Nunhead Cemetery

There are a few 'listed' cemetery's around London, the most well known is probably Highgate Cemetery where many historically famous people are buried and which you have to pay to get into. Nunhead Cemetery is free to get into and much nearer my end of town. Although there maybe aren't as many famous people buried there (none that I spotted anyway) it is more overgrown and left-to-nature allowing encouraging more wildlife, which is something I think I would really like, if I were to be buried (rather than cremated or whatever) I would love to be somewhere that nature is allowed to take over, (it is something everyone will have to consider at one time or another, afterall).



Part of the cemetery is new and being used and maintained as you would expect from a modern cemetery, but about half or more is overgrown and woody, you can ramble of the track into the ivy and find old gravestones and small monuments. I recommend wearing jeans if you're going to do this as there are a lot of brambles and I was a bit limited to where I could go because I stupidly wore leggings-ouch.



Luckily it was a good weather and it was really nice to walk around the place spotting wildlife and the occasional goth (we heard a woodpecker and saw a gothic gentleman) very nice. 

A visit to the Zoo

This weekend me and my friends went on a small tour of museums (all of which were free!). By far, our favourite was the Grant Museum of Zoology. I saw this recommendation on London for Free's Facebook page, I love museums of natural history and anthropology, museums of weird things and things that make you feel a bit sick when you look at them. One of my favourite museums is the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, I remember being afraid of the shrunken heads and seeing the shrivelled toes of the mummy sticking out of the coffin...memories. The Grant Museum of Zoology entertains one of my other joys, which is animals. It is like a zoo, however, all the animals in this zoo are expired, they are no more, they are ex-animals. They are displayed in jars, cross sectioned or stuffed in old wood and glass cabinets, the building itself is also very beautiful. I will warn those who do not like seeing dead animals in jars, to look away now.



I don't really know why there needed to be a whole jar of moles or how they acquired so many. The museum is part of UCL, the specimens have been used for research in the university. I can only assume that a jar of moles was required for scientific research. It was one of the highlights of the museum (for us at least, that's not a bad thing by the way).







An inquisitive Blackbird, a proud Magpie and a shocked Owl. 
After the Grants museum we went to the Hunterian museum of surgical research, there were yet more specimens in jars but you weren't allowed to take pictures. You could tell this museum is used a lot more for study and less for the general public but it was still pretty interesting. All that formaldehyde made us hungry so we went to eat our lunch in a nice little park outside the museum, lovely. It was great to get out and about and explore some of the many free and fascinating things to do in London. 

Layers-ers-ers-ers-ers-er-e

That was my effort to express the idea of layers with the word 'layers', yup.
So, I said in the last post how I would like to experiment more with layers and pattern, I found this lady's blog via this lady's blog. The first lady, Courtney from A Bevy of, has got me very jealous of her layering skillz. I really like the way she wears thrifted long dresses as jackets and loads of pattern!

I shall try more to step out of my comfort zone and have a bit more fun.