Buildings that inspire - November 2023

 Here are all your photos on the theme of "Buildings that inspire" - there are quite a few multiple ones this month:

Here are four from Gill to start with :

"Some photos of Omar Sharif’s house which he only owned for 24 hours having bought it, then played bridge and lost it, and never returned to Lanzarote again!

It’s a very quirky house built into the cave, not at all practical!"

And here are another four from Steve, who wasn't at all inspired by Clifton Cathedral!

"On the basis that it has a spire, it should have been inspiring, but a disappointment monument to someone’s ego, more aptly … in brutalist concrete" 

Here is one from Kate:

"Trip to London last week. St Paul’s  is always inspiring (or is it “ indoming”?)"

.... and a couple from Keith from the other side of the globe!

Keith - St Saviours, Karubda Village, Cairns, Australia..Anglican.... 

Keith - Sri Mariamman in Singapore 

.... and these two from Don:

Don - The quintessential English village church of St Nicolas’s, Chawton.

Don - Spinnaker Tower - a spire to inspire!

John - Buildings that inspire…. Man shed on the allotment! 

Gaynor - 19th century, Jesus College student accommodation.  

21st century crane/brains. 

Gaynor - Buildings that inspire - Magdalene College 

Gaynor - 15th century chapel, 21st century scaffolding

Sue - singing in this building is inspirational!

Ken - St Pancras station, complete with their literary version of a Christmas tree!

Jan - 3D constructions by Grandson! He’s running out of space in his bedroom!!

***

Many thanks to you all for your various interpretations of this month's topic.

Your topic for December will actually be, rather amazingly, our 60th one! 

We started back in October 2018 with this:  

Our first topic!

And so, with Christmas in mind, your December topic is:

"comfort and/or joy"

The Greek Elements - September/October 2023

Our topic for the last two months has been the Greek elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth -  and here are our submissions!

Sue - where water meets the land

Steve - Green, Yellow, Red, Blue : Earth, Air, Fire and Water

(Psst ! There may be a shark in here!)

Ken - earth (our compost heap)

Ken - fire (stained glass in the church at Hinton Ampner)

Ken - water (at Alresford)

Ken - air (the view from our back garden in Thorpe Gardens just before we left)

Andy - fire, water, earth and air at Albufere Nature Reserve near Valencia

Don - celebrating Malta’s National Independence Day on September 21st 

with firework reflections over Sliema bay

Gill - a long line of satellites flying over the earth 

Kate - Ted's pumpkins (grown on my allotment and carved by Ted)

Kate - Crosby Sands - air, water and earth

Gaynor - a fire & water fountain at Houghton Hall in Norfolk

To help you appreciate this photo I have added a video of the feature here - if any adverts pop up, just press "skip ads"

Gaynor - a James Turrell installation at Houghton Hall in Norfolk

Stacey - Supertrees in "Gardens by the Bay" in Singapore

and our topic for November, inspired by Radio 4's programme "Building Soul" is:

"Buildings that inspire"

KIT - September 2023

KIT number 53 was played out in lovely sunny conditions today - though, at times,  the sun proved to be very challenging on one side of the net!

The 8 people today were:

Nigel, Andy, Arthur & Ken + Rosie, Emma, Kate & Angela

There were lots of very close games - and a few excruciatingly long deuce games!

In the end the final was played out as:

Nigel & Rosie v Arthur and Emma

with Arthur and Emma winning 6-4

The winners - Emma & Arthur

Well played!

Change - August 2023

 There were a few less photos than usual this month - probably due to the holidays or perhaps because the topic of "change" was quite tricky.  Anyway, here they all are:

Angela - Spot the changes!  

(Cumberland basin on the Bristol Harbour)

Sue - what amazing change is possible from a piece of tree trunk/branches! 

Ken - already the seasons are changing!

Don - I guess the phrase ‘once a banker. . . . always a banker’ springs to mind! 

Kate - we’ve always had a “ change box” since we married, bagged up each month and banked once a year. Used to go towards Xmas presents but now goes to charity. 

 This year it will be Cancer Research in Tim’s memory. 

John - small change

... and despite appearances below, Keith is not actually on the FBI's "most wanted list"!

Keith - a change of passport

Gaynor - season change

Gaynor- sea change

.... and you get a choice of topics for September!

 You can choose any of the traditional four Greek elements which are:

Earth, Air, Fire and Water 

Remembering Tim Guilding!

On Monday 7th August we had a mixed tennis tournament for Tim with eight of us playing for the honour of taking home a pair of bespoke glass coasters inspired by Tim.

These have a yellow "T" for Tim (to celebrate his enjoyment of tennis) :

then red and white for his favorite rugby team (Gloucester) :

and finally white to link in with his golf exploits.

The players!

The food etc!

The winners!

Congratulations to Kate and Arthur on their win!

Kate sent this photograph in later that afternoon of her winning coaster on display in her house beside her grandson's Lego sunflowers and her daughter's knitted ones!

..... and then on Wednesday 9th August, Steve, Geoff and Ken competed for Tim's Golf Trophy - the 3rd time it has been played for.  

We played 9 holes at Alton Golf Course, which is where we usually played golf with Tim.  This year it was all square on the last hole with Geoff hitting a fine vein of form to win in the end.  After that we raised our glasses for a toast to Tim!

The trophy!

The players

The winner receiving his trophy!

Many congratulations to Geoff!