Wednesday 30 September 2015

Bollards, Signs, Trees, Stones, Sundials, Stations.

Bollards



These bronze piles of books are to be found outside the Cambridge University library and serve as bollards to prevent people parking in front of the building. One would have thought a sign would have sufficed, after all most visitors to the library are a fairly civilised bunch and can presumably read. These works of art are also interactive in that you can spin the books around if the urge comes upon you. Great fun.

But not according to Germaine Greer who wrote in The Guardian newspaper that they make the Library into "a beacon of naffness". Even more fun!

Just for Germaine here's another photo of them!





More Traffic Calming Measures


In the village of Whaddon the residents can not only read but seem to have a sense of humour too.



Introducing Dawn Redwood



Dawn Redwood - it would be a fine name for a Hollywood actress, but it's actually a tree and one with true star quality. She made an exciting comeback after not being seen in the UK for a long time - about five million years! And she hadn't changed at all!

The tree was thought to be extinct and only known from fossil records. But in 1946 a Chinese botanist discovered a small stand of them in his country. Seeds were sent to the USA and to Britain and were found to germinate freely. The one in the photo above is the oldest in this country and has grown rapidly. It was planted near the lake in the University Botanic Gardens, as in its native China it grows in wet conditions. However it seem to survive in other environments, even in the streets of London.

Although the trees are protected in China, such has been the demand for seed that the cones have been collected to such an extent that it's unlikely that they will propagate naturally in the wild.



Not A Bollard




Following on from the pile-of-books bollards it would be tempting to say that this is a bollard outside a mushroom farm - but it's not. Although they are now often used as bollards outside farm gates to prevent vehicles driving on the grass verges, they have a much older purpose. Those of you who have been paying minute attention to everything I say on this blog may remember that they are called "staddle stones". They were used to support the floors of farm granaries which were raised up off of the ground to prevent mice and rats entering the buildings.



Telling The Time



This beautiful but rather complex sundial can be found in Selwyn College in Cambridge. The golden lines show the hours since sunrise while the silver lines show the hours since the last sunset (Are you with me so far?). The shadow of the disc will lie on the vertical line at midday (or at 1 pm when the clocks change to Summer Time). It rests on the horizontal line at the equinoxes. If you want to calculate the clock time all you have to do is add the hours since sunset to the hours since sunrise and divide by two (not forgetting to adjust by one hour during the summer months). 

If that's too complicated then turn around and you'll find there's a clock on the Hall behind you!





In The Station



I have lamented in the past about the neglect of the architecture of some of our smaller railway stations. Some are no longer in use while others are ruined by unsympathetic modernisation. But if you take the time to look you can still find pretty buildings like this wonderful Victorian station at Stowmarket.



Take care.






21 comments:

  1. I like the books. And am quite taken with Dawn Redwood too. We saw Redwoods in America once. They're huge.

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  2. I like the book bollards and I love the staddle stone - staddle stones are a really iconic country sight for me. As for Stowmarket station it's one I'm very familiar with as that's where my son picks me up if I go to Suffolk on the train rather than driving:)

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  3. Lovely photos, I quite like the book bollards and like Rowan love the staddle stone. The redwood tree is amazing as is the sundial - I think I would turn round and use the clock though:)

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  4. I enjoyed seeing these little man made quirks, thanks for putting the photos up.

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  5. I love the stacked books bollards at the library! So creative!

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  6. I think the stacked books are homey and welcoming. A techie sundial-pretty cool. The train station is very handsome.

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  7. I absolutely love those bollards John whatever Germaine might say. Wish I lived near enough to gie them a twirl.

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  8. John -- staddle stones and bollards -- new words to me. The bollards at the library are so creative. And the staddle stones -- well we had a similar way of dealing with varmints at our granaries only we used large rocks to prop them off the grounds. Where there is a will there is a way. -- barbara

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  9. Love those book bollards

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  10. I love the bollards, too...but just so you know, I had to go look up naffness.

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  11. What a great wander along with you! All the things that you photographed are things I would, too! The info about the grain buildings is something I wouldn't have thought about.

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  12. Your presentation of random subjects is so often a source of fun and information. Love those stacked bronze books . . . I am sure Cambridge has enough serious stuff that a bit of whimsy can easily be accommodated. And bravo to the village for that outright funny traffic sign.

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  13. I very much LOVE that Twenty is Plenty sign! What a hoot! And while people who frequent libraries probably CAN read, there's a good chance they DO NOT obey signs, which seems to be a common human failing. ;)

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  14. That sundial was something special, but there is nothing like making fun of people who have no sense of humour!

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  15. Oh dear! As much as I love those bollards, the OCD in me would want them to be straight and not at an angle. It's already making me do a nervous twitch!

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  16. What an interesting, eclectic mix, John. Loved those bollards, and the thingy that keeps mice out of the corncrib--pretty ingenious, really.

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  17. Here the obstacles are called a "concrete pig," and they are only some kind of concrete dumplings. Nothing as nice as these book stacks.
    The old station building is really beautiful. And that old tree is very interesting !
    I don't know anythig about pollars.
    Have a happy weekend.

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  18. Unlike Germaine ... I love the book-bollards John. Very different.

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  19. How many old station buildings have been replaced by 'bus shelters!
    Glad to see that one survives.

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  20. I wonder sometimes if Germain Greer has a sense of humour :) there's nothing wrong with a bit of quirk :) I'd like that mushroom 'not bollard' for my garden :) The Victorian railway station is lovely, my imagination went into overload imagining how it would have looked back in its hey day. Another tres fab post John.

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  21. I need to catch up with your posts, John - too much in the garden lately. Many of our railway stations have been turned into Museums (with the inevitable gift shop attached) and mostly the outsides have been left as is, which is nice...

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