Cornovia PostcardsGiants Grave, Penrith, Cumberland, c.1920s - Dr Trenkler Postcard
AJ SadauskasI'm all for arts festivals including food as a focus of their exhibitions 😋
And it looks like the 2026 NSW Biennale will deliver:
"The Biennale will expand its footprint in Western Sydney this year, including Penrith Regional Gallery for the first time and bringing back Campbelltown Arts Centre. There will also be public programs across inner city and greater Sydney, including Centenary Square in Parramatta, Fairfield City Museum & Gallery and Redfern Town Hall. White Bay Power Station, a popular addition to the Biennale last year, will this year feature large-scale sculptural and installation works by artists including Nikesha Breeze (US) and painter Nancy Yukuwal McDinny (Garrwa/Yanyuwa).
...
"Highlights announced on Tuesday include a giant functioning clay oven at White Bay Power Station in Rozelle, created by Argentinian sculptor Gabriel Chaile, which will be activated for the Biennale’s opening weekend and at key moments through the festival to serve visitors Peruvian cuisine. Also for food lovers is a large vat of tabbouleh, created by Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh as part of a community-based performance in Granville.
"The Biennale will also include a rare presentation of the landmark 80-square-metre Ngurrara Canvas II, made by the Ngurrara artists of the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia in support of their 1996 native title claim. The spectacular painting, created by more than 40 artists, toured Australia in the decade after it was created and has been exhibited internationally – but its Biennale presentation, at the Art Gallery of NSW, will be its final outing before returning to the artists’ country permanently."
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/feb/03/sydney-biennale-2026-hoor-al-qasimi-unveils-expansive-program-for-25th-edition
#art #arts #NSW #Sydney #Campbelltown #Parramatta #Penrith #food #Granville #ausart #ausarts #auspol
And it looks like the 2026 NSW Biennale will deliver:
"The Biennale will expand its footprint in Western Sydney this year, including Penrith Regional Gallery for the first time and bringing back Campbelltown Arts Centre. There will also be public programs across inner city and greater Sydney, including Centenary Square in Parramatta, Fairfield City Museum & Gallery and Redfern Town Hall. White Bay Power Station, a popular addition to the Biennale last year, will this year feature large-scale sculptural and installation works by artists including Nikesha Breeze (US) and painter Nancy Yukuwal McDinny (Garrwa/Yanyuwa).
...
"Highlights announced on Tuesday include a giant functioning clay oven at White Bay Power Station in Rozelle, created by Argentinian sculptor Gabriel Chaile, which will be activated for the Biennale’s opening weekend and at key moments through the festival to serve visitors Peruvian cuisine. Also for food lovers is a large vat of tabbouleh, created by Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh as part of a community-based performance in Granville.
"The Biennale will also include a rare presentation of the landmark 80-square-metre Ngurrara Canvas II, made by the Ngurrara artists of the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia in support of their 1996 native title claim. The spectacular painting, created by more than 40 artists, toured Australia in the decade after it was created and has been exhibited internationally – but its Biennale presentation, at the Art Gallery of NSW, will be its final outing before returning to the artists’ country permanently."
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/feb/03/sydney-biennale-2026-hoor-al-qasimi-unveils-expansive-program-for-25th-edition
#art #arts #NSW #Sydney #Campbelltown #Parramatta #Penrith #food #Granville #ausart #ausarts #auspol
PhotochromprintsUllswater, Broughman Castle, near Penrith, Lake District, England between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Views of the British Isles England Ullswater, Lake
#Ullswater #BroughmanCastle #Penrith #LakeDistrict #England #theBritishIsles #BroughamCastle #Photochrom #British #photography #historicalPhotos #photochrom
Ullswater, Eamont Bridge, near Penrith, Lake District, England between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Views of the British Isles England Ullswater, Lake
#Ullswater #EamontBridge #Penrith #LakeDistrict #England #theBritishIsles #British #photography #historicalPhotos #photochrom
Pop Culture Library ReviewAttempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England
Beyond the NLS, Scotland has various libraries within the country. There’s over twenty public libraries in Edinburgh alone. The day after I visited the NLS, I traveled to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) by bus. This garden is akin to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. It has a beautiful plant collection, and a special library. However, the library isn’t accessible from the garden, a clear barrier to entry. Furthermore, the science, learning and archives section is only accessible by appointment. That is too bad. If it had been accessible from the garden I may have visited it. There are museums and various collections within the garden as well. Every plant has a specific identifying number associated with it.
Note: This serves as the beginning of my series, which begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be two more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in London and Belgium coming later this year. Links to those will be added to this post later.
