London views from Seager Distillery tower

The Seager Distillery tower is a 27-storey residential tower in Deptford, southeast London. It was built on the site of the old  Seager Distillery and a 19th century house at Brookmill Road.

There is a viewing gallery on the 27th floor and this was opened to the public one day in Dec. There were great views across London. Luckily the sun was shining although this meant it wasn't easy to take photos of the south side which was looking into the sun. The photos were taken behind glass, hence the reflection.

Looking towards the south with the Crystal Palace masts

Lanzarote - César Manrique Foundation

My first visit to Lanzarote, also my first visit to Canary Islands, in Dec 2014. Lanzarote has a volcanic landscape, with many (non active) volcanoes, lava fields and bare rocks with little vegetation as rain is rare on the island.

Lanzarote's most famous inhabitant was the artist César Manrique. There are many tributes to him around the island, especially his wind sculptures at roundabouts and road junctions.

César Manrique was born in 1919 in Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote. He graduated in Madrid and later had many international exhibitions. He moved to New York before returning to Lanzarote in 1966. His work had an influencing effect on the declaration of Lanzarote as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1993.

The César Manrique Foundation does important work in the field of plastic arts, the environment and culture. Its most important objectives include the conservation, research and promotion of the work of Manrique, as well as the promotion of environmentally-friendly artistic activity.

The foundation is located in the artist’s house-studio near Tahiche and is open to the public. Entry is €8. Although I am not particularly interested in art, I wanted to visit as the house is built on an outcrop of lava, on top of five large, natural volcanic bubbles.

The upper floor is inspired by the traditional architecture of Lanzarote, and incorporates modern, functional elements such as French windows.

Going down into the cave area -

 

There is a living area with a central tree that goes up to the open roof

 

looking up to the upper floor

The five natural bubbles were connected by small passageways bored into the lava flow. These passages are painted in white

 

In the central volcanic bubble there is a large relaxation area with a swimming pool, dining room, oven, barbeque... It also has abundant vegetation.

The last area, on the way out, is the painter's old studio. The toilet signs -

View from outside the house -

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Christmas 2014 at Mid Valley & The Gardens, KL

The Christmas 2014 decorations arrived in Mid Valley and The Gardens at the end of Nov.

The Gardens decorations are quite elegant, reminding me of an old fashioned type Christmas. However it also resembled a fashion show

 a designer dummy !!

 

 

Mid Valley in contrast had a fun theme, called 'Christmas Fairy Tails'.

Before the display was completed there were some wagons, however these don't seem to be in the final version.

The trees are very colourful but it was also nice to see traditional fir cones and red berries.

The Fairy Tails -

These scenes are also very colourful but are more like spring than winter with huge bluebells
and other flowers

Matang's colourful bird houses

Bird houses are everywhere in Malaysia now. Also called swiftlet farms, or bird hotels, they are places to house swiftlets for the birds nest (soup) industry. The buildings can either be converted from an existing building in a town, or it can be a purpose built place. The latter can be seen in so many rural areas now.

Usually the purpose built places are isolated although sometimes you see two close together. So it was quite a surprise to see a whole "town" of them in Matang, Perak. Even more of a surprise to see some of them painted in bright colours. Normally bird houses are usually plain concrete.

Although it is hard to see in this photo, the bird houses extend the whole width of the photo, behind the coconut trees -

 they can be seen more easily here -

And these are the colourful ones, they are in a row behind some colourful buildings which will be occupied by humans!

These bird houses are located on the main Matang road. The Kota Ngah Ibrahim is nearby

and in the other direction is the Matang mosque

Instead of a dome, it has a spire that looks as if it belongs to a church!

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