dino roars

Who is your favourite dinosaur? (mine is Triceratops)

Ode to a Citrus

Blood Oranges.
Where have you been all of my life.

Royal Naval College

I'm one of those weird people that isn't religious at all but really loves churchs and chapels. I find them beautiful, peaceful spaces and generally find any space in which people spend time believing in whatever the believe in quite a beautiful thing.

The chapel at the Royal Naval College is a beautiful space. Obvious seafaring related connotations aside, its a simple quiet space that I enjoyed taking a few moments respite from the cold in when I visited last weekend. The monument to the men of Erebus and Terror upon entry hold obvious relevance, those great ships and their men remembered in some epic stone sculpture is happening right there you guys.

National Maritime Museum

Last Days of the Arctic @ Proud Gallery Chelsea

Some beautiful photos on display at Proud Chelsea at the moment - Ragnar Axelsson's Last Days of the Arctic. These don't do the exhibition justice - I recomend it if you are nearby.  While I am genuinely upset by the site of dead Narwhals in kayaks, I am nevertheless endlessly in love with the people of the Arctic.

(couple of cheeky instagrams I took)

Betweeen this and the book I'm reading at the moment (Sarah Wheeler's 'Terra Incognita' since you asked) I have have started 2012 with a strange feeling which I think is generally described as 'wanderlust'.

Nerding Out at the Maritime Museum

Lauren and I got to check out the new Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum this weekend. While everyone else oohed and ahhed over the fancy ship plan viewer and some nice old books they got out for us, we made full use of the Cook and Antarctic sections of the books they have out for every-day use and totally nerded out.

Ooh look a colour co-ordinated shelf of books about Antarctica that isn't in my house!

Diptych.

Dark Times at the Royal Naval College.

Taxidermy Portraits.

I know, I know. I have blogged about this before. But I really do love the ornithology section of the Natural History Museum, and can't stop myself taking photographs of these guys everytime I visit. Its like visiting old friends at this point.

Scott's Last Expedition @ NHM London

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend Pole Day morning checking out Scott's Last Expedition - the new Exhibition opening on Friday at the Natural History Museum here in London. If you follow me on the twitter you will know I've been waiting for it for ages so was obviously chomping at the bit for this one.

Its well good you guys. The exhibit is laid out in roughly the shape of the Expeditions winter quarters at Cape Evans, which gave a wonderful sense of scale that's generally lost when looking at pictures or reading about the cramped close quarters they all lived in. Frankly, it made me realised, potentially not that cramped? The biggest revelation was that old Ponco had a darkroom bigger than my kitchen! I was a little disappointed that it wasn't heaving with pieces from the hut like I had pictured in my mind (I think I may have been harking back to my trips to Kelly Tarlton's as a wayward 10 year old back in New Zealand where they have an excellent replica of the hut that you can visit) but the huge blown up Ponting photos of life in the hut were fantastic - I noticed all kinds of things I'd never noticed before (Cherry stashing chocolate under his bed?!) when looking at them on a smaller scale.

The highlights for me were of course Cherry's egg, lit up like the holy grail, a tiny NZ flag that Dr Wilson flew at the pole and Levick's Adelie notebook

(and the giant blown up photograph of my favourite picture of the dreamy Dr Aitch on the wall obviously)

We also spent a while marvelling at Scott's tiny waist and admiring his broad shoulders. I mean, epaulettes.

I also think I am dangerously close to getting the emblem on Scott's sledging flag tattooed upon my person on Friday? Its amazing!

Great pieces for avid fans and a fantastic introduction for people who aren't familiar with anything that happened in the South Pole 100 years ago at all. Its only £9 to get in which is reasonable and totally worth every penny.

Fantastic exhibition and well worth checking out. I know I'm biased, but it really is, I'm going again on Friday!

[more pictures // buy tickets]