One of the discoveries the National Trust made in Calke Abbey was hidden away in wooden chests since it had arrived at the house in the early nineteenth century. It was a state bed, perhaps given to Lady Caroline Manners as a wedding present when she married Sir Henry Harpur, but the bed didn’t fit any of the rooms in the house.

However its seclusion in the chest preserved the Chinese silk of the bed’s hangings, keeping them in great condition. It is all housed behind glass to protect it so the photos are a bit indistinct. It’s a magnificent survival, though:-

Smaller pieces of the silk were also found in the chest:-

The wooden chests:-

Another eclectic item in the house was this organ with mandolin above:-

The first place we entered in Rye, apart from the hotel, was an antique shop.

Imagine my surprise to find the tail fins from a Soviet MiG Fighter for sale!

There was also this Art Deco poster of Bexhill-on-Sea, featuring the town’s iconic Art Deco/Moderne De La Warr Pavilion:-

And a jolly elephant (the company’s logo is an elephant) on a French (language) advert for Côte d’Or milk chocolate with the added bonus of an Art Deco style building in the background:-

Another striking sight in Overleigh Cemetery, Chester was the presence of a Bulgarian Flag on a church within the grounds.

This turned out to be St Barbara’s, a Greek Orthodox Church, and the building is the former cemetery chapel.

The inside is sumptuous and full of iconography:-

The vaulted roof is a bit less ornate though:-

The keener eyed among you will have seen from my side bar that I have just finished reading Chinese SF author Cixin Liu’s collection entitled Hold up the Sky.

In it there were two separate references to characters requiring medical procedures that were too expensive for them to afford.

I also heard on the TV news recently that those receiving a test dose of a vaccine newly produced in China against the Covid-19 causing coronavirus also needed to pay the equivalent of £45 pounds for the privilege.

China is reviled in certain quarters as being a Communist country.

I must say that on the evidence above China must be far from being even a socialist utopia, the minimum requirement for which I would have considered to be medical treatment free at the point of use.

Cockenzie House is a mansion House in the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, which we visited in September last year as they were hosting a small antique Fair in Cockenzie House.

In its grounds there is an unusual memorial – to Cockenzie Power Station – which stood in the town and whose twin towers could be seen for miles around and were even prominent from Fife across the Firth of Forth. It was built in 1968 and demolished in 2015.

Cockenzie Power Station Memorial:-

More photos of Pitmedden Garden.

Gates with steps down to formal garden:-

Heart shapes by the gates above:-

Bottom of steps:-

Drinking fountain at steps:-

Steps and gates above:-

Another set of gates. There is a private area beyond:-

Human sundial:-

The human acts as the sundial’s gnomon by standing where indicated, according to the month. It obviously matters what the weather is like. I tried it but cast no shadow at all:-

A stunning piece of window glazing on The Brewer’s Arms, Berwick-Upon-Tweed. There’s almost a hint of Deco on the building’s upper portions and roofline.

From south(ish):-

From north:-

Windows close up:-

What a great photograph.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 25/7/20.

This is a Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket after taking off with its Tianwen-1 mission payload to Mars.

It looks like it’s hanging in mid-air.

Next stop after St Petersburg was Helsinki, capital of Finland.

A lot of the buidings in the city centre are in the Art Nouveau style. These are the ones I photographed on the way to the Sibelius Monument.

The one in the centre here shades into Art Deco in the windows:-

Note the giraffe figures on the balcony here:-

I have absolutely no idea what these were about:-

For some reason St Petersburg has not one, not two, but three submarine museums. (I never saw the last of those, the Submarine Fleet Museum, but passed the first two when travelling into and out of the city by coach.)

Submarine C189. (In English this is submarine S189):-

Narodovolets D-2 Submarine:-