Lumiere London

I think it is clear by now that I love any excuse to go tramping round the city taking photos of things. I had not quite realised until last night that I would take this opportunity even when it was COMPLETELY FREEZING, but apparently I'm insane.

I was wearing as many layers as possible when I set off and I did go for a very nice Italian dinner before it all kicked off, but still, VERY COLD.

I started off at Oxford Circus looking at 1.8 London by Janet Echelman / Studio Echelman, which is part of a series of works inspired by fishing nets (although it put me in mind of a giant jellyfish). I got there a few minutes before it switched on and it's actually impressive before the lights:

And then it switched on and we all went 'oooooooh' because it was very pretty:

Apparently it was interactive but I didn't realise that until today so no idea what the interactivity was. 

After that I walked to Brown Hart Gardens, excitingly somewhere I'd never been before yesterday (that is getting quite rare for me in central London), a raised piazza sort of thing behind Oxford Street. Here there were two works by Sarah Blood, Dissect I and Dissect II and Sanctuary.

Dissect I and Dissect II are a pair of sculptures which are a simple cuboid framework supported and dissected by a neon square. Very simple but striking:

I only got photos of one as I couldn't be bothered to go to the other entrance (given that there were two entrances to Brown Hart Gardens I'm not sure why they didn't have it set up with one entrance and one exit).

Sanctuary is a work made of a dozen neon birdhouses with an accompanying soundtrack of birdsong.

I then went to Grosvenor Square where there were three installations (there were supposed to be four but the one  really wanted to see - Aquarium - wasn't working), the first of which was Spinning Night in Living Colour by Elaine Buckholtz.

There were also Lightbenches by Bernd Spiecker. 

And Brothers & Sisters by Ron Haselden

I started heading back to Charing Cross after this, going via Piccadilly where there were a few displays. 

195 Piccadilly by NOVAK is a cinematic-themed display which came with a soundtrack (the soundtracks didn't work completely tbh, mostly due to the amount of people). 

Luminéoles by Porté par le vent was lovely, a trio of large fish and flower lanterns above Piccadilly. 

I Haven't Changed My Mind in a Thousand Years by Beth J Ross is rendering of 11th-century proverbs placed on either end of the Burlington Arcade. 

Les Voyageurs (The Travellers) by Cédric Le Borgne were all around St James, and these were fantastic, quite spooky figures floating in the air and sitting on rooftops. 

And so to Trafalgar Square, where there was only the flipping CENTRE POINT LETTERS. I was really excited to see these as I have a great fondness for Centre Point, and they seemed weirdly small (you can see people next to them in the pictures for a size comparison). 

Aaaaaaand finally, Plastic Islands, which is a work made of plastic based on the giant 'garbage patch' of rubbish in the North Pacific Ocean. 

So that was fun! And then I went home where there was central heating, hurrah!

More information about all the works can be found here: http://www.visitlondon.com/lumiere

Tree Trail

I decided my pictures were good enough to post, although I did just go through them going 'that's a tree, that's a tree, so's that...'. Basically what I'm saying is that it's a good idea to do this walk with someone who knows about trees. I have enthusiasm for trees and plants but nooooo idea what I'm looking at, so I went out with my stepmum this morning :-).

The tree trail was developed for the City of London Festival, a series of free events/things that is now mostly over, sadly. Still, it will be around next year and if you download the map for the tree trail you can do it whenever.

http://www.colf.org/whats-on/704-tree-trail

There are a few different trails to choose from on the map - Lesley and I went for the 2-mile walk, and for some reason we started near the end and worked backwards (it made sense at the time, I swear), and I've not posted photos of all of them as some of them really do just look like...trees.

I am not very good at this nature stuff.

ANYWAY, the first place we went was Cleary Gardens, which I recommend at any time because it is a lovely little oasis in the middle of a lot of very big buildings. It's off Queen Victoria Street, and I should probably do a whole separate entry for it. The tree here is a Swamp Cypress, apparently.

 

(the little house in this picture is an insect habitat)

There are Elms on Queen Victoria Street:

Gingko Bilobas on the footpath up to St Paul's Cathedral:

A tulip tree (apparently) outside the Old Bailey:

A fig tree at West Smithfield Rotunda Garden:

(you can just about see some figs in the second picture)

A huuuuuuge Sweet Gum outside St Paul's Cathedral:

And a London Plane just off Cheapside (also huuuuuge):

Blue trees in London!

Trees for Cities is a charity that's been going for 20 years, and as you might have guessed, they want people to notice, love and plant trees in cities worldwide. To that end, they've worked with artist Konstantin Dimopoulos painted some trees in the City of London blue. OF COURSE.  ;-)

http://www.treesforcities.org/about-us/20th-birthday/the-blue-trees-of-london/

The trees are in three locations (which means I've managed to find them all by accident, go me!), all helpfully close to each other - 

• The gardens just by St Paul's Cathedral
• Devonshire Square
• Aldermanbury Square 

St Paul's

Devonshire Square

Aldermanbury Square

The more I look at these photos the more I think this is an awesome idea that should be carried on everywhere. 

They've also developed a tree trail around the city which Lesley and I walked this morning, but I haven't looked at the photos for that yet, so it may or may not get a separate entry. It's a nice walk and not too tough, either way.