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Man sitting in outrigger in Negombo lagoon

23rd April 2022 • 1 Comment SRI LANKA: NEGOMBO’S IDYLLIC WATERWAYS

Ready to ride From my hoteI it was an easy descent down stone steps to...

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About me

Fiona Dunlop is a seasoned travel and food-writer who has been ‘abroad’ for much of her life. She doesn’t count countries but aims to dig deep beneath the surface of the places she visits. Food has increasingly become her focus, without forgetting art, architecture and design. Andalucia (Spain) is her second home, but French her second language!

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Right next to the Eastbridge pilgrims’ hospital

Right next to the Eastbridge pilgrims’ hospital (see previous post) is the oasis of the medieval Franciscan Garden with it’s atmospheric Greyfriars Chapel straddling the river Stour. French Huguenots once stayed here after fleeing France.
It still functions for services & on poking my nose through a doorway I was amazed to see in brown cassock none other than … a Franciscan monk reading 😳 it was the vestry
Built in 1267, the chapel was the first Franciscan settlement in England while Francis of Assisi was still alive. Quite a thought - & impressive status
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#franciscangardens #greyfriarschapel #franciscan #medievalgarden #riverstour #climbingroses #englishgarden #canterbury #kent

A quick sprint to Canterbury brought me to the har

A quick sprint to Canterbury brought me to the harmony of the 12th c Eastbridge Hospital - built for pilgrims heading for Thomas a Becket’s shrine in the nearby cathedral.
Not a bad place to spend the night…
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#eastbridgehospital #arches #pilgrimhostel #romanesque #medievalarchitecture #canterbury #kent

Beautiful light this evening - after the storm : :

Beautiful light this evening - after the storm
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#clissoldpark #stormyweather #walkinthepark #pond #darkskies #stokey #stokenewington #londonlife

Back to Dalston’s Curve Garden after a long abse

Back to Dalston’s Curve Garden after a long absence - and it looks like it’s stretched! Such a lush, peaceful place 💛 in the middle of hectic Hackney
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#dalston #curvegarden #publicgarden #notchelseaflowershow #coffeeandflowers #peace #hackney #londonlife

A clever & compelling play The Father & the Assass

A clever & compelling play The Father & the Assassin about Gandhi’s assassination opened @nationaltheatre last night. Shubham Saraf’s stellar performance as the assassin injects wit & pathos into an ambivalent role while Hindu nationalism reflects on Modhi today.
Spectacular set, lighting, direction & play altogether
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#thefatherandtheassassin #newplay #shubhamsaraf #gandhi #hindunationalism #extremism #politicalplay #londonlife

Here we go…. : : #gardenroses #feelslikesummer #

Here we go….
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#gardenroses #feelslikesummer #englishroses #pinkandbeautiful #londonlife

Opening tomorrow @tate (Britain) is a rare survey

Opening tomorrow @tate (Britain) is a rare survey of @corneliaparkerartist ‘s trailblazing work of the last 30 years or so. This includes two memorable installations: Thirty pieces of silver, 1988-9 (random silver items, compressed then suspended in circles), & the glorious Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, 1991. I remember seeing this detonated & reassembled (sort of) garden shed when it was first shown at the Chisenhale Gallery under the cool eye of director Jonathan Watkins. It blew me away then as now to see that an artist had coolly approached the British army to collaborate on a piece of conceptual art. But she didn’t stop there, & much more of her searching, audacious attitude is revealed in this exhibition looking at absence & presence, destruction & construction, the positive & the negative.
Her last piece - Island, 2022 - is calmer, an illuminated greenhouse with glass panes painted with chalk from the white cliffs of Dover.
There’s always a symbol, an experience &/or a memory behind each piece - explained in her own words in the captions.
Utterly brilliant & a must-see
Runs till Oct 16.
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#corneliaparker #exhibition #tatebritain #installations #conceptualart #gardenshed #britishartist #londonlife

Not my photo! « Big Roots » a gnarled olive tr

Not my photo! « Big Roots » a gnarled olive tree in Puglia by @francesco_bosso_photographer @smithdavidsongallery
No doubt taken pre-xylella, the devastating disease wiping out southern Italy’s olive groves.
Just one of hundreds of images displayed at @photolondonfair - caught before it ends today
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#photography #olivetree #treetrunk #blackandwhitephotography #silvergelatinprint #photolondon #londonlife

Back to London sunshine & a massive demonstration

Back to London sunshine & a massive demonstration to remember Nakba (catastrophe) day - also the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh by Israeli forces three days ago & yesterdays horrific attacks on mourners
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#demonstration #palestine #nakba #youngactivists #solidarity #freepalestine #londondemonstration #may14 #londonlife

SO Andaluz - peeling whitewash offsets a splash of

SO Andaluz - peeling whitewash offsets a splash of vivid flowers, in this case (surprisingly) perfect rambling roses
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#whitewash #flakeywall #roses #ramblingroses #inthepink #feelslikesummer #andalucia #andalusia

Wind - a regular visitor to Zahara & the Costa de

Wind - a regular visitor to Zahara & the Costa de la Luz - is up, making this sheltered restaurant the perfect hideaway - or refuge @elrefugiodezaharadelosatunes
But nothing alters the fabulous sweep of white sand & Atlantic view
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#outofthewind #geometry #restaurantrefuge #boardwalk #sanddunes #bigwhitebeach #zaharadelosatunes #costadelaluz #cadizprovince #andalucia #andalusia

And I give you the Atlantic! : : #cafe #cafeview #

And I give you the Atlantic!
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#cafe #cafeview #runner #beach #atlantic #barbate #costadelaluz #cadizprovince

© Fiona Dunlop's slow track rambling(s)