Follow the brown signs
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inspire me
find brown signs around me
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brown signs
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Follow the Brown Signs Blog - May, 2013
My face. The radio.
May 21, 2013
Lincolnshire is going brown sign crazy at the moment (that's meant as a compliment of course Lincolnshire) so BBC Radio Lincs asked me again to go on their morning radio show to talk about the great joys of randomly following brown tourist signs. I always have to win the sceptics and people who brand me a total loon over, but eventually I hope listeners will be inspired to turn off the road and discover a great place for themselves next time they see a brown sign. I might have to...Read more >>
A choppy crossing to an unexpectedly romantic Isle of Wight
May 15, 2013
Reader, I just got back from the best weekend ever on the Isle of Wight. My boyfriend and I went on a brown sign jolly to discover this island county which fights a dual everyday with Rutland for the title of Britain's Smallest County (which it wins twice daily at high tide). To discover a little island through the medium of randomly following brown tourist signs is up there with bacon sandwiches and long distance railway journeys as one of my favourite things, and as I've never had the pleasure of visiting this 148...Read more >>
Me on BBC Radio Lincolnshire
April 11, 2013
Here's me just before my recent interview on BBC Radio Lincolnshire on Monday. Lucky I wasn't absolutely wetting myself with nerves in the new BBC studios! It is below if you'd like to listen again :)
listen to ‘Me on BBC Radio Lincolnshire April '13’ on Audioboo
// ...Read more >>
Mike Tyson takes us out with his mighty icy gloved blows…
April 7, 2013
My weekend should have been spent working. I have 3 big things coming up on Monday: an interview on BBC Radio Lincolnshire at 8.20am, a job interview at 11.10am and a big meeting about the legal/professional side of a huge complex project I've taken on to try and buy a huge old historic pub in Bromley (not just with my own money you understand it'll be a collaborative thing) at 12pm. The problem is though that when I have a full day ahead of me without any meetings of proper...Read more >>
Northern Ireland are brown sign trailblazing (literally)
November 20, 2012
Reader, please see attached an image of the newly approved brown sign symbols which are going to be rolled out all over Northern Ireland. They're part of a new initiative to encourage more visitors to explore and take in more of Northern Ireland than just the most regularly visited sites (e.g. The Giant's Causeway). The symbols will be used on walking routes and cycle paths as well as signing the way to areas of outstanding natural beauty, which is nice and novel and hasn't been done before so therefore I...Read more >>
A visit to the gallery where the most stolen painting in the world hangs…
November 18, 2012
Today, while my boyfriend languished on the sofa fully primed for a whole day of sport, I was off out on my own exploring in the romantic yellowy-orange-falling-leafy-gorgeousness that so characterises these lovely autumnal days of late. I've lived in and around South East London most of my life yet it was only today I realised (when I noticed the brown sign, of course) that I hadn't been to the Dulwich Picture Gallery since I was a child. As is so often the way in life though its often the...Read more >>
Fishing villages and a little museum in Dublin
November 9, 2012
Last weekend I muscled in on my best friend's weekend away in Dublin. She was attending the Christening of a child I'd never met and I was, well, chomping at the bit to do some Irish brown-signing and frankly happy with any excuse to go away, even if it did mean jumping on other people's bandwagons and attending lively Irish christenings of children I'm not even a little bit connected with.
I'd learnt that Dublin was slowly phasing out its brown tourist signs when I called the Dublin Tourist Office while...Read more >>
Here’s to establishing an arts, culture and community space in my hometown!
October 15, 2012
I sing the praises of destinations with brown tourist signs because I love all things heritage, arts, culture, sport, countryside, urban and creative, basically anything FUN! Places with brown signs celebrate all these things and I visit them to immerse myself in what they can teach and show me about the world I live in. But as much as visiting these places started out as a quirky pastime, slowly it has turned into much more than just a fun thing for me to do - seeing the imaginative ways that...Read more >>
A visit to Great Dixter House and Garden with my moofies
October 7, 2012
Yesterday I went out for the day with my Moofies (aka my mother) to one of her favourite gardens down near Rye in Kent, Great Dixter. These guys run a plant fair every year where stall holders from far and wide come to sell their plants and talk to visitors about their specialities. Living in a 1st floor flat in South East London reduces my horticultural potential to the size of a small hanging basket but that doesn't stop me wishing I had a small holding, so I went along...Read more >>
What more can museums do for us?! Hmm… what more can we do for them?
October 5, 2012
On Monday I was very happy to be part of an "un-conference" (think conference with no formal agenda) called Museum Camp held in Birmingham at this industrial heritage canalside gorgeousness (left), where museum people from all over Britain congregated to discuss a whole host of museum related matters. As we all know one of my favourite things about museums are the fantastic people behind them and being in a room with so many who cared so much about sharing their collections, well, that for me was excitomondo my friends.
There were...Read more >>