Returning to the Biggest Carrot Show and playing with my Nikon D3300 DSLR

In preparation for my Year Abroad, I've invested in a new camera to take with me to Germany. It's a Nikon D3300 DSLR, which my camera-savvy dad tells me is a nice little starter camera for somebody who, a year ago, was relying on an iPad for photographing purposes. It's considerably smaller than his own camera, and nice and light to carry around, which makes it perfect to take on any potential trips and outings at home and abroad.

Once I'd remembered to take off the lens cap, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the D3300 was to use; at the moment, I have everything set to 'auto' while I learn what all of the different functions do, but I've still taken some nice pictures. The seven photos in this post were taken last week before, during and after the Latchley, Chilsworthy and Cox Park Show, which, as you may remember, I visited last year at the very start of my blogging escapades, way back when everything had to be Instagrammed to oblivion.

Editing-wise, I've not done a great deal to the photos I've taken with the D3300 so far, although I've enjoyed playing around with things like the contrast and gamma correction in IrfanView. I'm looking forward to experimenting with some of the camera's inbuilt settings once I get used to it a little more, so I'll keep updating as I learn more - and, of course, as I go on the trips to take the pictures in the first place!

Back to Saltram - and it's jazz time!

About twenty minutes after arriving at home after our visit to West Bay/Broadchurch on Saturday, I was rushing out of the door again to meet up with the bf. after his long day at work. Our destination: Plymouth's annual summer jazz picnic.

It was held on the lawns in front of Saltram House, a part of the estate that I hadn't been able to see on my last visit, in brilliant evening sunshine.

Once we'd arrived and paid our (very generously reduced) entrance fees, we settled down on the lawn among the picnic-ers with our own tea, just in time for the first band, the Sussex Jazz Kings, to begin performing their second set.

Picnic-wise, there was stiff competition - many people had brought tables and chairs with them and there were olives, brie and bottles of wine as far as the eye could see. (A certain young man commented on Plympton being the home of the middle classes and made a UKIP joke, which I shan't transcribe here)

That said, we were in good company in the audience, spotting a couple of our former school teachers in the crowd. The atmosphere was somewhat informal, very relaxed and many people got up to dance - although the number of dancers seemed to increase as time went on and full advantage was taken of the (again, v reasonably priced) licenced bar at the side of the stage!

During the next interval, we were treated to an 'umbrella parade' - we were unfortunately unprepared for this, but many jazz-goers, young and old, had brought decorated parasols and umbrellas and proceeded to march around the lawns in the procession.

For the rest of the interval, we took the opportunity to explore the gardens a little further. As I said, I couldn't go into this part of the estate on my last visit to Saltram, as it's only open to visitors who pay to go into the house as well, but our jazz festival tickets enabled us to have a proper walk around.

Despite the late hour, the sun still shone through the trees as we made our way up towards the 'folly' - essentially a 'pretend' castle which might have been build under the pretence of making the estate older than it was, or just because Lord and Lady Parker decided that they bloomin' well wanted a toy castle.

From this end of the garden, there are views out towards Plymouth Hoe and the city centre, with the big wheel glinting in the sunlight, and across the parkland where I had walked the previous week with Miriam.

Inside the little folly was beautiful in a peculiar antique-grunge-chic kind of way - I hope I'm not being rude and that that was the designers' intention, because it was certainly striking in a spookily lovely way.

Beneath the folly is also a little dungeon, where Oli threatened to put me if I continued snapping millions of photos (I think my few Instagram followers would have welcomed that, actually, given the amount of spamming I do as soon as I have a wifi connection...)

Once past the folly, we turned back towards the house, trekking intrepidly through the foliage and past beautiful garden ornaments and plants. Oli even found a potential entry for his surely bestselling debut book, in the form of a garden bench (but I won't give away too much about what could be his magnum opus). 

Our return to the lawns outside the main house for the second half of the concert took us past the ornate orangery, which was almost empty on this occasion, as all of the orange and other citrus trees had been moved outside, presumably due to the hot weather. There was, though, this rather dapper young chap to be found inside on his plinth.

And I found this one outside too. 

The remaining half of the show passed with yet more enthusiastic dancing to the dulcet tones of the  famed 'voice of Cornwall' and the music of John Shillito's Select Six as the sun set.

