This entry however is focussed on my recent trip to Sweden. I went to attend a Winter School in Göteborg. I was there for five nights and the temperature was about what I expected. It’s spring, but we had days where the low was -6 C. The highs for the week were probably around 2 or 3 celsius. The killer was the windchill though, I had to wear a scarf to prevent it feeling like my head was going to freeze off my neck. The best (most interesting) photographs in the album are of the city. We spent one evening as the guests of the city mayor in an opulent palace with magnificent chandeliers. It was quite a surreal experience.

The Winter School was being held at a private university called Chalmers which is where we spent the majority of our time. It was a really quite nice place, lovely campus with bright open spaces and a lovely dining area. The only thing I’ll say is everything was incredibly expensive compared to back home, but I think that was partially me not having the exchange rate completely sorted. It also wasn’t a fault of the institution, prices were generally rather high everywhere we visited in the City. There was a distinct lack of eating establishments as well; we wondered if maybe we’d come during the off season… if cities have off seasons.

For one of the afternoons we were able to escape to look around the city centre. The place has a massive shopping centre full of shops I’d never heard of which I thought impressive. It also has a beautiful harbour with a number of interesting permanently moored boats. There was a tall mast ship named Viking which was being used as a hotel and restaurant. Also along the front was a maritime museum with interesting naval vessels, including a submarine. Sadly the museum wasn’t open so I could only look at them from the side, it was still a nice walk and out in the sunshine the cold was much less uncomfortable.

Much of the rest of that afternoon I spent wandering around the historic buildings and marveling at the architecture. The city was actually very interesting in that respect, lots of incredibly impressive buildings, which for the most part I have no idea what they did. The photo album contains quite a number of shots of architecture in the area, perhaps I got a little carried away but I wanted to take with me a proper feel for what the city was like. In some ways I wish I’d taken my SLR with me, but on reflection I think leaving it at home for University trips is the right thing to do. I get worried enough about my suitcase, let alone a camera bag.

So that was Sweden, if anyone has any questions about the place I’ll do my best to answer them.

The first thing I found on my walk was a lovely housing estate, really quiet and quite well to do. I’d quite like to live there I think. Then the path crossed the railway line and I found a house on the edge of some wide open grass with an old iron gate in the garden that had been taken off it’s hinges and left there at some point. I think it had been taken from the fence next to the house, but I can’t be sure. Anyway the more interesting thing was the sign attached to the old gate, a sign for “Royal Albert Hospital” in true NHS brown. I can only guess that when the hospital was open, the grounds started at the edge of the railway line, which is pretty amazing. At this point the hospital was merely a tower in the distance. I’d been intrigued by the hospital buildings before now, it’s yet another amazingly impressive gothic mental asylum in Lancaster, this one built in 1864. All I can think is that Lancaster must have had an awful lot of people deemed by the local authorities to be crazy given the sheer amount of provision for locking them up that existed. The hospital operated as a school for people with learning disabilities, and a secure premises for others. It closed it’s doors in 1996. I found a fantastic website dedicated to chronicling the hospital and it’s history – Unlocking The Past. Some of the stories on there are really interesting, for example the hospital had it’s own scout troop for the boys being held there, who used to go on camping expeditions in the grounds! It’s now being used as a islamic girls boarding school, so I couldn’t really go trespassing on the ground to take photos. There are plenty around on the Internet though if you go searching.

Moving on from there I went across the road to look at a derelict boarded up building which seems to have once belonged to the NHS. “The Derby Home”. There are references to a Derby Home on the Royal Albert website, as being a ward for “higher-grade” male patients, but I am not sure this is the same place, it seems strange it would be so far away from the rest of the hospital. It was quite an nice building to look at though, I’d love to know what’s still inside.

My next stop was the cemetery, which was a large and eerily peaceful place. I found a gravestone from someone who died in the “Blackpool Sea Tragedy” in 1983, a member of the Lancashire Constabulary and that led me to researching the event when I got home. Very sad, but something I am glad I’m at least aware of happening I suppose, I don’t think I would have known otherwise. After that I headed home, all in all a very rewarding walk, and a few interesting photos though not very artistic.

