Kat Armstrong

18/01/2024

Exhumed from a the compost heap after three years, this female sparrowhawk’s skull weighs less than a feather. Her body was found by the roadside, presumably a car strike😭

09/01/2024

An unexpected visitor dropped in during the holidays.

24/12/2023

For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.

13/11/2023

Narrowly missed being squashed by this willow branch this morning, thanks to Storm Debri, then the rest of the tree promptly fell down blocking the road. Check out A Pair of Sharp Eyes, my murder mystery published in December by - features the Great Storm of 1703, which hit 220 years ago with widespread loss of life on land and sea around the south of England.

13/11/2023

Waiting for inspiration … know the feeling.

08/11/2023

Writers with cats never know the feeling of a blank sheet of paper …

27/10/2023

Here’s the country station where Eric Ravilious later caught the train to London when he taught at the Royal College of Art. Swipe for a photo of the navvies who built the line. Who else loves looking for railway ghosts? Plenty here in North Essex

09/10/2023

I’ve passed this hundreds of times in the car but only noticed it once I was on foot. Does anyone know where I could read up about toll roads and their charging rationales? Looks like the toll was levied on anyone taking animals to market. Did they cause more damage to the roads than vehicles and riders? Or were there other reasons? Notice is from Newport, Essex btw.

04/10/2023

This raises so many questions about eighteenth century society. It reads like the back cover of a historical novel.

11/09/2023

Blissful.

10/09/2023

As you now are, so once were we/As we now are so shall you be/When you remember us forget not yourselves - tomb of Richard & Mary Cutte 1593 St Mary’s Church Arkesden

04/09/2023

I really really hope I get to see this😍

Prepare to set aboard a full size replica of a 17th century Spanish galleon! The El Galeon arrives in the city from the 13th September.

She will be moored up along the Barbican Landing Stage and open for visitors during her stay, from Wednesday 13th to Sunday 17th September, 10am until 8pm each day (last admission 7pm)

As a floating museum, members of the public will be able to go onboard and explore the ship’s six decks which offer a fascinating range of features, exhibits and displays.
El Galeón’s live-in crew will also be on hand to talk to visitors and explain more about the ship and the history behind the Spanish galleon fleet which were used predominantly between the 16th and 18th centuries and took the lead role in many of the world’s trade and cultural routes that were the longest in length and duration than any other in the history of maritime navigation.

And, whilst these were the ships that comprised the Spanish Armada which in 1588 attempted, unsuccessfully, to defeat an English fleet led by Sir Francis Drake it was the galleons that brought the “two halves of the Earth” together, exchanging goods, people, cultures, ideas and aesthetics from several continents.

Built by the Nao Victoria Foundation at the Punta Umbria shipyard at Huelva in Spain, El Galeón was launched 2009 and has since covered more than 70,000 nautical miles around the world’s oceans, visited ports in four continents, participated in many cultural projects, and has been visited by thousands of visitors at over a hundred ports all over the world.

DETAILS

> Location: Barbican Landing Stage
> Opening hours: 10:00 a 20:00
> Date: from 13th to 17th September

🎟 Children (5-10 years old, under 5 free): £5
🎟 Adults (> 10 years old): £10
🎟 Families (2 adults and up to 3 children between 5-10 years old): £25

El Galeón Andalucía | Cattewater Harbour Commissioners