Day 504 - Art and Arboretum

Day 504...

Today saw us take a trip into Nottingham to appreciate and experience what is on our doorstep and can, therefore, get taken for granted.

Our first stop of the day was to visit the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery. This has been open a few years now and we have talked about visiting but have never gotten around to it. It is a lovely space, very calm and relaxed with a quirky gift shop and a lovely cafe.

We took a walk around the exhibits which were by Erika Verzutti and Melanie Matranga; I will admit that I connected more with the works by Verzutti although I fear I do not have the eye for art that perhaps others do! But both exhibits were interesting nonetheless...first photos are works by Verzutti...

...these are installations by Matranga...

We then enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine...

...and then it was time for a little walk through the city centre with a couple of stops in shops. Although dipping into Primark for a potential Disney themed purchase left me a little disappointed as there was nothing really to choose from.

But the great thing was that in all the shops we went into we noticed that the majority of shoppers were mask free and that shop employees were a mix of masked and unmasked. It was lovely to see smiley faces and know that employers were letting their employees make their own decisions about whether they wanted, or were happy, to wear masks.

We had a quick bite for lunch at Five Guys which is great for us keto and carnivore diet people as you can order all their burgers without the bun. They will either pop the burgers in a lettuce wrap or, like us, you can have them in a 'bowl'; double bacon cheeseburgers for both of us with toppings of our choosing went down a treat. We then went in search of a decent coffee, courtesy of Caffe Nero, before heading off for another wander.

We then found ourselves walking through Nottingham Arboretum which I am ashamed to say I have never visited before today. Simon remembers spending time there when he was a student at the nearby Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) but that was a fair few years ago!

And then I find out when we get home that there is a possible Disney connection! It may have possibly been the inspiration for JM Barrie's Neverland as apparently he lived in Nottingham - who knew!! But now I do it will be somewhere to visit again and explore a little more.

It was then time to head home. Simon had a little prop casting to do as he'd had an order come through and I had a couple of admin bits to get done. But now it's time to stop, enjoy some very dark chocolate and a small glass of red.

See you tomorrow.

xx