Anyway my real reason for posting; my parents and I went on a nice trip to Milnthorpe, and surrounding area. We actually ended up in Grange-Over-Sands for a nice meal in a lovely coffee shop overlooking the bay. I saw a pair of RAF Tornados too, but no photographs. We came back through Arnside, and then Milnthorpe, through a piece of land belonging to a stately home Dallam Tower.

The grounds were *full* of deer, and I mean full. I have never seen so many. They were really cute, young deer bouncing about drinking from the river. I got some pictures but they aren’t fantastic, the light was terrible and I was having an attack of the shakes and no tripod. Still I got some pictures and the deer are lovely so I thought I would share.

A few of the attractions canceled at the last minute, but it meant we got double helpings of some of the most entertaining, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon. I sadly didn’t manage to get a good photos of that but I did get some lovely picture of the Red Arrows who were displaying for the 4000th time ever.

The Battle of Britain memorial flight was lovely too. Interestingly back in Lancaster they have just flown around outside my window as well. some display in Morecambe apparently. A nice surprise! Back to the air show there was a flypast by a Nimrod from RAF Kinloss which was quite touching given the timing.

I’ve also added some more photos to the gallery in the mean time, but it’s not really any spectacular photography, just photos of my new Mac Pro computer. It’s very shiny.

This is a picture of the new accommodation for Furness (in the foreground) and Fylde, with the corner of what was inner Fylde accommodation up until about three weeks ago. Its strange that it’s finally gone, they have been knocking it down ‘during the summer’ for the whole time I’ve been at uni, even getting as far as soft stripping the interior before realising they needed to house students in it the following year and having to put it all back in. What was more amusing was they let the previous occupants redecorate the whole building in whatever styles they wanted as part of a competition, so everything needed redoing, I bet it cost tonnes. All flat now though. Well almost.

The other pictures I have to talk about are ones from the annual air show in Windermere. I have to say I didn’t get any great pictures this year, we were constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time; behind trees, on a boat, on a train, in a pub. Some are interesting though, this one is off the Army parachute display team, the Red Devils who were amazing. I definately would not like to be falling from the sky attached to 3 other men.

On a side note, thank you for the comments – I didn’t realise I had comment moderation turned on and have only just noticed somewhat belatedly, but its nice to know people have been looking and that some of you have found it interesting. I’ll try to keep finding nice things to post.

I took some very nice pictures of bunny rabbits, even one of a rabbit lying down which you don’t see very often in the wild. Having a very lazy day I think it was. I also found some flowers, but could have done with more light to take good photographs. I’ve added the picture of the dandelion clock, but it is a little dark.

I’ve also added some pictures to urbex of an old mill, I don’t know what it was being used for before its roof was removed, but the signs in the loading bay are quite nice.

I shall have to try harder to take more nice photos, I’ve neglected this site a little. I’ll update more soon.

I originally set off to photograph some of the old factories down by Bury Bridge, but I took a detour, and I’m glad I did because I’ve never been past the asbestos factory and found a gate open before, let alone one of the factory doors. The bigger of the two sheds is heavily boarded up and I could barely find a crack to look through, which is a shame because there appeared to be water flowing from inside somewhere and I could hear it gushing from by the door. I would have liked to know where from.
One of the doors further down was open slightly, and I managed a few rough photos through the gap – only one made it on here, the clock that had stopped at 5.06. There were some other bits and pieces inside, an old metal lathe and some ladders. I think this would have been a much more interesting place to look around inside but from the state of the roof I think rather more dangerous.

The pictures speak for themselves really. The fire damaged building I remember seeing smouldering about a year ago, I’d love to know what it was used for when the factory was active what with all the metal ducting attached to it. I guess I don’t know enough about asbestos making to even hazard a guess, other than perhaps some form of ventilation but it had enough contact with asbestos to warrant four warning signs.