his cell about how he was f&@$$&x tired and f&@$$x angry and how he would no longer be "Jake the nice guy." This went on for about ten minutes, until I thought the guy was going to have a coronary, or throw his phone ( which would have been a plus). Must have used the F word at least 40 times. Down the way were a few dirty, druggy-looking men, with grouchy dogs named Heinrich and Himmler. Typical university campus atmosphere.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 16:26:22 GMT
We have those white-flowered shrubs all over Paris as well. Even though the flower is reminiscent of dogwood, I know that it is not.
30 minutes before closing time is 'shoo' time in Paris, too.
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Post by fumobici on Jun 25, 2013 19:44:02 GMT
More English wonderfulness. I wish the rest of the world could learn to garden as well as the English do, we'd all be well served. Thank you so much htmb, this is very enjoyable indeed.
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Post by htmb on Jun 25, 2013 19:57:47 GMT
Thank you, Fumobici. I appreciate that very much. More English wonderfulness to come.
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Post by htmb on Jun 26, 2013 7:26:39 GMT
Catching up a bit with a few pictures and some history. I thought it was interesting to find a Jamie Oliver restaurant in Cambridge. A side view of King's College Chapel Corn Exchange The Corn Exchange site was originally the remains of the Priory of Friars Hermits which had been on the site since the Middle Ages...The foundation stone was laid by the Mayor in 1874 and the building was opened in 1875. A quarter of a million local bricks were used in various colours. The opening concert was a performance on 9 November by the Coldstream Guards and a local choral society. During the playing of the National Anthem a mistake was made, and angry crowds subsequently attacked the Mayor's house. The resulting trial attracted the world's press and resulted in crowds of sightseers making visits to the building, interfering with the corn trading. SourceThe building is still used as a performance hall and as an examination administration site. Across the street was this interesting building, though a search for history has so far been futile. More from the Official Map & Mini-Guide: Cambridge (too) has turned its unique blend of tradition and revolutionary thinking to ever-greater advantage, educating princes and prime ministers as well as poets and satirists. Thanks to Cambridge, DNA has been unravelled and the atom split in the Old Cavendish Laboratories in Free School Lane, and codes broken that changed the course of WWII. It has seen the likes of Milton, Marlowe, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Byron pass through its halls, and nurtured the theories of Newton, Darwin, Rutherford and Hawking.
The university has produced a whole host of great entertainers including Clive James, Monty Python, Stephen Frye, Hugh Laurie, David Mitchell, and Robert Webb.In fact, photos of some new and youthful Cambridge entertainers will be coming up soon.
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Post by htmb on Jun 26, 2013 8:14:10 GMT
Even though I had seen a lot of punts on the Cam, and learned enough to reinforce Patrick's comments about the difficulty of steering the boats, I just knew there was more to see. On my last full day in Cambridge I went just a bit further up the high street before turning towards the river. It was a Saturday and what a difference in crowd size, despite the rainy weather! One of the first interesting sights I came to was Holy Sepulchre, also known as The Round Church. According to the visitor's guide, the church is one of only five English churches built in this style, and was possibly associated with the Templars in the 12th century. Even though it started raining fairly hard, I soldiered on. I finally made it to Magdalene Bridge and the spot used as a river crossing dating back to at least the Romans.
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 26, 2013 9:31:55 GMT
That might be because there's little or no historic interest attached. To me it looks like an example of late 19th/early 20th century "Queen Anne" style, such as you'll find all over England. I've been scratching my head trying to remember what it might have been in my day, but nothing comes to mind, although I lived round the corner from there. It certainly wouldn't have been a pizza restaurant, such things were barely starting in the late 60s.
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Post by tod2 on Jun 26, 2013 12:43:03 GMT
At last I am able to catch up on Anyport and was knocked out by your wonderful photo-essay on Cambridge! Gorgeous photos with interesting subject matter in every one of them! You have made me wish that we had taken the time to go to Cambridge when we had our motor home holiday some 5 or so years ago You have certainly made my mind up that it will not be bypassed when we next visit! I am looking forward to your next adventure Htmb....soon!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 26, 2013 13:09:35 GMT
I don't know how you managed such incredibly good pictures in the rain, but I'm glad you did! This is such and enjoyable thread. I would say you outdid yourself in the gardens, but there are too many other photos -- of the river, of buildings, etc. -- that are also perfect: the side view of Kings College Chapel, the round stone steps, and the glorious swoop of flowers and wall in front of the ranks of windows (#47), just to name a few.
It's wonderful how the English are willing to devote large swaths of land to gardens and attendant lawns, and of course that willingness to allow plants to do as they please, even in fairly formal settings. Some of those garden sections appear to have themes. The bananas & amaranthus seem to be a "tropical foods" area, for instance. Can anyone identify the little round-leafed plants underneath the amaranthus -- gotu kola, maybe? What about the red flowers, 3rd from bottom in #47?
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Post by htmb on Jun 26, 2013 18:37:10 GMT
Thank you, Patrick. I suppose everything is old and historically significant to Americans. Thank you, Todd and Bixa. I would just bet you would totally enjoy touring the place. Bixa, during rainy spells I learned to use my left hand as a lens shield while shooting with my right.
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Post by mossie on Jun 26, 2013 19:03:26 GMT
Pity it rained on you. You never can trust English weather Digital cameras are marvellous at brightening up a dull day.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 26, 2013 19:06:42 GMT
Bixa, duirng rainy spells I learned to use my left hand as a lens shield while shooting with my right. That's a little disappointing. I was envisioning you as having gone all Ascot-y, which would have nicely shielded the lens.
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