Sights of Nottingham: Spring at Wollaton Park

Note: High resolution images of all of the following photos are available. Click on the photos to view their higher resolution images.

[HiRes] Caught in University Park. These yellow flowers were among the first plants to blossom after the frosty winter. Note that the tree was still bare.

We don't get a lot of public holidays in UK, unlike Malaysia, where calendars are sprinkled with colourful boxes here and there. Instead, we get two month-long holidays -- Christmas and Easter Breaks. And of course the penultimate 3-month Summer.

[HiRes] Along the way to Wollaton Park.

Unlike Christmas, Easter had nice weather and many of my friends went travelling overseas, or at least out of Nottingham. While I didn't, I took the opportunity to visit Wollaton Park.

The pictures I have here aren't great, so I'll save talking about Wollaton Park until I publish better ones.

[HiRes] Flowers, captured in one of the gardens in Wollaton Park.


[HiRes] Country road. The sight of things like this sure makes anyone feel closer to nature.


[HiRes] Gate to Wollaton Park Golf Course.


[HiRes] And another.


[HiRes] Foursome sitting on a bench in front of Wollaton Hall. My favourite pic of this batch.

More on Wollaton Park to come. I have real awesome pics, I promise.

Sights of Nottingham: Spring is Here

Every year before 2010, I celebrated Chinese New Year in Malaysia (or Singapore), supposedly marking the arrival of Spring.

This year, however, things were different. I didn't get to celebrate Chinese New Year. However, I did manage to witness the arrival of Spring for real.

While I personally enjoyed winter and the many photographic opportunities it has given me, many people don't like the frosty season (save for Christmas).

[HiRes] The gloomy weather of winter.

Daytime was ridiculously short. By 4pm it would be all dark. Like midnight. Even when it wasn't dark, the sky would be blanketed by gray, hazy clouds, making it hard (if possible at all) to locate the sun. The trees were bald, the shrubs had frosty white leaves and the colourful flowers no where to be seen.

[HiRes] Are these pinecones?

Come February, however, things changed. The earth thawed, leaves sprouted out of the bare branches and the grass became nature's colour palette.

[HiRes] Caught right in front of Nightingale Hall, University Park Campus.

It was simply amazing. It's like seeing life coming a full cycle. Heck, it IS life coming a full cycle.

[HiRes] Notice how the petals were scattered all over.

Herbs and flowers can now be found practically everwhere.

[HiRes] Near sunset, University Park campus. The way the light fell gently on the pale pink flowers was just plain magical.


[HiRes] Caught beside Sherwood Hall, University Park, where I spent my first two nights in Nottingham.


[HiRes] This is the only photo today not captured in any of the University of Nottingham campuses, I think. Probably the same specie as the one above, but definitely different location.

Even right beside the drain. In Malaysia, plants would rather die than absorb a single drop of liquid from the drains.

[HiRes] Even the drains see life flourish. This drain was even visited by the ducks occasionally.


[HiRes] One of Jubilee Campus's many Sails reflected on the surface.

Eventually, the bees came out. The bees here are huge. I've seen some bigger than my thumb. And my man-thumb isn't exactly small.

[HiRes] You have no idea how much effort was needed to take two mediocre pictures of the bees using my 5-year-old compact camera.


[HiRes] A bee stained with pollens.

Life. Amazing, isn't it?