It was a fantastic way to spend an evening supporting local musicians and artists - as we left just before 11 o'clock, an almost-full moon shone down over the Saltram estate and Plymptonians were thankful for the joys of jazz, portable picnic tables and the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range which graced them.

(: xx

Half an hour on Plymouth Hoe

Yes, all right, I know; our most famous tourist attraction is called The Hoe. Let's get that out of our systems now. (Hahahaha... etc)

Anyway, today I found myself with half an hour to spare while I was walking from the Barbican to West Hoe Park on my way to work. I think that the moral of this story is to always get everywhere at least twenty minutes early, because then you get to enjoy things like this: 

See, Plymouth is beautiful! I thought that, seeing as I had this time to spare, it'd be nice to show uni friends and anybody else who happens across my blog just how lovely our city can be. It does get bad press sometimes (particularly when you go to university in Exeter and people find out that Plym is your hometown...), but I really think it must be one of the best cities in the UK. 

Where else would you get a real proper city with theatres, restaurants and whatnots, slap-bang next to both the sea and the rugged expanse of the moors, sandwiched between two of Britain's favourite holiday counties? The only downside is that lots of people think we're in Cornwall, but they're very (very) quickly set straight.

So, as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself, my photo 'journey' began at the Barbican - I got off the bus at Bretonside, but I don't want to shatter my illusion of Beautiful Plym, so no pictures of that. 

The Barbican is part of Plymouth's 'old town' and in fact is home to one its very oldest buildings, the Elizabethan House, probably built in around 1584. It's also the place to go if you are in dire need of ice cream, fish and chips, rock and other tourists' essentials. As well as all of this, its streets are packed with independent shops and restaurants; if anybody is ever in the area, I highly recommend the Barbican Pasta and Pizza Bar. Mmm. (The Book Cupboard and Parade Antiques and Collectables are also worth a visit).

After walking through the Barbican and along beside Sutton Harbour, I left the cobblestones and walked up the hill in the direction of the Hoe. The wave-like building in the background of this picture is the National Marine Aquarium (which contains Europe's deepest tank - walking underneath it is scary) and you can make out the famous Mayflower Steps towards the foreground, from which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America.

And the shrimpy fish statue? I've lived here for all almost-twenty years of my life and I have no idea what that is.

When you reach the top of the (not too challenging) hill, this is the view that meets you. See what I mean about it being pretty? The other day, I saw a tour guide walk his group of holidaymakers backwards across the promenade, just so that the view would be a surprise when they turned around. In the top two pictures, you can just about make out Drake's Island in the sunshine and in the bottom is Mountbatten Pier.

As you continue around the road towards the Hoe (technically, it's just the grassy bit where the lighthouse lives), Tinside Lido can be seen in the distance. Tinside, after veeery extensive renovation work, it was reopened in 2005 and is now one of the best features of the Hoe - it's a saltwater outdoor pool, originally built in the Art Deco style in 1935. Unfortunately I couldn't go in to get any pictures of the buildings, but here it is from above:

So here's the bit you've all been waiting for - this is the 'proper' part of Plymouth Hoe, the famous home of Smeaton's Tower.

The lighthouse wasn't always all the way up here (it's not used for lighthousing any more), it's actually the old Eddystone Lighthouse and used to be out at sea. But it was taken down and rebuilt, for reasons which escape me, on top of the green, overlooking Plymouth Sound.

Just around the bend is the Plymouth Dome, which, when I were a lad, was a museum with a replica Elizabethan street and a man with a wind-up rat inside... Now it is owned by celebrity chef Gary Rhodes (see my post about Falmouth for some more celeb cookery action) and is a lovely posh restaurant, joining the likes of the Tanner brothers, Mitch Tonks and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who all have eateries in the city.

And here we are, almost at the end of my mosey around the waterfront. Above is a better view of Drake's Island. It's privately owned now, by an chap called Dan McCauley, who also used to own Plymouth Argyle, my hometown football club. Maybe the less said about him the better.

So I've reached my destination of West Hoe (yes, go on, have another giggle). Hopefully you enjoyed looking around one of Plymouth's beauty spots with me - and I hope that I've convinced you that it isn't quite as unpleasant as some people would have you believe.

And one more for luck.

(: xx