Monday, July 24, 2017

Dinosaurs of China - Part Two

I covered part one of our visit to this exhibition in my Five on Friday post on 7th July - link here.  The main part of this exhibition is at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham but there is a second smaller exhibition at the Djanogly Centre which is part of Lakeside Arts on the University Campus.  We had booked tickets to hear a talk given by Pterosaur expert  Dr Mark Witton of Portsmouth University.  It was a free lunchtime talk called 'Not your Father's Pterosaurs: How Scientists are Reinterpreting Mesozoic Flying Reptiles' although it sounds rather specialist and dry and given that I'm not the Pterosaur expert of the two of us I actually found it quite fascinating and Mark Witton an excellent and engaging speaker.

We set out from home to drive to Beeston where we parked and caught the tram to the University.  The journey only took about ten minutes and I was able to use my bus pass by just registering it at a little swipe machine.  

  
The trams in Nottingham are each dedicated to a famous person from or who has deep connections with the County of Nottinghamshire.  Thus you will spot passing by trams with such names as  Brian Clough, D H Lawrence, Lord Byron, Torvil and Dean, Jesse Boot, William Booth, Alan Sillitoe, Ada Lovelace and many more not forgetting Robin Hood of course.  I didn't notice which tram we travelled down to the University on but we came back on Vicky McClure and spotted Rebecca Adlington going the opposite way at the tram stop.


The exhibition was in the smaller gallery at the Djanogly Centre.  We had a good look around.

Plenty of space to sit and wander around in this part of the exhibition which concentrated on Palaeo-art or bringing Dinosaurs to life.  It looked at the ways artist and scientists have illustrated and depicted the remains they have found.

Alxasaurus a feathered vegetarian descended from meat eaters.  Early Cretaceous it was found in Inner Mongolia, norther China. and could grow up to about 4 metres long.

Dilophosaurus sinensis - has hollow bones like birds.  A carnivore it is from the Early Jurassic and was found in Yunnan Province in China. Size 4 metres long or the size of a mini car.
After looking at this exhibition we moved on to the main Summer exhibition at the centre.  In complete contrast this exhibition was entitled Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art.   

Photos were not allowed in many areas of this exhibition so I've included a photo from the 'What's On' leaflet I picked up.  It was a fascinating display of bold shapes and bright colours.

After coffee and what was labelled a date and walnut scone but which after slicing in half and buttering appeared to contain only apricots we strolled out to the lake and walked a little way along the lakeside path watching new graduates with their proud families having their photos taken with the lake as a backdrop. 

It was time to take our seats in the small theatre at the back of the Lakeside building pictured below.
The talk started with screen shots of how artists and film directors had depicted Pterosaurs in the past and how different today's thoughts on both appearance and lifestyle had changed.  The talk lasted about 40 minutes and there were lots of questions afterwards.

We emerged from the cool dark theatre into hot, bright sunshine and made our way back to the nearby tram stop to catch a tram back to Beeston where we picked up our very hot car and began what proved to be a very uncomfortable and sticky drive home.

18 comments:

  1. That exhibition on dinosaurs looks superb and I would imagine the talk was really interesting too :) Such a fascinating subject. Great idea to name trams after famous local people.

    Do hope some progress has been made in your garden - have been thinking of you since your comment on my blog.

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    1. Thanks, progress has been made in the garden, spent two days washing and disinfecting gravel from the paths and relaying black weed fabric underneath, lots of the pebbles will have to be replaced, when they sprayed the patio and gravel down to rid it of the mess (after they had cleard about 20 bags of raw sewerage) they sprayed all the rsidue onto thegarden and lawns, lots of the plants have been damaged. Not sure what to do about those:(

      I love spotting who the trams are dedicated to as they pass by:)

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    2. In response to your comment on my last post you can e-mail me at

      gough.famhist@ntlworld.com

      I took the address off my profile as I had a few strange e-mails:)

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    3. Thanks so much Rosie - have made a note. Glad to hear your internet problems seem resolved and you are making progress on the garden. Hopefully nature will get to work and the plants will slowly recover. Must have been a horrific experience for you both.

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  2. The exhibition looks amazing and the talk equally as good and so informative. I would have loved to have taken my Grandchildren there.

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    1. There is so much for children to do at both exhibitions. I'm sure they would have loved it:)

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  3. Sounds fascinating, but then I've always had a "thing" about dinosaurs, something I never outgrew.

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  4. I think I would have enjoyed the dinosaur exhibition and talk. Not so much so the kaleidoscope one! I often wonder what other species will be discovered long after we are gone. I have a yearning to know what really lives at the bottom of the sea bed in places we cannot reach! Hope your weather is improving Rosie. x

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    1. I'm sure you would have enjoyed the exhibition Simone. Weather here is alternate wet or warm and windy so if you sit in the garden you get blown about:)

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  5. What exotic scones you have in your neck of the woods! I'm glad you enjoyed the talk and the trip, what great fun going on Vicky McClure, such a great idea. ☺

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    1. Vicky was full of school children on the way back so we had to stand and it was very hot and noisy, I expect they were all excited about the end of term coming up. I guess the scones had been misslabelled good job I like apricots as well as dates:)

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  6. Another lovely blog :) You get to so many interesting places!
    I thought your blog would be a good place to find a couple of books to read when I go away but I don't seem to be able to find your own reviews. You always have such good ideas!

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    1. Thankyou. I don't write many reviews just list the books I've read(link on bar at top of page) and also put the best ones down the side bar. The last reviews I wrote were for The Dig by John Preston and Sandlands a book of short stories by Rosy Thornton. Review for the dig was written 2nd Feb this year and for Sandlands 4th August last year if you want to check them on the blog archive:)

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  7. What a lovely place looking smashing in the sunshine, now I would have loved going to this event so thanks for sharing.
    Amanda xx

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    1. Thanks, Amanda. We were lucky to get a dry, warm day and the talk was really good and worth travelling a distance for:)

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  8. It looks great and sounds like a really interesting day!

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