The RGBE website describes the library as providing the “basic tools” to support research and organization of biodiversity into a “manageable framework to underpin ecological and biological research.” This makes it even more unfortunate that the “extensive” library, said to be the Scottish national reference collection for “specialist botanical and horticultural resources” with over one million items, cannot be accessed from the garden itself. A pamphlet purchased for two pounds says directly: “no access from Garden,” putting this barrier into writing.
Photograph of part of a pamphlet noting that the RGBE library cannot be accessed from the garden (My photograph)The second part of my vacation involved staying one week at HF Holidays’ Derwent Bank house, which sits on Derwent Water lake, to hike throughout the acclaimed and well-known Lake District, in Cumbria. Some of the hikes were arduous, although that might not be the case if you were physically fit, unlike myself, who wasn’t as fit as other hikers. I wanted to hike there as it was blazing hot in Baltimore, where I live. Other hikers were primarily from England and the Netherlands. The hikes often involved going through sheep grazing areas, avoiding sheep poop in the process, with beautiful views, and a visit to the Castlerigg Stone Circle.
On the fifth day of hiking, on July 31st, the coach bus I was riding in, with fellow hikers passed by the Keswick library. It looked to be one big room filled with desktop computers. Further research indicated that this library offers printing, loanable dementia bags and storysacks, hearing aid batteries, and more. It’s located off the town’s main street, with some nearby parking lots (they call them “car parks” in England), plus a bus station 200 yards from the library. It also hosts board games, a Lego club, jigsaw puzzle building, mindful coloring, books to help with well-being and health, and more.
Lastly was a bookshelf almost akin to the Little Free “Library” collections in the U.S. (but without serving a physical manifestation of a “desire to privatize the world”), at the Penrith train station. See you at the next post, where my journey continues, in London!
© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Sources used
- “Derwent Bank Lake District,” HF Holidays, 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Blogposts, fictional archives, Ancestry’s monopoly on federal records, the Little Free “Library” deception, powerful ICJ decisions, and the DNC’s sidelining of pro-Palestinian voices,” History Hermann, 3 Sept. 2024.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Here’s four photos I took from my third-floor room at the Derwent Bank house of @hfholidays.co.uk on August 1st, the last day I was there, looking down at the beautiful garden, and down across the Derwent Water lake to the beautiful landscape across the lake. I revised the image slightly from the original using an Instagram filter on here. I only stayed for a week, and this was only the second part of my trip (the first part was going to #edinburgh) but I throughly [sic] enjoyed my time there, even if the hikes could be rigorous at times,” Instagram, 9. Aug. 2025.
- Hermann, Burkely. “Photos of the Castlerigg Stone Circle which I took on July 28th, a place also known as the Druids Circle. I used some photo tools on here to make these images even better and pop out more, as the originals were rather dark. #castleriggstonecircle,” Instagram, 9. Aug. 2025.
- “Keswick Library,” Cumberland Council, 2025.
- “Libraries,” City of Edinburgh, 2025.
- “Library & Archives,” Longwood Gardens, 2025.
- Miline, Simon. “Why our work matters,” Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2025.
- “Our History,” Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2025.
- “Penrith (North Lakes) (PNR),” National Rail, 2025.
- “What We Do,” Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2025.
#CastleriggStoneCircle #castleriggstonecircle #Cumbria #DerwentBank #Edinburgh #England #gardens #HFHolidays #Keswick #LakeDistrict #lakes #libraryTourism #LongwoodGardens #maps #memory #museums #NationalLibraryOfScotland #Penrith #publicTransit #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #Scotland #shortBlogs
Multiview, Penrith, Cumberland, c.1930 - Reeds Postcard
https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/multiview-penrith-cumberland-c-1930-reeds-postcard-223519287.htm
Multiview, Penrith, Cumberland, 1953 - Photoway RP Postcard
News BeepReferee’s missed act that completely changes narrative around ugly Nathan Cleary incident
Nathan Cleary’s second half scuffle with Ezra Mam proved to be a major turning point in the Broncos’…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #AU #Australia #Broncos #CooperCronk #EzraMam #GrantAtkins #LaurieDaley #LiamMartin #NathanCleary #penrith #preliminaryfinal #thePanthers
https://www.newsbeep.com/153223/
Mark HJust caught up with the #NRL match from this morning, and another game that went right down to the final few minutes. We're being spoilt with these exciting #RugbyLeague games this year. Not the result we wanted, unfortunately, as my wife picked #Penrith as her team to follow many years ago, but it was a close-run thing.
Toby Sexton earns Bulldogs reprieve as Stephen Crichton fails in bid to return for semi-final
Toby Sexton will keep his starting halfback role at the Bulldogs, after Stephen Crichton’s bid to make a…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #ankleinjury #AU #Australia #BraithAnasta #Bulldogs #Lisfrancinjury #nrl #penrith #StephenCrichton #thePanthers #TobySexton
https://www.newsbeep.com/134399/
