Every night of the year a horn is blown at the four corners of the obelisk in Ripon’s Market Place to set the ‘watch’. This ceremony has taken place for the last 1,100 years, without fail.
-
-
From earliest times people have always found cause for celebrating, perhaps because we are naturally social beings. From big festivals bringing whole communities together to small family events, we like nothing more than to gather and mark special occasions.
-
Travelling teaches us that people around the world have more in common than we sometimes realise. People everywhere laugh, cry, worry, and hope for the same basic things. And when good things happen, we celebrate. There are small family celebrations: a new baby, a wedding, a birthday. And then there are the celebrations that bring people together on a much bigger scale. A national holiday, a religious festival, a sporting success …
-
First, a disclaimer. I don't make a habit of photographing toilets! But the signs outside them are another matter and yes, sometimes even the toilets themselves just have to be captured. Here is a collection of some of the most amusing / interesting / downright bizarre ones I have come across on my travels.
-
Why, when we see the world in colour, do we often find black and white portraits so engaging? With the distraction of colours stripped away we are driven to focus on elements such as the direction of a gaze, skin texture and the interplay of light and shadow on the face. Elements such as clothing and jewellery fade into the background and the expression on the face takes centre stage.
-
Kandy is Sri Lanka’s second largest city after Colombo and was listed by UNESCO in 1988. It has a long and proud history. It was the last stronghold of Sinhalese independence, resisting both Portuguese and Dutch rule long after the rest of the island had been conquered.
-
How do you feel about organised visits to local communities while travelling? Are they a welcome opportunity to learn more about the culture and history of a place? Or are they uncomfortably intrusive and too staged to offer genuine insights?
-
You might think that the place where Buddhism was first introduced to Sri Lanka would be among its most visited sites, but Mihintale seems to be off the radar for most tourists. Hence we found it surprisingly quiet and peaceful even visiting mid-afternoon.
-
Dambulla Cave Temple consists of five caves carved into a massive rock. Each cave contains Buddha statues and is decorated with intricate murals and frescoes. In total, the temple houses over 150 Buddha statues and statues of Sri Lankan kings, Hindu gods, and guardian deities.
-
While significant parts of Hull were bombed during WWII, and many lives tragically lost, its Old Town survived and has been well preserved. The historic buildings and cobbled streets make it an ideal stand-in for Victorian or Georgian London. These streets have been transformed many times by film and TV studios for productions including The Crown, Victoria and Blitz.
